The play is virtually unique in addressing contemporary European history, and indeed a sensitive political situation on England's own doorstep. The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, instigated by the French royal rulers and Catholic nobles (including the Duke of Guise) saw the systematic murder and execution of thousands of protestant Huguenots in the French capital in August 1572.

The Massacre at Paris is an Elizabethan play by the English dramatist Christopher Marlowe (1593). The Massacre at Paris is without doubt the play of Marlowe's that has received least attention historically both from a staging and a critical perspective, and justifiably so. It is only extant in what is believed to be both an abridged and 'reported' text, a single undated Octavo version, published by Edward White almost certainly some time between 1594 and 1606.

Christopher Marlowe (26 February 1564 – 30 May 1595) was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian of his day. He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and who rose to become the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright after Marlowe's mysterious early death. Marlowe's plays are known for the use of blank verse and their overreaching protagonists.