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Overview
The French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) is the name of a period of civil infighting and military operations primarily between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and the House of Guise, and both sides received assistance from foreign sources.
The exact number of wars and their respective dates are the subject of continued debate by historians some assert that the Edict of Nantes in 1598 concluded the wars, although a resurgence of rebellious activity following this leads some to believe the Peace of Alais in 1629 is the actual conclusion. However, the Massacre of Vassy in 1562 is agreed to have begun the Wars of Religion up to a hundred Huguenots were killed in this massacre. During the wars, complex diplomatic negotiations and agreements of peace were followed by renewed conflict and power struggles.
Between 2,000,000 and 4,000,000 people were killed as a result of war, famine, and disease, and at the conclusion of the conflict in 1598, Huguenots were granted substantial rights and freedoms by the Edict of Nantes, though it did not end hostility towards them. The wars weakened the authority of the monarchy, already fragile under the rule of Francis II and then Charles IX, though the monarchy later reaffirmed its role under Henry IV.
The Wars of Religion
Guise’s forces occupied Paris and took control of the royal family while the Huguenots rose in the provinces, and their two commanders— Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé, and Admiral Gaspard II de Coligny—established headquarters at Orléans. The deaths of the opposing leaders—the Protestant Anthony of Bourbon, king consort of Navarra, and the Catholic marshal Jacques d’Albon, seigneur de Saint-André—and the capture of Condé caused both sides to seek peace. After the Battle of Dreux (December 1562) the war drew to a close, despite the assassination of the duc de Guise by a Protestant fanatic. A compromise was reached at the Peace of Amboise in March 1563: liberty of conscience was granted to the Huguenots, but the celebration of religious services was confined to the households of the nobility and to a limited number of towns.
The second war was precipitated by Huguenot fears of an international Catholic plot. Condé and Coligny were persuaded to attempt a coup to capture Catherine and Charles IX at Meaux in September 1567 and to seek military aid from the Protestant Palatinate. In the following brief war, the Catholic constable Anne, duc de Montmorency, was killed at the Battle of Saint-Denis (November 1567). The Peace of Longjumeau (March 1568) signaled another effort at compromise. This peace, however, proved little more than a truce a third war soon broke out in September 1568. In an attempt to restore their authority, Catherine and King Charles dismissed L’Hospital in September and restored the Guise faction to favour. The edicts of pacification were rescinded Calvinist preachers faced expulsion from France, and plans were made to seize Condé and Coligny. The former was killed at the Battle of Jarnac (1569), and the Huguenots were again defeated in that year at Moncontour. But the Catholic side failed to consolidate its successes, and yet another compromise was arranged at the Peace of Saint-Germain in August 1570.
Coligny subsequently regained the king’s favour but not the queen mother’s, and he remained an object of hatred with the Guises. In 1572 he was murdered. At the same time, some 3,000 Huguenots who gathered in Paris to celebrate the marriage of Margaret of Valois (later Margaret of France) to Condé’s nephew, Henry IV of Navarra, were massacred on the eve of the feast day of St. Bartholomew, and several thousand more perished in massacres in provincial cities. This notorious episode was the signal for the fifth civil war, which ended in 1576 with the Peace of Monsieur, allowing the Huguenots freedom of worship outside Paris. Opposition to these concessions inspired the creation of the Holy League, or Catholic League. Local Catholic unions or leagues had begun to appear in the 1560s, headed by nobles and prelates. In 1576, after the Peace of Monsieur with its concessions to the Huguenots, these local leagues were fused into a national organization. The league was headed by the Guise family and looked to Philip II of Spain for material aid. It sought, like the Protestants, to attract mass support its clandestine organization was built around the house of Guise rather than the monarchy, from which it was increasingly alienated. In 1577 King Henry III (reigned 1574–89) tried to nullify the league’s influence, first by putting himself at its head and then by dissolving it altogether. This maneuver met with some success.
