{"id":17508,"date":"2022-08-25T16:40:49","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=17508"},"modified":"2022-08-25T16:40:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:40:49","slug":"lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago\u00a0 <\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
by James Bovard\u00a0\u00a0 August 25, 2022<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

On this day in 1572, French Catholics slaughtered thirty thousand Protestants (known as Huguenots) in the streets of Paris. The French king and the pope helped organize the the biggest religious massacre in Europe in the 1500s. Roughly half the Bovards living in Paris were killed in the bloodbath. Three surviving Bovards fled past drunken guards at Paris\u2019s city gates, raced to the coast, hijacked a rowboat, and made it across the English Channel and took refuge in London. Or at least that\u2019s the Bovard family lore I\u2019ve read. (I know not to bet the rent money on that lore\u2019s accuracy.)<\/p>\n

Some years ago at a DC reception, I met a cultural attach\u00e9 from the French embassy. She saw my name tag and asked about my last name.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s French. My ancestors were Huguenots,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh\u2014they were victims,\u201d she replied remorsefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell no! Getting kicked out of France was the best thing that ever happened to the Bovard family,\u201d I replied with a big grin.<\/p>\n

She just stared at me kind of wild-eyed. I fear I shattered her stereotypes of Huguenots.<\/p>\n

After fleeing France, my forebearers resettled in northern Ireland. My ancestors were reportedly linen and lace manufacturers in France but became flax growers after resettling in County Donegal. I came by rusticity honestly.<\/p>\n

In 1846, my Bovard ancestors exited for America. I explain my family history with this thumbnail: the Bovards were kicked out of France because the king was prejudiced against Protestants, and they were kicked out of Ireland because the Irish were prejudiced against horse thieves.<\/p>\n

Actually, they left at the start of the great potato famine, but the fact checking police haven\u2019t caught up with me yet. My kinfolk settled in western Pennsylvania. My great-great-grandfather dodged Abraham Lincoln\u2019s military conscription, a step that I appreciate both philosophically and genetically.<\/p>\n

The 1572 carnage at least had some positive philosophical results. Philippe de Mornay<\/a> barely avoided being killed in the massacre, but seven years later, his pamphlet Vindiciae contra tyrannos<\/em> (A Defense of Liberty against Tyrants<\/a><\/em>) was published in Switzerland. This pamphlet laid the groundwork for subsequent authors (including British philosopher John Locke) to clearly establish the right to resist oppressive rulers. The book contained far more solid thinking on the nature of political institutions than one will encounter in political science classes, where progressive professors exalt the power of benevolent rulers, the Constitution be damned. De Mornay observed, \u201cThere is nothing which exempts the king from obedience which he owes to the law, which he ought to acknowledge as his lady and mistress.\u201d Invoking Aristotle, he stressed, \u201cCivilized people reduced kings to a lawful condition, by binding them to keep and observe the laws. Unruly absolute authority remained only amongst those who commanded over barbarous nations.\u201d The vision of \u201cgovernment under the law\u201d was one of the greatest lodestars of early modern political philosophy. De Mornay also derided \u201cthe minions of the court.\u201d We have made great progress since his time\u2014now we have think tank minions.<\/p>\n

Sixteenth-century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne was horrified by the carnage in Paris as well as in Bordeaux, where he served periodically as mayor. Montaigne sought to deter religious genocide: \u201cIt is putting a very high price on our opinions to have a man roasted alive because of them.\u201d He admitted that he could not say all that he believed: \u201cI speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older.\u201d But he never forthrightly condemned the St. Bartholomew Day\u2019s Massacre. He did give a few winks to skepticism: \u201cMan is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm<\/a>, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.\u201d He also recognized how adulation spawned some of the most dangerous illusions: \u201cThe strange luster that surrounds a king conceals and shrouds him from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost two centuries later, Voltaire was spurred by the 1762 judicial murder of a Huguenot to zealously champion toleration. \u201cToleration has never been the cause of civil war; while, on the contrary, persecution has covered the earth with blood and carnage,\u201d he wrote. In his Philosophical Dictionary<\/em>, he declared, \u201cWhat is tolerance? It is a necessary consequence of humanity. We are all fallible, let us then pardon each other\u2019s follies. This is the first principle of natural right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The St. Bartholomew\u2019s Day Massacre shows the perils of combining fanaticism with power. Unfortunately, this is a lesson which modern societies may soon need to learn again. A recent poll showed that more than half<\/a> of Americans expect a civil war \u201cin the next few years.\u201d Hopefully that poll is as inaccurate as most of the polls preceding recent presidential elections. Historian Henry Adams observed a century ago that politics \u201chas always been the systematic organization of hatreds<\/a>.\u201d Nowadays, politics seems hell-bent on multiplying hatred. And few things spur hatred more effectively than tarring all political opponents as traitors. But that is increasingly the coin of the realm in political disputes.<\/p>\n

