against Spain. Massacre of Saint Bartholomew Shortly after the marriage celebrations of Navarre and Marguerite, there was an attempt on Admiral Coligny's life. As the military leader of the Protestants threats abounded in the capital about potential retribution. Birague was a zealous advocate of royal authority, and the idea that Protestant nobles might take justice into their own hands unnerved him. Catherine met with her leading advisers, Retz, Nevers, Tavannes and Birague. Together the council agreed that it was necessary to sever the head of the Protestant leadership in Paris to avoid a civil war. Their plan would go awry however, and the assassinations would spiral into the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day. Many saw in the massacre the 'demonic influence' of foreigners on the court of France. With the Italians Catherine, Retz, Birague and Nevers accused of having brought about the civil wars of the past decade as a way of destroying the upper nobility of France. The death of his wife in 1572 had pushed Birague into a new direction for his career, and he considered taking up holy orders. In October 1573 he became Bishop of Lodève, and ring fenced his diocese from a round of alienations that occurred that year. Malcontents Faced with the Malcontents who though Catholic had entered conspiracy against the crown in 1574, Birague urged the king to follow a harsh course of justice. He proposed to Charles that while it was important to show clemency at times, traitors who threatened the kingdom with ruin such as Marshal Montmorency needed to be treated in the 'manner of Louis XI', i.e. arrested. The king and his mother were ill inclined to follow this course with such a powerful noble, and he was kept under loose surveillance until their hand was forced by a further attempted conspiracy. Now locked in the Bastille the crown hoped the threat of a potential execution would keep the duke's brothers who were with a mercenary force in Germany from invading the kingdom. Reign of Henri III Fifth civil war Montmorency's other brother Damville, governor of Languedoc who had entered rebellion in the south in favour of his brother was approached by Cardinal Bourbon in October 1574 to try and bring him back into allegiance with the crown. Damville responded with a series of conditions for his return to loyalty, one of which was that Henri III dismiss the foreigners