Renewed fighting broke out in 1577 between Catholic and Protestant noblemen, who defied Henry III in his attempt to assert royal authority. The Huguenots were defeated and forced by the Peace of Bergerac (1577) to accept further limitations upon their freedom. An uneasy peace followed until 1584, when, upon the death of François, duc d’Anjou, the Huguenot leader Henry of Navarra became the heir to the throne. This new situation produced the War of the Three Henrys (1585–89), during which the Guise faction—led by Henri I de Lorraine, 3 e duc de Guise—sought to have Navarra excluded from the succession. The threat of a Protestant king led to the revival of the Catholic League, which now took on a more radical form. This movement was centred in Paris among middle-class professional men and members of the clergy and soon spread among the Parisian artisans, guilds, and public officials. Henry III, who was considered far too tolerant toward the Huguenots, was an object of attack. In town after town, royalist officials were replaced by members of the league. In Paris the mob was systematically aroused in 1588, on the famous Day of the Barricades (May 12), Henry III was driven from his own capital. In a welter of intrigue and murder, first the duc de Guise (December 1588) and his brother Louis II de Lorraine, 2 e cardinal de Guise (December 1588), and then Henry III himself (August 1589) were assassinated, allowing the Protestant Henry of Navarra (Henry IV) to ascend to the throne. After the murder of the Guises, the league came out in open revolt against the crown. Towns renounced their royal allegiances and set up revolutionary governments. In Paris, however, where the league was most highly organized, a central committee called the Sixteen set up a Committee of Public Safety and conducted a reign of terror in a manner similar to the much more famous one that occurred during the revolution 200 years later. Paradoxically, this genuinely populist and revolutionary element in the Holy League paved the way for the triumph of Henry IV (1589–1610), the first king of France from the house of Bourbon (a branch of the house of Capet). The aristocratic members of the league took fright at the direction in which the extreme elements in the movement were proceeding. Their fears reached a climax in 1591, when the Sixteen arrested and executed three magistrates of the Parlement of Paris. The growing split in the ranks of the members of the league, combined with Henry’s well-timed conversion to Roman Catholicism, enabled Henry to seize the initiative and enter Paris, almost unopposed, in 1594. In its final stages, the war became a struggle against Spanish forces intervening on behalf of Isabella Clara Eugenia, the daughter of Philip II of Spain and Elizabeth of Valois, who also laid claim to the French throne. The Peace of Vervins (1598), by which Spain recognized Henry IV’s title as king, and the Edict of Nantes of the same year, which granted substantial religious toleration to the Huguenots, ended the Wars of Religion.
A woman who has been married and divorced must have her marriage annulled within the church, he said, and, if she is a mother, her children must be old enough to not be her dependents. Widows can become nuns but have different criteria, he said. Msgr.
Becoming a nun is a life-altering decision. There are numerous communities that accept women over 60 who want to become a nun. Some communities, particularly the more traditional ones, do have an age limit of usually 30 or 35. Yet even the more traditional communities will sometimes make an exception.
Huguenot Diaspora
The departure of the Huguenots was a disaster for France, costing the nation much of its cultural and economic influence. In some French cities, the mass exodus meant losing half the working population.
Huguenots were particularly prolific in the textile industry and considered reliable workers in many fields. They were also an educated group, with the ability to read and write. Many countries welcomed them and are believed to have benefited from their arrival.
Some fleeing Huguenots made their way to Geneva first, but the city could not support so many people, and only some in the clock-making profession ended up staying there.
Parts of Germany that were still recovering from the Thirty Years War welcomed the Huguenots. The city of Brandenburg went so far as to advertise their eagerness for Huguenots to settle there. Some 4,000 Huguenots settled in Berlin and are considered to have been the spark that transformed it into a major city.
The most significant population ended up in the Netherlands, with Amsterdam received the most Huguenot transplants. Other cities were keen to attract Huguenots and competed to entice them, believing that the influx of skilled, literate workers could help revive their economies.
Early life and education
Napoleon was born on Corsica shortly after the island’s cession to France by the Genoese. He was the fourth, and second surviving, child of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer, and his wife, Letizia Ramolino. His father’s family, of ancient Tuscan nobility, had emigrated to Corsica in the 16th century.
Carlo Buonaparte had married the beautiful and strong-willed Letizia when she was only 14 years old they eventually had eight children to bring up in very difficult times. The French occupation of their native country was resisted by a number of Corsicans led by Pasquale Paoli. Carlo Buonaparte joined Paoli’s party, but, when Paoli had to flee, Buonaparte came to terms with the French. Winning the protection of the governor of Corsica, he was appointed assessor for the judicial district of Ajaccio in 1771. In 1778 he obtained the admission of his two eldest sons, Joseph and Napoleon, to the Collège d’Autun.
A Corsican by birth, heredity, and childhood associations, Napoleon continued for some time after his arrival in Continental France to regard himself a foreigner yet from age nine he was educated in France as other Frenchmen were. While the tendency to see in Napoleon a reincarnation of some 14th-century Italian condottiere is an overemphasis on one aspect of his character, he did, in fact, share neither the traditions nor the prejudices of his new country: remaining a Corsican in temperament, he was first and foremost, through both his education and his reading, a man of the 18th century.
