The wars fought between the Catholic and Protestant monarchies and nobility were known as the Wars of Religion. The fighting was accelerated by the massacre of 3,000 Huguenots in Paris by Catholic soldiers on the eve of St Bartholemew's Day in 1572.
This atrocity encouraged the Huguenots to fight for the right to toleration of their religion, which they eventually achieved in 1598 when Henry IV signed the Edict of Nantes, ending the Wars of Religion and giving Huguenots extensive civil rights in France. Chartres city was attacked by Huguenot troops, but it was not badly damaged.
