Approximately how many people were killed in the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre?

• A. About 90
• B. About 900
• C. About 9,000
• D. About 90,000

Answer: (C)

Casualty estimates for this mass violence show how historians handle uncertain records. In 1572, during the French Wars of Religion, Catholic mobs killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris and across France after political turmoil surrounding royal decisions. Because exact counts weren’t recorded, scholars speak in approximate totals. A commonly cited rounded figure is about nine thousand, a number many historians use when discussing the overall losses across the kingdom. In Paris, tolls are often placed in the low thousands, while totals across France are more debated, but nine thousand sits among the widely taught estimates for the event’s scale. The options around ninety or nine hundred are far too small to reflect what happened, and ninety thousand would be far above credible estimates.