Napoleon was educated at three schools: briefly at Autun, for five years at the military college of Brienne, and finally for one year at the military academy in Paris. It was during Napoleon’s year in Paris that his father died of a stomach cancer in February 1785, leaving his family in straitened circumstances. Napoleon, although not the eldest son, assumed the position of head of the family before he was 16. In September he graduated from the military academy, ranking 42nd in a class of 58.
He was made second lieutenant of artillery in the regiment of La Fère, a kind of training school for young artillery officers. Garrisoned at Valence, Napoleon continued his education, reading much, in particular works on strategy and tactics. He also wrote Lettres sur la Corse (“Letters on Corsica”), in which he reveals his feeling for his native island. He went back to Corsica in September 1786 and did not rejoin his regiment until June 1788. By that time the agitation that was to culminate in the French Revolution had already begun. A reader of Voltaire and of Rousseau, Napoleon believed that a political change was imperative, but, as a career officer, he seems not to have seen any need for radical social reforms.
The Wars of Religion, Part I
The religious wars began with overt hostilities in 1562 and lasted until the Edict of Nantes in 1598. It was warfare that devastated a generation, although conducted in rather desultory, inconclusive way. Although religion was certainly the basis for the conflict, it was much more than a confessional dispute.
"Une foi, un loi, un roi," (one faith, one law, one king). This traditional saying gives some indication of how the state, society, and religion were all bound up together in people's minds and experience. There was not the distinction that we have now between public and private, between civic and personal. Religion had formed the basis of the social consensus of Europe for a millenium. Since Clovis, the French monarchy in particular had closely tied itself to the church -- the church sanctified its right to rule in exchange for military and civil protection. France was "the first daughter of the church" and its king "The Most Christian King" (le roy tres chretien), and no one could imagine life any other way.
"One faith" was viewed as essential to civil order -- how else would society hold together? And without the right faith, pleasing to God who upholds the natural order, there was sure to be disaster. Heresy was treason, and vice versa. Religious toleration, which to us seems such a necessary virtue in public life, was considered tantamount to letting drug dealers move next door and corrupt your children, a view for the cynical and world-weary who had forgotten God and no longer cared about the health of society.
Innovation caused trouble. The way things were is how they ought to be, and new ideas would lead to anarchy and destruction. No one wanted to admit to being an "innovater." The Renaissance thought of itself as rediscovering a purer, earlier time and the Reformation needed to feel that it was not new, but just a "return" to the simple, true religion of the beginnings of Christianity.
These fears of innovation certainly seemed justified when Henri II died suddenly in 1559, leaving an enormous power vacuum at the heart of social authority in France. The monarchy had never been truly absolute (although François I er made long strides in that direction), and had always ruled in an often uneasy relationship with the nobility. The nobles' sense of their own rights as a class, and the ambitions of some of the more talented, were always there to threaten the hegemony of the crown.
When the vacuum appeared, the House of Guise moved in. François II, although only 15, was married to Mary Queen of Scots, a niece of the Duc de Guise. The Guise were a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine (an independent imperial duchy) that were raised to the peerage by François I er . They were ambitious and had already produced at least two generations of exceptional leaders. The duc de Guise, François, was a military hero, and his brother, the Cardinal de Lorraine, was a formidable scholar and statesman. During François II's brief reign, Guise power was absolute.
This greatly threatened the House of Montmorency, an ancient line which had enjoyed great political prominence under Henri II, as well as the Bourbons, who as the first princes of the blood had the rights of tutorship over a minor king. François II was not technically a minor (14 was the age of majority), but he was young and sickly and no one expected much from him.
These dynastic tensions interweave with the religious and social ones. The Bourbon princes were Protestant (the Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre and the Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé), and although the constable de Montmorency was Catholic, his nephews, the Châtillon brothers (including Admiral de Coligny) were Protestants. The Guise identified themselves strongly as defenders of the Catholic faith and formed an alliance with Montmorency and the Marechal St. André to form the "Catholic triumvirate." They were joined by Antoine de Bourbon, who flip-flopped again on the matter of his religion. His wife, Jeanne d'Albret, the Queen of Navarre, remained staunchly Protestant and established Protestantism completely in her domains.
Catherine de' Medici tried to promote peace by issuing the "Edict of Toleration" in January '62, which made the practice of Protestantism not a crime, although it was restricted to preaching in open fields outside the towns and to the private estates of Huguenot (Protestant) nobles. This was not well-received by many Catholics.
