Transcription
This is Sancerre. In 1573, thousands of people retreated within its walls during one of the bloodiest periods in France's history. At first, the residents believed the city's fortifications would protect them from the army gathering outside. That was not the true danger, though. Over the months that followed, the events that would go on to occur inside would be so horrifying that the survivors would later struggle to even describe what they'd endured. This is the horrifying story of the siege of Sancerre. And although the events in this video are fleeting and nondescriptive, they are still highly disturbing. So, viewer discretion is strongly advised.
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In 1573, by the time the town of Sancerre in France began suffering on an unbelievable level, the country had already spent years tearing itself apart. The conflict that led to what would become known as the siege of Sancerre was a civil war fought by two opposing factions. On one side were France's Catholics, who were loyal to the old church. On the other were the Huguenots, who were French Protestants that largely subscribed to the teachings of famed reformist John Calvin. The reason this was such an issue was that to Catholic authorities and many around the French crown, the Huguenots appeared to be more of a political danger than just religious dissenters. The movement had gained followers across social classes, but importantly, by then, it had also gained powerful noble supporters. That meant it was not limited to small congregations hiding in back rooms. The movement had leaders, money, armed followers, fortified towns, and crucially, potentially even the ability to challenge royal authority. So, by 1562, France had entered what would become known as the French Wars of Religion. This was a long grinding series of civil wars between the Catholics and Huguenots that would continue with pauses and broken peace agreements until the end of the century. And the town of Sancerre became important to these conflicts because it was exactly the kind of place the crown and Catholic forces had reason to worry about. The town sat in central France and was built on a steep hill above the surrounding countryside. Because of its location and elevation, it was naturally difficult to approach and anyone coming toward it could be seen from a distance. Around it were vineyards and villages, but the town itself [music] stood high enough to seem almost separate from the land below. Its walls were strengthened with towers and gates, and its castle stood near the highest and strongest point. But all of that only made it good defensively. The real danger to Catholics was the town had become one of the most important Protestant settlements in France.
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Calvinist ideas had taken hold there decades earlier and by the time the religious wars broke out, Sancerre was already known as a local center of Protestant faith. That made it both a refuge for Huguenots and a target. In fact, Catholic forces had already tried to bring Sancerre under their control before. In 1564, the town was attacked by forces under nobleman and military commander Claude de la Châtre, but they didn't have the artillery needed to break the town's defenses. So [music] after 5 weeks of trying, the Catholics withdrew. Another attempt followed in 1568, but that was also unsuccessful. Because of these foiled attacks, by the early 1570s, Sancerre had earned a reputation for being a fortified and stubborn Protestant stronghold. Meanwhile, over and over, Catholics and Protestants had reached settlements that were supposed to stop the fighting, but those two would ultimately fail. Over and over, the crown would promise limited rights to Huguenots, but Catholic hardliners would resist those concessions. In return, Protestant communities would arm themselves and then some new explosion of violence would start the cycle over again. All of this culminated in August of 1572 when Paris was supposed to become the stage for reconciliation with a wedding as the backdrop. Henry of Navarre, one of the most important Protestant princes in France, was set to marry Margaret of Valois, the Catholic sister of King Charles the Ninth. The marriage was perfect as it would join a leading Huguenot nobleman to the Catholic royal family. The wedding seemed to suggest that the crown could still hold Catholic and Protestant France together, giving both sides a public symbol of unity after years of bloodshed. This brought many Huguenot nobles to Paris for the ceremony at a time when Paris was overwhelmingly Catholic and deeply hostile to Protestants. Many ordinary Parisians hated the Huguenots and the city was full of preachers and hardliners who saw Protestant worship as nothing more than heresy. Bringing so many Huguenot leaders into the city was supposed to show that peace had returned. But instead, it placed them in one of the most dangerous places they could possibly be. Among the Huguenot leaders in Paris for the wedding was Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, who was one of the most powerful Protestant figures in the kingdom. A few days after the wedding went off without incident, Gaspard was walking back from a royal council meeting when a shot was fired from an upper window. The bullet struck him but didn't kill him. And he was then carried away wounded, but almost immediately the attempt on his life through Paris into a panic. The Huguenot nobles were furious and they demanded justice, wanting the attacker found and punished. To them, the shooting was proof that the Catholics had used the wedding as a trap. They had come to Paris on the assumption of peace and now one of their greatest leaders had been shot in the street. Inside the royal court, however, things went in the opposite direction. The king and his advisers worried that the Huguenots might retaliate. If Protestant nobles believed the