At all hazards Coligny must be gotten rid of.

The young King of Navarre, adored leader of the Protestants, was a constant menace; he, too, must in some way be disposed of.
There were sinister conferences with Philip of Spain and with his minister, that incarnation of cruelty and of the Inquisition, the Duke of Alva.
To the honor of France it may be said that the initiative, the inception of the horrid deed which was preparing was not French.

It was conceived in the brain of either this Italian woman or her Spanish adviser and co-conspirator, the Duke of Alva.

We shall never know the inside history of the Massacre of St.Bartholomew.

It must ever remain a matter of conjecture just how and when it was planned, but the probabilities point strongly one way.
Charles was to be gradually prepared for it by his mother.