The First War (1562-1563)
The national synod for the reformed church met in Paris and appealed to the Prince de Condé to become the "Protector of the Churches." He, his clients, and their respective client networks took on the task, and from this point the leadership of the Huguenots moves away from the pastors towards the noble "protectors", and takes on a more militant tone. Condé mobilizes his forces quickly and moves decisively to capture strategic towns along the waterways, highways, and crossroads of France. He takes a string of towns along the Loire and makes his headquarters at Orléans. He also contracts with Protestant leaders of Germany and England for troops and money.
The royal forces are slower to respond, as the permanent garrisons are located along the Habsburg frontiers. Catherine de' Medici was forced to turn to the Guise faction to deal with this alarming development. The Guise in turn sought help from the Pope and Phillip II of Spain. The Protestants were well dug-in in their garrisons, and the siege efforts to recapture the towns were long and costly. Only one open pitched battle was fought: that at Dreux which was a Catholic victory. At it, the Protestants captured Montmorency, the Catholics captured Condé. The young Admiral de Coligny managed to safely withdraw most of the Protestant forces to Orléans, which was then beseiged during the winter of '62-'63.
At Orléans, the Duc de Guise was killed by an assassin. Antoine de Bourbon had been previously killed at the siege of Rouen, and this last casualty pretty much eliminated the first generation of Catholic leadership. With the Huguenot heartland in the south virtually untouched and the royal treasury hemorrhaging, the crown's position was weak and Catherine bent her efforts towards a settlement. The noble prisoners were exchanged, and the edict of Amboise issued in March '63. This restricted Protestant freedoms somewhat, allowing worship outside the walls of only one town per bailliage , although the nobility still had the freedom to do as they would on their estates. This increased the resentment and tension in the towns and was generally unsatisfying to most.
The Second War (1567-1568)
The Third War (1568-1570)
The Protestant strategy this time was to fortify the Southwest and stand off the crown. This was reasonably successful for a fairly long time. However, at Jarnac, under the nominal leadership of the king's younger brother, Henri d'Anjou, the Protestants suffered a great defeat and the Prince de Condé was killed. Coligny met the Catholics at Moncoutour and suffered another defeat. However, he collected his forces and made a brilliant "long march" across the south of France, defeating the royal army on at least one occasion and depriving the crown of their chance to break the Protestant hold on the South.
The cost of keeping the army in the field was telling on the crown again, and yet another peace was negotiated at St. Germain. This peace was more favorable to the Protestants than the previous, naming specific towns as secure strongholds, returning confiscated property to Huguenots, and guaranteeing some equality before the law. This third war was more protracted, and brought the war to the rural areas in central and southern France, spreading the suffering to the population and raising the cultural tensions between Catholics and Protestants.
The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572)
Protestant rhetoric had become increasingly revolutionary in the late 60's, with leading thinkers advocating that Christians did not have the obligation to obey leaders who themselves defied God. Calvin himself came to the conclusion, after advocating for many years that obedience to the civil authorities was a Christian duty, that a prince that persecuted the church had forfeited his right to be obeyed. François Hotman's Francogallia was written during this time (although not published until 1573). It advocated the existence of a mythical Frankish constitution whereby the kings of France were elected by the people and governed only through their consent. This was all very frightening and served to unite the Protestant faith with treason in the mind of the average person.
Along with these more abstract issues, tension between Catholics and Protestants had some more mundane economic and social elements. Protestants were often represented in the newer and more lucrative trades, such as printing, out of proportion to their numbers in the general population. The Protestant emphasis on literacy as the basis for understanding the Bible made for a generally better educated group. Protestantism was more an urban than a rural phenomenon (except in the Southwest), one well-suited to capitalists and merchants. For example, the 100 or so Catholic feast days that they didn't celebrate made for more days to do business. This wasn't viewed as being much of an advantage by the peasants, but was viewed as an unfair advantage by other Catholic townsmen.
The years of persecution had created a cell-like structure of congregations, consistories, and synods where people in the group stuck together and helped each other, both in matters of religion and everyday business. Like that other minority in Europe, the Jews, this engendered a feeling of suspicion about their "secret" organization.
The participation of women in the church service, with men and women singing together and studying the Bible, was viewed with a range of emotions: from a sign that society was collapsing when cobblers and women could debate the meaning of the Bible (even the Protestants were sometimes alarmed at the effects of their doctrine about "the priesthood of all believers"), to a conviction that Protestant worship must involve some kind of orgiastic rituals.
