The Siege of Nègrepelisse (French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

: Siège de Nègrepelisse) was a siege accomplished by the young French king Louis XIII in 1622, against the Protestant stronghold of Nègrepelisse

Nègrepelisse

Nègrepelisse is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France.-References:*...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. This siege followed the Siege of Montauban

Siege of Montauban

The Siege of Montauban was a siege accomplished by the young French king Louis XIII in 1621, against the Protestant stronghold of Montauban...

, in which Louis XIII had failed against the Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 city.

The city was captured after a short siege, but all the inhabitants were massacred, without distinction of age or sex, practically all women were raped, and the city was looted and burnt to the ground. This severe treatment was due to the false claim that a Royal regiment left in garnisson in the city by the Duke of Mayenne

Duke of Mayenne

Duke of Mayenne is a title created for a cadet branch of the House of Guise. It subsequently passed by marriage to the Gonzaga in 1621. They sold it to Cardinal Mazarin in 1654; he bestowed it on his niece, Hortense Mancini in 1661...

had been exterminated by the citizens. The king had ordered: