The Nègrepelisse massacre was a massacre committed on 10 and 11 June 1622 by the French Royal Army of King Louis XIII in the Protestant stronghold of Nègrepelisse during the Huguenot rebellions. The taking of the town followed Louis's unsuccessful siege of Montauban.
After a short siege the town was captured by assault, and all the inhabitants that the attacking soldiers encountered were put to the sword, without distinction of age or sex,William Shergold Browning, A History of the Huguenots, third edition (London, 1842), p. 224 to a total of about 800. According to one source, "all the women and girls were raped and massacred". The town was then looted and deliberately burned to the ground. This severe treatment was in retaliation for the alleged massacre of a royal regiment left in garrison in the city by the Duke of Mayenne.Huguenot warrior by Jack Alden Clarke p. 101 The king had ordered:
The Huguenot garrison that had attempted to hold out in the town's citadel were obliged to surrender the next day, and all the men were hanged. The anonymous author of a contemporary report celebrating the massacre as a royal victory and a just punishment of rebels remarked that:
See also French Wars of Religion Huguenot rebellions
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