Prices had also risen very sharply between the beginning of the century and the 1560s, especially the prices of food, fuel, and shelter. This might seem irrelevant to matters of religion, but the sense of stress about making ends meet, increasing homelessness and poverty in the towns, a sense of anxiety about the future, and all the other things that go with this kind of economic pressure make for a fearful and hostile society looking for scapegoats.
Many Catholics felt that the toleration of heresy in their midst was like a disease in the body of Christ that threatened the very contract between God and his people. There was an increasing rhetoric among the popular preachers to purge this infection to restore God's favor and with it, social stability.
All of this tension is important background to the watershed event of the wars: the evening of August 23, 1572 -- the feast of St. Bartholomew. The 19 year-old Henri de Navarre and Margot de Valois were married in Paris on August 17 and the festivities were still going on. The entire Huguenot leadership came to Paris for this wedding. Henri himself brought 800 mounted noblemen in his train.
On August 22, as Admiral de Coligny was returning to his lodgings from a visit with the king, an assassin fired at him, breaking his arm and wounding him severely, but not killing him outright. The Huguenots were outraged and demanded justice from the king. Everyone suspected the Guises of the attack. When various Huguenot leaders counselled Coligy to flee the city -- certainly at this time they could have easily made it to the safety of a Protestant stronghold -- he reputedly refused, feeling that it would show a lack of trust in the king. However, the Huguenots were threatening riot in the streets if something wasn't done, and it was a very hot summer.
At some point during the night of August 23, the decision was taken at the Louvre to kill Coligny and the Huguenot leaders gathered around him. Charles IX was certainly there, Catherine de' Medici, Henri d'Anjou. It may not have been originally intended to be a general massacre. Charles IX was reputedly badgered into this decision by Catherine and his councillors, and when he finally broke he is alleged to have said, "Well, then kill them all that no man be left to reproach me."
During the early hours of Sunday morning, a troop of soldiers came to Coligny's door. They killed the guard that opened the door, and rushed through the house. Coligny was dragged from his bed, stabbed, and thrown out the window to the pavement below. Reputedly the Duc de Guise mocked the body, kicking him in the face and announcing that this was the king's will. Rumors ran thick and fast, and somehow the militia and the general population went on a rampage, believing themselves to be fully sanctioned by the king and the church. Catholics identified themselves with white crosses on their hats, and went around butchering their neighbors. The neighborhood militias played a very significant role in the slaughter. The killing went on for 3 days or so, with the city councillors and the king unable to bring the whole thing under control. There are numerous tales of atrocities, occasional ones of courage and compassion. Historians have debated what really happened and why in excruciating detail ever since.
The Louvre itself was not immune. Henri de Navarre slept in his bridal suite with an entourage of 40 Huguenot gentlemen, all of whom were killed. Henri and his cousin, the Prince de Condé (another Henri, the son of the late Louis who had been the champion of the churches), were dragged before the king and threatened with death if they did not convert. They did, and Navarre became a prisoner of the court for the next four years, living in constant fear of his life.
The massacres spread to the provinces over the next few months. Some thought they had directives from the crown to kill all the Protestants, others thought there was no such thing. The actions of the governors and mayors depended very much on the individuals and the circumstances in their areas. Areas with vocal Protestant minorities often suffered the most.
The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, as it came to be known, destroyed an entire generation of Huguenot leadership. Henri de Navarre was a prisoner, not yet a known quality as a leader. Condé eventually escaped to Germany, and Andelot, Coligny's younger brother, was an exile in Switzerland. Although it wasn't clear at the time, this was the beginning of the decline of the Protestant church in France. In spite of the wars, the '60s had seen an enthusiastic growth in the Religion. Over the months following, many Protestants despaired and abjured their faith. The experience radicalised many of the survivors, creating a profound distrust of the king, an unwillingness to disarm, and an upsurge in the political rhetoric of resistance. Works with titles like The Defense of Liberty against Tyrants were to come off the Huguenot presses.
The Huguenot "state within a state" became solidified, as the churches organized themselves into an efficient hierarchy for communications and self-protection. They collected their own tithes, maintained their own armies and garrisons, and provided for the governance and social welfare of the Protestant communities.