crown had failed to protect them, they might leave Paris, gather troops, and [music] begin another civil war. Worse yet, they might strike first while still inside the city. Whether this fear was reasonable or unrealistic, it came at the worst possible moment. Instead of calming an already tense situation, royal officials decided to eliminate the Huguenot leadership in Paris. The plan, at least at first, was to target only the nobles and captains who could lead a rebellion. But in a city filled with religious hatred, that plan was never going to stay that way. In the early hours of August 24th, 1572, armed men began moving through Paris, and the wounded Gaspard was one of their first targets. The men then entered the house where he was recovering and finished him there. Afterward, he was thrown from a window into the street below, where he was literally torn apart, dragged through the city, and eventually thrown into the Seine River. Gaspard's murder sent a message throughout Paris, and things only devolved into chaos from there. The first wave afterward may have targeted only prominent Protestants, but the violence spread beyond the original list of potential victims. Catholic militants and mobs began attacking Huguenot homes, and neighbors turned on neighbors. Houses were broken into, and men, women, and children were dragged out or finished where they were found. Huguenots were either finished in their beds or chased down into the streets while trying to flee. All the while, the killers claimed they were acting on behalf of the king. And whether they had direct orders or not, the belief that the crown approved the bloodshed made the attack feel official. It told Catholics they could kill with permission, while it showed the Protestants that [music] no royal promise meant much of anything to them. For several days, Paris was in chaos as bodies filled streets and alleys. Many were dumped in the river, [music] and Huguenots who had come for the royal wedding, expecting at least temporary safety, found themselves literally hunted in the capital. Henry of Navarre survived, but only because he was forced to renounce his faith and accept Catholicism. Everyday Protestants, however, had to survive by hiding, escaping, disguising themselves, or receiving help from others. As the violence increased, the chaos even spread far beyond Paris. News traveled quickly, and more violence followed it. In the days and weeks after August 24th, attacks broke out in provincial cities and towns, and Protestants were hunted in several other cities. The details varied from place to place, but what stayed the same was the message it sent. Huguenots could no longer assume that they were protected [music] on any level.
When the chaos finally subsided, the numbers were staggering. Thousands of Huguenots were killed in Paris and across the provinces, but the political damage may be even more extreme than the death toll. The people in Sancerre heard about what happened in Paris and elsewhere, and soon after refugees began arriving there. They came from nearby towns violence had already spread or where there were rumors of coming violence.
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Many had left behind relatives and friends without knowing whether they were still alive, and Sancerre took them all in. These were fellow Protestants who were fleeing away from killing. Turning them away would have been unthinkable, but taking them in also made Sancerre a more urgent threat to Catholics. As an established hub of Protestant belief, the town was already being watched closely. And expecting retribution from the Catholics over this, the inhabitants of Sancerre took precautions. They closed the gates they didn't need and guarded the gates that remained open. They also repaired the walls around the town and took up arms to defend themselves. After the attack in Paris and the violence that followed in the provinces, no Protestant community could afford to be careless. [music] To royal officials though, Sancerre's strengthening of its defenses looked like a danger, so they took action. On September 8th, 1572, the Bailiff of Berry sent Sancerre a declaration from the king ordering Protestant preaching to stop. For the people inside the town though, this walked back promises that had already been made to them. The Peace of Saint-Germain, signed 2 years earlier in 1570, had granted limited rights to worship to the Huguenots. In the face of this, Sancerre continued its sermons and prayers under the belief that they still had those rights. And for a time, they tried to avoid making the situation worse by not being so out in the open about their religious practices. They even stopped ringing their church bells, but unfortunately, none of this was enough. Claude de la Châtre, who had previously attacked the town and was by then the king's governor and lieutenant general in the area, wanted Sancerre placed under royal authority. The townspeople, however, outright refused this demand. They were confident in the town's defenses, and unfortunately, they knew they would soon be put to the test once again. In the fall of 1572, the first serious attempt on Sancerre came through a surprise attack. On November 9th, an attack was ordered on the town and for a moment it seemed like the force might succeed. The army managed to get a foothold in the town, but the Huguenots fought back valiantly in a struggle that lasted for 17 hours. Several more attempts to take Sancerre were then made, but each of them was eventually repelled. At some point in all of this failure, Claude realized that these assaults were fruitless and decided to change tactics. Immediately after his final assault resulted in another costly loss, [music] he put into place a blockade in late March of 1573 and this stopped anything and anyone from entering or exiting the town. This decision would go on to [music] have devastating consequences for those living within the town's walls.