Toleration requires fewer body bags than rage. There are few things that people need to agree on to live peacefully (if not happily) side by side. But the popularity of notions such as \u201cSilence Is Violence\u201d epitomizes the systematic intolerance permeating progressive movements. Demanding that people assent to the latest contrived definitions of virtue is a huge step toward using government force to compel obedience to any mania that sweeps the latest mob of \u201cinfluencers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montaigne aptly observed more than four hundred years ago, \u201cThere is nothing so grossly and widely faulty as the laws.\u201d That hasn\u2019t changed since his time. The incompetence of legislators and tinhorn dictators is a standing rebuke to seeking to save humanity by vastly increasing political power. But from 1500s France to contemporary societies around the world, politicians always find ways to profit from the bloodshed they unleash. A far wiser path was recommended by the victim of a brutal police beating that helped spark the 1992 Los Angeles riots<\/a> that left sixty-three people dead. As Rodney King wisely asked, \u201cCan we all get along<\/a>? Can we stop making it horrible?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago\u00a0 by James Bovard\u00a0\u00a0 August 25, 2022 On this day in 1572, French Catholics slaughtered thirty thousand Protestants (known as Huguenots) in the streets of Paris. The French king and the pope helped organize the the biggest religious massacre in Europe in the 1500s. Roughly half the Bovards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3283,3266,3281,1204,3265,2297,530,3282,1673,3284,3272,252,2298],"class_list":["post-17508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bovard-history","tag-huguenots","tag-intolerance","tag-john-locke","tag-massacre","tag-montaigne","tag-paris","tag-philippe-de-mornay","tag-rodney-king","tag-rusticity","tag-st-bartholomews-day-massacre","tag-tyranny","tag-voltaire"],"yoast_head":"\nLessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"450 years ago, 30,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Paris. The St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre reminds us that tolerance trumps body bags\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"450 years ago, 30,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Paris. The St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre reminds us that tolerance trumps body bags\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-25T20:40:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"710\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"558\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-25T20:40:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1050,\"commentCount\":13,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Bovard history\",\"Huguenots\",\"intolerance\",\"John Locke\",\"massacre\",\"Montaigne\",\"Paris\",\"Philippe de Mornay\",\"Rodney King\",\"rusticity\",\"St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre\",\"tyranny\",\"Voltaire\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-25T20:40:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"description\":\"450 years ago, 30,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Paris. The St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre reminds us that tolerance trumps body bags\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp\",\"width\":710,\"height\":558},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/25\\\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago - James Bovard","description":"450 years ago, 30,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Paris. The St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre reminds us that tolerance trumps body bags","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago - James Bovard","og_description":"450 years ago, 30,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Paris. The St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre reminds us that tolerance trumps body bags","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2022-08-25T20:40:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":710,"height":558,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago","datePublished":"2022-08-25T20:40:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/"},"wordCount":1050,"commentCount":13,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp","keywords":["Bovard history","Huguenots","intolerance","John Locke","massacre","Montaigne","Paris","Philippe de Mornay","Rodney King","rusticity","St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre","tyranny","Voltaire"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/","name":"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp","datePublished":"2022-08-25T20:40:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"description":"450 years ago, 30,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Paris. The St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre reminds us that tolerance trumps body bags","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/massacre-1572-french-queen-Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.webp","width":710,"height":558},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/25\/lessons-from-a-massacre-committed-450-years-ago\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lessons from a Massacre Committed 450 Years Ago"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17510,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17508\/revisions\/17510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}