The Fourth War (1572-1573)
The Fifth War (1576)
Meanwhile, Condé was raising money, troops, and support from the German princes, particularly Jan Casimir, the son of Frederick III of the Palatine. Henri de Montmonrency, the Sieur de Damville, Governor of Languedoc, who ruled his region as like an "uncrowned king of the south," brought another substantial army to the Protestant side. Although he himself was Catholic, the Languedoc was a heavily Protestant region and he was related to the Coligny brothers. In February '76 Navarre escaped from the court and headed into his own territory, raising an army behind him. The king's younger brother, the Duc d'Alençon, the last of the Valois sons, began to play to the anti-royalist factions. His propagandists put out manifestos portraying him as alternative ruler to the current king, one able to speak up for the rights of the people and rule more justly -- cutting taxes all the while, of course.
This was a potent alliance, one for which Catherine had no good counter at the time. When 20,000 troops invaded France under Jan Casimir in the spring of '76 and these various armies collected themselves together in the heart of France within striking distance of Paris, the crown was forced to negotiate. The Edict of Beaulieu, otherwise known as the Peace of Monsieur ("Monsieur" being the traditional title for the reigning king's next-oldest brother) was signed in May and was very favorable to the Protestants. In separate private agreements, the leaders got substantial settlements: Navarre was confirmed as Governor of Guyenne, Condé was made Governor of Picardy, Alençon was made Duc d'Anjou and given a raft of titles, and the crown agreed to pay the bills for Jan Casimir's mercenaries. It left Henri III smarting. The Parlement of Paris refused to register it, and some of the towns ceded to the Protestants refused to admit their troops. Picardy, for example, refused to admit Condé to his capital.
The Sixth War (1577)
This year saw the formation of the first attempt at a Catholic League to oppose the Protestants if the king would not. To coopt this threat to his authority, Henri III declared himself the head of it. However, somehow a royal force was put together to take back some of the Protestant towns along the Loire. La Charité fell in May of '77, but the bulk of the Protestant forces were at large in the South and there was no hope of a victory over them. The Peace of Bergerac was signed in July. It was more restrictive in allowing places of worship to the Protestants than the previous peace, but was still largely the same. It disallowed any leagues and associations, trying to fend off the growing movement from the Catholic right wing.
Napoleon in Egypt
On July 1, 1798, Napoleon and his army traveled to the Middle East to undermine Great Britain&aposs empire by occupying Egypt and disrupting English trade routes to India.
But his military campaign proved disastrous: On August 1, 1798, Admiral Horatio Nelson&aposs fleet decimated Napoleon’s forces in the Battle of the Nile.
Napoleon&aposs image - and that of France - were greatly harmed by the loss, and in a show of newfound confidence against the commander, Britain, Austria, Russia and Turkey formed a new coalition against France.
In the spring of 1799, French armies were defeated in Italy, forcing France to give up much of the peninsula. In October, Napoleon returned to France, where he was welcomed as a popular military leader.
Towards peace (1593–98) [ edit | edit source ]
Conversion [ edit | edit source ]
Entrance of Henry IV in Paris, 22 March 1594, with 1,500 cuirassiers.
Departure of Spanish troops from Paris, 22 March 1594.
Despite the campaigns between 1590 and 1592, Henry IV was "no closer to capturing Paris". ⎰] Realising that Henry III had been right and that there was no prospect of a Protestant king succeeding in resolutely Catholic Paris, Henry agreed to convert, reputedly stating "Paris vaut bien une messe" ("Paris is well worth a Mass"). He was formally received into the Catholic Church in 1593, and was crowned at Chartres in 1594 as League members maintained control of the Cathedral of Rheims, and, sceptical of Henry's sincerity, continued to oppose him. He was finally received into Paris in March 1594, and 120 League members in the city who refused to submit were banished from the capital. ⎱] Paris' capitulation encouraged the same of many other towns, while others returned to support the crown after Pope Clement VIII absolved Henry, revoking his excommunication in return for the publishing of the Tridentine Decrees, the restoration of Catholicism in Béarn, and appointing only Catholics to high office. ⎱] Evidently Henry's conversion worried Protestant nobles, many of whom had, until then, hoped to win not just concessions but a complete reformation of the French Church, and their acceptance of Henry was by no means a foregone conclusion.
War with Spain (1595–98) [ edit | edit source ]
By the end of 1594, certain League members still worked against Henry across the country, but all relied on Spain's support. In January 1595, the king declared war on Spain to show Catholics that Spain was using religion as a cover for an attack on the French state—and to show Protestants that his conversion had not made him a puppet of Spain. Also, he hoped to take the war to Spain and make territorial gain. ⎲] The conflict mostly consisted of military action aimed at League members, such as the Battle of Fontaine-Française, though the Spanish launched a concerted offensive in 1595, taking Doullens, Cambrai and Le Catelet and in the spring of 1596 capturing Calais by April. Following the Spanish capture of Amiens in March 1597 the French crown laid siege until its surrender in September. After the Siege of Amiens Henry's concerns turned to the situation in Brittany, the king sent Bellièvre and Brulart de Sillery to negotiate a peace with Spain. The war was only drawn to an official close, however, after the Edict of Nantes, with the Peace of Vervins in May 1598.
