The eighth Guizot Prize awarded by the Calvados County Council has been awarded to Arlette Jouanna, professor emeritus at the University of Montpellier, specialising in the history of the 16th century.e century and the Wars of Religion, for his book :
Saint Bartholomew's Day, the mysteries of a state crime
On 18 August 1572, Paris celebrated the wedding of Marguerite de Valois and Henri de Navarre, an event that was to seal the reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants. Six days later, Huguenot leaders were executed on the orders of the Royal Council. Then Catholic gangs massacred thousands of «those of the religion» - men, women, the elderly, infants...
[...] This tragedy, experienced as an unprecedented rupture, gave rise to an abundance of reflection on the foundations of power, the limits of authority, the legitimacy of disobedience; on the danger also posed by religious divisions to the traditions of the kingdom. But this effort at political restoration came up against the over-sacralisation of the king, which paved the way for the absolutism of the Bourbons.
Publisher | Edition Gallimard |
Year of publication | 2007 |
Number of pages | 416 |
ISBN | 2070771024 |
Website | http://www.gallimard.fr/ |