In the beginning of the siege, food slowly began to dwindle and citizens first noticed that the meat they were used to became harder to find and beef was among the first sources to disappear. This might seem like a small inconvenience, but [music] beef was incredibly popular in Sancerre and its absence created early desperation. On March 19th, the beef carcass belonging to the governor of the city was being carried with materials for further defenses. Before it could even get through the streets of Sancerre [music] though, the citizens seized it, skinned it, cut it up and carried it away to eat. At this point, the town had only gone a few handful of days without beef. Once the town's cows had been completely wiped out, residents turned to donkeys and mules. On April 4th, the first donkey was killed and divided into four quarters in preparation for cooking. In normal times, this would have disgusted many people. Donkeys were useful animals, especially in and around Sancerre where the steep roads made pack animals critical. They were important to work in life in the town, but now they were being sacrificed to feed the many hungry within Sancerre's walls. The people who ate it said it was good enough to stave off hunger, which in turn was good enough to convince others to do the same. At first, some people could barely stand the thought of eating a donkey, but that hesitation did not last long and within days what had seemed revolting became normal. Almost 2 weeks later donkeys and mules were being butchered and eaten by the dozens. But while these animals fed the town for a while, they soon ran out, too. The following month, the people began killing horses. This was done partly because the horses themselves were starving. If they died in the stables, their bodies would rot and potentially spread sickness throughout the town. And since horses were large animals, they could feed plenty of people, at least for a little while. Authorities inside the town tried to keep some control over this new reality, and they ordered that the horses were to be slaughtered through the ordinary butchery. The cost for this meat bordered on outrageous under the circumstances, though, and many were priced out of being able to obtain any. And this might sound absurd that those running Sancerre began to regulate the selling of horse meat, but it showed that things had not yet descended into complete chaos. The town was still trying to behave with some sense of order. Officials were still trying to manage supply and make sure food did not disappear entirely. In turn, the inventory of horse meat was able to stretch a bit further. And soon enough, people were soon discussing horse meat the way they might have once viewed beef or pork. Some even considered it better than dog or mule. Just like the pack animals, though, the supply of horses wouldn't last forever. As horse meat started to become more and more scarce and expensive, people began eating the town's cats, and the pets vanished with frightening speed. They were eaten so quickly that in less than 15 days, there were almost none left in the entire town. After the cats came smaller animals as people hunted rats, moles, and mice. Poor children were especially eager when they could catch mice since any food at all had become a luxury for the lower social classes. They would then roast them over coals without skinning or gutting them. By this point, there wasn't even any patience for preparation, and certainly no room for disgust. Mice and other small rodents meant meat, calories, and the chance to hold off hunger for even a few hours. Dogs were eventually eaten in Sancerre, too, and some were sold for shocking prices. A dog that might have once wandered in streets could suddenly be worth real money. Even a quarter of a dog could be sold at a price that showed how badly people want meat. The head and other scraps were not left for only the poorest, either. People of higher standing ate them, too, as hunger was beginning to level off the social order of things. By early June, meat sources had basically all been exhausted, so rationing began on flour. Each person received only a small daily amount of bread, but as time went on, the ration became smaller and smaller. At the end of June, Sancerre's supply of wheat and flour was nearly gone, and this was a major turning point for the town's [music] residents.