Resolution of the War in Brittany (1598–99) [ edit | edit source ]
In early 1598 the king marched against Mercœur in person, and received his submission at Angers on 20 March 1598. Mercœur subsequently went to exile in Hungary. Mercœur's daughter and heiress was married to the Duke of Vendôme, an illegitimate son of Henry IV.
French War of Religion 1562-1598
On this day in 1562, The French War of Religion kicked off, by the end of it in 36 years later, and estimated 4 million had died.
Ranked 17th place in history for death toll, The War of Religions, places between The Korean War and the Hundred Years War, for the cost of human life. The Crusades all combined together don’t even come close. Only 2 genocides in history top it, The Holocaust and the Holodomor.
On 01 March , the Duke François de Guise massacred a hundred Protestants attending a service of worship in a barn in the town of Wassy. Louis de Bourbon, prince of Condé, called upon the Protestants to take up arms. He captured the town of Orléans on the 2nd of April.
War spread throughout the kingdom. Both belligerents committed acts savage violence, especially the Protestant Baron des Adrets in the Dauphiné and in Provence, and the Catholic Blaise de Montluc in Guyenne. In the battle of Dreux that opposed the troops of Condé and those of the High Constable of Montmorency, the royal troops had the advantage. The Duke de Guise laid siege to Orleans held by the Protestants (05 February). He was assassinated by Poltron de Mere, one of the Amboise conspirators. On 19 March the Amboise Edict of pacification was negotiated by Condé and the High Constable of Montmorency.
From the autumn of 1567, the Huguenots leaders decided to take up arms once more. Worried by the increasing influence of the Cardinal of Lorraine on the young King Charles IX, they attempted to subtract the latter by forceful means from the Cardinal’s control. This attempt became known as the Meaux surprise. But the king was warned of it and outmanoeuvred it to return from Meaux to Paris under Swiss protection.
Several towns of southern France were taken over by the Protestants. Acts of violence are committed on both sides. In Nîmes, on St. Michael’s day – 30 September 1567 – the so-celled Michelade takes place : the massacre of leading Catholic citizens by Nîmes Protestants in Paris, besieged by the Huguenot army, Catholics violently attack Huguenots.
Condé’s army captured St. Denis and went as far as Dreux. But on 10 November 1567, the battle of St. Denis ends in favour of the royal troops, despite the fact that the High Constable Anne de Montmorency was fatally wounded. After lengthy negotiations, on the 23rd of March, a peace treaty was signed : the Edict of Longjumeau that confirmed the Edict of Amboise. The peace would only last 5 months.
The revolt of the so-called “gueux” , subjects of Philip II of Spain in the Netherlands furthered added to the continuing war. Their cruel repression by the Duke of Albe in the name of Philip II caused great emotion in France and the Huguenots, seeking foreign alliances, concluded an agreement with them. Each of the two sides benefited from foreign aid which allowed agreesions also. The Protestants were allied to the Prince of Orange and Elizabeth of England. the latter financed the expedition in Burgundy of the Palatine Count Wolfgang, Duke of the Two Bridges, in 1569. The Catholics received help from the King of Spain, the Pope and the Duke of Tuscany.
Two main victories for the Catholics : one at Jarnac (13th of March 1569) where the Duke of Anjou, the future Henri III, was victorious over the Prince of Condé who was killed during the battle and the other at Moncontour, in the northern district of Haut-Poitou (03 October 1569). Admiral de Coligny was injured during the battle but he managed to flee. Despite these two setbacks, the Huguenots were not discouraged. Coligny returned north and reached La Charité-sur-Loire. In June 1570, the Protestant forces won the battle of Arnay-le-Duc.
An edict signed at Saint-Germain on 08 August 1570, was brought about mainly by King Charles IX and marked a return to civil tolerance : freedom of worship was reinstalled in places where it had existed on 01 August 1570. Protestants, moreover, obtained four strongholds for a period of two years : they were La Rochelle, Cognac, La Charité-sur-Loire and Montauban.
