What is "michelade"

The Michelade is the name given to the massacre of Catholics, including 24 Catholic priests and monks, by Protestant rioters in Nîmes on Michaelmas (29 September) 1567, following their failure to abduct the king and queen mother in the so-called Surprise of Meaux the previous day and in retaliation for the suppression of their Huguenot beliefs. With Meaux, it helped trigger the Second War of Religion.