Once the bread disappeared, people had to become more inventive and risky to feed themselves, so they started to look at ordinary inedible objects as potential substitutes. When July rolled around, Sancerre's famine had taken on a whole new level of anguish. People turned to anything that looked or seemed like it might relieve their desperate hunger, and the first things to disappear were skins and hides. Ox hides, cow hides, sheep skins, dog skins, donkey skins, and whatever else could be found were cut up, soaked, and cooked. Some of these items had been lying in stores for years, while others had been used in everyday working life. Leather became particularly valuable as old harnesses were pulled apart and saddles were stripped. Reins, straps, stirrup leathers, aprons, and leather bags were all taken apart piece by piece. Even children's belts were not off limits. The preparation of these items took work, too. The hair had to be removed, and the leather had to be softened in order to be eaten. Items might be soaked for a day or two, with the water being changed several times. Once done soaking, the leather could be boiled until it loosened into something that could be chewed and swallowed. There were those who grilled these hides, while others tried to fry them in whatever fat they could still find. If they had vinegar, herbs, or spices, they were used to give the skins at least a little bit of flavor. When the leather inevitably ran short, people began eating parchment, including old letters, legal documents, handwritten records, and printed books. If it was in any way made from prepared animal skin, it could be made into a meal. Outside the houses, gardens became precious as well. A patch of greenery in Sancerre was a source of survival, and that made them worth guarding. People kept a sharp eye on herbs and leaves at night, and neighbors who might have once shared with each other now held tight to even a handful of vegetables. Nothing green was considered insignificant. A few leaves could be turned into a soup, a root could be boiled, and a bitter plant could be forced down if hunger was strong enough. The poor who had fewer stores and less to trade took the greatest risks in this area. They dug up roots and gathered wild plants without knowing what they were, which led to them mistakenly eating toxic hemlock. This would cause them to swell up in the mildest cases, but more often than not, it was a mistake that led to the death for many. The lowest classes also searched the streets and garbage heaps for anything that could be considered food. They pulled old bones from the trash and gnawed at horns. Scraps of leather and hide were picked from complete filth and taken back to their families. Things that had once been tossed aside or thrown away were inspected again. Even human waste was searched for anything that might have passed through undigested. As degrading as this might seem, these piles were sources of bits of leather or hide if someone was desperate enough to go wading through them.
By the third week of July, Sancerre had become a world that was completely unimaginable just months earlier. The animals and grains were gone, and people were doing literally anything just for a single bite of something. And this despair eventually reached a tipping point. And inside at least one household, it perhaps crossed the line. On July 21st, 1573, the focus of the town fell on the house of a man named Simon, who was a laborer and winemaker. He lived with his wife Eugenie and an elderly woman named Philippe, along with his daughter who was about 3 years old. During the horrific famine, the little girl fell ill. Church leaders and elders in Sancerre knew about the child's condition, and they tried to intervene. They wanted her taken to the hospital so she could be cared for or at least removed from the conditions inside the house. They went to the family more than once, but Simon and Eugene refused to give her up. And as a result, the little girl passed away reportedly from starvation and exhaustion. Sometime later, when no funeral service was held, those same church leaders and town elders began to wonder why. This led to a house visit by town officials, and when they entered the house, they found the family in the middle of preparing to eat. The skull and brain were seasoned and ready for the fire. The ears had already been consumed. The tongue had been cooked and thickened with seasonings, and one of the fingers was on a plate fresh from the fire. The thighs, legs, and feet had been placed in a kettle with vinegar, spices, and salt, while the shoulders, arms, and hands were lying nearby. Suffice it say, it must have been a scene that defied description, and all three adults in the home were arrested. Simon, Eugene, and Philippe then all confessed to what was witnessed. When questioned afterward, Eugene claimed she had acted with deep regret. Her version of the events was that after the passing, she prepared the body for burial and placed it in a coffin. After leaving the house