On 22 August 1572 – four days after the marriage of Henri de Navarre to Marguerite de Valois, sister of King Charles IX – Admiral de Coligny narrowly escaped an attempt on his life. In Paris the tension was very strong numerous Protestant noblemen had come to attend the wedding. During the night from the 23rd to the 24th , St. Bartholomew’s Day. the royal Council met, during which it was decided to eliminate the main Huguenot leaders. Coligny and other Protestant noblemen were assassinated at the Louvre as well as in town. This execution of a limited number of Huguenot leaders was followed by a savage massacre that will go on until the 29th with some 4000 victims. The massacre spread throughout country areas and resulted in some 10,000.
After the death of Charles IX (30 May 1574), Henri III was crowned on 13 February 1575. He refused the Malcontents’ requests but was soon obliged to deal with them as his troops were far fewer than theirs. He signed a treaty of peace at Etigny, the so-called “peace of Monsieur”. The Edict of Beaulieu (06 May 1576) confirms the victory of the Malcontents. It allows freedom of worship except in Paris and an area of two leagues (five miles) around the city. The reformed Protestants were attributed eight strongholds and limited chambers in every parliament.
The Edict of Beaulieu proved to be difficult to apply and raised opposition. Hostile Catholics gathered in defensive leagues. The States General was summoned and took place in Blois in an atmosphere that was most unfavourable to the Huguenots. Le assembly’s abolition of the edict resulted in the resumption of the conflict. But lack of financial aid for both parties obliged them to take up negotiations. A compromise was found and the peace of Bergerac (14 September 1577) was confirmed by the Edict of Poitiers, signed in October 1577.
Hostilities remained high with the populaces, between the two sects, war broke out once more in local areas : the Prince de Conde captured La Fere in Picardy and in April 1580, Henri de Navarre – at the head of the Protestant party since 1575-1576 – resisted the provocations of Lt. General de Guyenne and took possession of the town of Cahors. Some sporadic fighting occurred until the signing of the treaty of Fleix on 26 November 1580. This treaty confirmed the Poitiers text. As had been agreed upon at Poitiers, the strongholds were to be restored within six years.
With the death of François d’Alençon, Duke of Anjou and the King’s last brother, Henri de Navarre became the legitimate heir to the throne. In order to oppose this candidature to the throne, the Catholics constitute the League or “Holy Union”. Its leader Henri de Guise obliged Henri III to sign the treaty of Nemours (1585). The edict that followed was registered by Parliament on 18 July 1585, refuting the political status to civil tolerance. It stipulated that Calvinists had six months to choose between abjuration and exile, that ministers of religion be banned and that strongholds be given back.
The result was a strong decline in the number of Protestants throughout the country. But Henri de Navarre, victorious at Coutras, still held the southern provinces. The League took control of northern France. In Paris the “commons’” league had been constituted independently from the princes’ League. The two leagues now united.
On 12 May 1588, the city revolted : this was the “day of the barricades” and Henri III had to flee. He took refuge in Blois and began negotiations with the leaguers. But the power acquired by the de Guise clan worried him. Suspecting subversion, he fought against it at all costs. He decided to have the Duke Henri de Guise and his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine assassinated. Henri III sought reconciliation with Henri de Navarre. Their two armies joined forces and headed for Paris. But the citizens of Paris rose against their King who had made alliance with the heretics. In 1589 Henri III was assassinated by a member of the League, the monk Jacques Clément.
Henri de Navarre became King Henri IV. But Paris was in the hands of the leaguers and the King had to conquer his kingdom. In March 1590 the well-known battle of Ivry opened up the way for the King to the siege of Paris. In 1593 Henri IV made known his intention to abjure and to undergo Catholic religious instruction. Only the anointing and crowning of the King in Chartres succeeded in overcoming Parisian reserve. Paris yielded in 1594 and opened up its doors to Henri IV.
In 1595 Henri IV received absolution from the Pope and declared war on Spain whose numerous troops that had helped the League were still present in France. In 1598, by means of the Treaty of Vervins, he obtained the departure of the Spanish troops. In 1598, by means of the Treaty of Vervins, he obtained the departure of the Spanish troops. Henri IV likewise obtained the submission of the Duke of Mercoeur, governor of Bretagnes, who had joined forces with the Spaniards.
In April 1598, that Henri IV signed the well-known edict putting an end to the wars of religion that had ravaged France for some 36 years. This edict is more complete than the preceding ones. It established a limited civil tolerance and inaugurated religious coexistence. The Reformed service of worship was authorised in all placed where it existed in 1597 and access to all offices was guaranteed to Reformed Protestants.
