Introduction

September 1565, Nassau County, Florida—Spanish troops, acting under orders from King Phillip II, massacre a settlement of French Huguenots at Fort Caroline, mutilating the dead by cutting out their eyes. The expedition’s commander, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, rationalizes the slaughter by telling the victims in advance, “I do this not unto Frenchmen, with whom my king is at peace, but unto heretics.”