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To: AnalogReigns; Salvation
St. Augustine’s founder, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, BUTCHERED OVER 500 French Hugueonauts who founded a French colony at Fort Caroline (in what is now Jacksonville, FL)....simply because they would not deny their faith and follow Rome.

Salvation - the above post demonstrates to never expect more than half-truths from non-Catholics set on denigrating the church.

From the NPS, here is the truth:

    The End of the Colony [Fort Caroline]

    The settlement barely survived that first year. Good relations with the Indians eventually soured and by the following spring the colonists were close to starvation. Twice mutinous parties had sailed off to make their own fortunes and some were eventually captured by the Spanish, revealing the presence of the French colony. The remaining colonists were about to leave Florida in August 1565, when they spotted sails on the horizon. Ribault had arrived with a relief expedition of supplies and 600 soldiers and settlers, including more women and some children.

    On learning of Ribault’s departure for Florida, Phillip II of Spain sent Admiral Pedro Menendez to remove the French from Florida. Menendez established a base to the south at St. Augustine. Ribault sailed down the coast seeking to attack the Spanish, but his ships were scattered by a hurricane and beached far to the south.

    Seizing the opportunity, Menendez marched north with 500 soldiers to attack the weakly guarded colony. It is believed that the Spanish camped overnight nearby, and attacked early. Forty or fifty French people, including Laudonniere, escaped and sailed for France. Out of the remaining 200 people, only about 60 women and children were spared.

    Menendez next marched south and found the shipwrecked Frenchmen, Ribault among them. They threw themselves on his mercy, but to Menendez they were heretics and enemies of his king. At a place later named Matanzas (Slaughter), he put to the sword about 350 men - all but those professing to be Catholics and a few musicians. France never again strongly challenged Spanish claims in North America.

So, no these were not just innocent Huguenots minding their own business. The King had sent de Avilés to protect Spain's shipping lanes from pirates, including the 2 mutinous groups from Fort Caroline, and to remove the French from Spanish claimed territory. Also, de Avilés seized the opportunity and attacked Fort Caroline after Ribault launched a failed attack on the Spanish from Fort Caroline.
84 posted on 07/07/2012 7:06:16 PM PDT by Titanites
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To: Titanites

Thanks for the truth.


86 posted on 07/07/2012 7:35:32 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Titanites; Salvation; AnalogReigns
[note; for AnalogReigns, a little mood music youtube link at the bottom of this comment for accompaniment for the subject matter of my comment. Scroll down first, put on the headphones and hit it, then read on...]

So, no these were not just innocent Huguenots minding their own business. The King had sent de Avilés to protect Spain's shipping lanes from pirates, including the 2 mutinous groups from Fort Caroline, and to remove the French from Spanish claimed territory.

I'm not sure where exactly you get the information that these particular French Huguenots were pirating. That seems like a slander.

However, the Spaniard Menendez was sent by the Spanish King to remove French colonists from the area. He may have initiated the initial skirmishes which the French Protestants and the Spanish Catholics engaged in. After which the Norman Ribault did attempt to follow Menendez's forces & ships South, but lost all his own ships and many sailors. So he did pursue, looking to fight, but storms busted up that effort.

So what we see is that Menedez's actions were quite horrific, and much as AnalogReigns characterized it. Perhaps you both might apologize to that freeper? He is quite intelligent, you know? And he brought no untruths here. Menendez engaged in two separate slaughters, adding up to approx 600 victims.

In fact, it does appear that Titanites is the one hoping to spin here, what happened those centuries ago, which is sad, for the slaughtering didn't end with the bloody Spaniard, sent by a Spanish king to do the very thing that he did...

More background; Dominique de Gourgue

Pretty sick, huh? It disgusted many Catholics, too, but not Phillip II. One cannot but help to wonder how such news contributed to religious animosities in Europe at the time, and for generations afterward. Meanwhile in Florida;

From such as the above, we can see clearly that in this particular instance, it most certainly is not the case that the info is merely

In fact, it appears that quite the opposite sort of thing is occurring on this thread, but this time, with yet another repeated refrain of "but the Huguenots started it!" employed as a cover-up or excuse for mass slaughter of Protestants by Catholics being unjustifiable, unless one wishes to consider the killings more as continuance of the wars of religion being fought in Europe in that century.

Real groundbreakers, those Spaniards of old.


88 posted on 07/08/2012 12:58:38 AM PDT by BlueDragon (cast your bread upon the waters, it will come back to you after many days... all soggy)
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