to run an errand, she returned to find that it had been removed from the wrappings where it had been placed, and much of it was already prepared. Eugene pointed the blame at Philippe, telling officials that the old woman had persuaded Simon that it would be a waste to bury it. She apparently told him that the liver could help cure Simon's swelling, likely caused by eating toxic plants. Apparently, this was enough to convince him, so he removed it and began preparing it while Eugene was out of the house. What made this all worse, at least according to the recounting of the events, is that up to this point, the family had received some level of charity. They had been given herbs, wine, and other help, meaning they were not seen as so deprived that this was unavoidable. And so, the vast majority of the townspeople, who were just as riddled with hunger, found the act to be a moral horror committed by people whose character was already suspect. It's not clear if this view was a revisionist history of their character, but either way Simon and Eugene were viewed harshly, painted as a gluttonous, drunken, and badly regarded even before the famine reached its worst point. This, however, was no doubt the absolute worst. One day after being arrested, Philip apparently died in prison. Later, Simon was condemned and burned for his crimes. And despite Eugene's alibi, she was strangled as punishment for her involvement.
In the face of all the hardships and horrors the people of Sancerre experienced and witnessed from the famine, in military terms, the town performed astonishingly well. Its residents had lost far fewer people in combat than the men outside the walls attacking. The Catholic forces suffered heavily during the failed assaults with later accounts placing their combat dead at more than 600. Sancerre's combat losses were much lower, sitting somewhere around 84. From the aspect of warfare, it looked like a victory, but it didn't feel like one. The real death toll inside the walls of Sancerre came from hunger. More than 500 people died from starvation, and many of them were children. The walls had protected the town from Catholic soldiers, but they could not prevent its people from wasting away. By the summer of 1573, the larger war around Sancerre was beginning to shift, and one of the most important developments had little to do with the town itself. Henry, Duke of Anjou and brother of King Charles the Ninth, had been leading the royal campaign against the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle. While that siege was dragging on, Henry was elected [music] King of Poland, and to actually take the throne, he would have to leave France, which created a problem for the crown. Henry couldn't easily leave while still tied to a costly siege that he failed to break at La Rochelle after repeated assaults. So, a peace settlement became the most convenient way out. In the summer of 1573, King Charles the Ninth signed the Peace of La Rochelle, ending the Fourth Civil War, including the siege of Sancerre, which lasted eight months. The settlement gave limited protections to French Protestants, but not the broad freedom many Huguenots would have wanted.
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Peace came with conditions and restrictions that would change the situation for towns that had been holding out. By late August, survivors in Sancerre began to leave and on August [music] 31st, Claude and his forces entered the town's now unguarded gates. He found that it was no longer the proud, crowded fortress it had once been and instead looked like a place that had been punished. No matter what Sancerre had been put through though, Claude wanted to make the town pay even further. The city's bell was removed from the bell tower as punishment and the ramparts were ordered to be destroyed. Peasants from the surrounding areas were brought in to tear down the fortifications that had allowed Sancerre to defy the king's forces for so long. As if it couldn't get any worse, there was also even compensation that was ordered to be paid. King Charles the 9th accepted thousands of liters of wine from Sancerre sellers as part of the damages and taxes connected to the siege. These were just humiliating additions to what had been [music] an otherwise brave effort to defend their homes and simply survive. The surrounding province of Berry would see more religious conflict in the years that followed as France itself was not finished with the Wars of Religion. The fighting would continue in different forms and under different leaders until Henry of Navarre eventually became a King Henry the 4th and the Edict of Nantes granted Huguenots broader legal protections in 1598. Sancerre itself had been effectively diminished by the siege and its suffering became part of Protestant memory across Europe. And although defeated and demoralized by the siege, Sancerre lived on as a Protestant symbol of endurance and suffering during France's Wars of Religion.
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