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The French Wars of Religion, ( 1562 to 1598 ) were a series of conflicts fought between Catholic s and Huguenot s ( Protestant s) from the middle of the Sixteenth Century to the Edict Of Nantes in 1598 , including Civil Infighting as well as Military Operations . In addition to the religious elements, they involved a struggle for control over the ruling of the country between the Catholic House Of Guise ( Lorraine ) on the one hand, and the Calvinist House Of Bourbon on the other. In addition, they may also be considered a war by proxy between King Philip II Of Spain and Queen Elizabeth I Of England . Hundreds of thousands were killed as a result. PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE See Also: Huguenot Lutheranism was introduced in France after about 1520. Initially, King Francis I was tolerant of religious reformers, but after the Affair Of The Placards in 1534 , he was forced to view Protestants as a threat and openly moved against them. One French Protestant, John Calvin , found refuge in Geneva , where he came to hold great influence on the reform movement. During the reign of Henry II (1547 - 1559), Calvinism gained numerous converts in France among the French Nobility , the middle class, and the Intelligentsia . Although Huguenots accounted for only a small fraction of the French population, the great wealth and influence that many of them possessed began to cause bitterness (see Market Dominant Minority ) In 1559 , delegates from 66 Calvinist congregations in France met at Paris in a national synod which drew up a confession of faith and a book of discipline. Thus was organized the first national Protestant church of France. Its members were thereafter commonly known as Huguenot s. THE EARLY CONFLICTS In 1560 , Catherine De' Medici became regent for her young son Charles IX . Her inexperience and lack of financial support created a "political vacuum" and Catherine felt that she had to steer the throne carefully between the powerful and conflicting interests that surrounded it. Although she was a sincere Roman Catholic , she had no problem with playing the Calvinist House Of Bourbon and the Catholic House Of Guise against each other. She nominated a moderate chancellor, Michel De L'Hôpital , who urged a number of measures providing for toleration of the Huguenots. She therefore was led to support religious toleration in the shape of the Edict Of Saint-Germain (1562), which allowed the Huguenots to worship publicly outside of towns and privately inside of them. On March 1 , however, a faction of the Guise family's retainers attacked a Calvinist service in Wassy-sur-Blaise in Champagne and massacred the worshippers. As hostilities broke out, the Edict was revoked, under pressure from the Guise faction. This provoked the First War. The Bourbons, led by Louis I De Bourbon, Prince De Condé , organised a kind of protectorate over the Protestant churches and began to seize and garrison strategic towns along the Loire . Here, at Battle Of Dreux and at Orléans , there were the first major engagements; at Dreux, Condé was captured by the Guises and Montmorency , the government general, by the Bourbons. In February 1563, at Orléans, Francis, Duke Of Guise was assassinated by Huguenot Death Squads , and Catherine's fears that the war might drag on led her to mediate a truce and the Edict Of Amboise (1563). This was generally regarded as unsatisfactory by all concerned, the Guise faction being particularly opposed to what they saw as dangerous concessions to violently Anti-Catholic Heretics . The political temperature of the surrounding lands was rising, as unrest grew in the Netherlands . The Huguenots became suspicious of Spanish intentions when King Philip II Of Spain reinforced the strategic corridor from Italy north along the Rhine and made an unsuccessful attempt at taking control of the King. This provoked a further outburst of hostilities (the Second War) which ended in another unsatisfactory truce, the Peace Of Longjumeau (March 1568). In September of that year, war again broke out (the Third War). Catherine and Charles decided this time to ally themselves with the House of Guise. Religious toleration was once more at an end, and the Huguenot army, under the command of Louis I De Bourbon, Prince De Condé and aided by forces from south-eastern France led by Paul de Mouvans and a contingent of fellow Protestant militias from Germany — including 14,000 mercenary '' Reiter s'' led by the Calvinist Duke Of Zweibrücken .Jouanna, p.181. After the Duke was killed in action, he was succeeded by the Count Of Mansfeld and the Dutch William Of Orange and his brothers Louis and Henry.Jouanna, p.181. Much of the Huguenots' financing came from Queen Elizabeth Of England , who was likely influenced in the matter by Sir Francis Walsingham .Jouanna, p.181. The Catholics were commanded by the Duke D'Anjou (later King Henry III) and assisted by troops from Spain, the Papal States and the Grand Duchy Of Tuscany .Jouanna, p.182. The Protestant army laid siege to several cities in the Poitou and Saintonge regions (to protect La Rochelle ), and then Angoulême and Cognac . At the Battle Of Jarnac ( 16 March 1569 ), the Prince de Condé was killed, forcing Admiral De Coligny to take command of the Protestant forces. The Battle Of La Roche-l'Abeille was a nominal victory for the Calvinists, but they were unable to seize control of Poitiers and were soundly defeated at the Battle Of Moncontour ( October 30 1569 ). Coligny and his troops retreated to the south-west and regrouped with Gabriel, Comte De Montgomery , and in spring of 1570 they pillaged Toulouse , cut a path through the south of France and went up the Rhone valley up to La Charité-sur-Loire .Jouanna, p.184. The staggering royal debt and Charles IX's desire to seek a peaceful solutionJouanna, pp.184-5. led to the Peace Of Saint-Germain-en-Laye ( 8 August 1570 ), which once more allowed some concessions to the Huguenots. ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY MASSACRE See Also: St. Bartholomew's Day massacre .]] Despite this shaky truce, Anti-Protestant Pogroms erupted in 1571 , in cities such as Rouen , Orange and Paris. Matters at Court were further complicated thereafter as King Charles IX openly allied himself with the Huguenot leaders — especially Admiral Gaspard De Coligny . Meanwhile, the Queen Mother became increasingly fearful of the unchecked power wielded by Coligny and his supporters. When it became clear that Coligny was bent on forcing an alliance with England and the Dutch rebels, Queen Catherine decided to order his assassination. Coligny along with many other wealthy and powerful Calvinists arrived in Paris for the wedding of the Catholic Princess Marguerite De Valois to the Protestant Henry Of Navarre on August 28 . An assassin made a failed attempt on Coligny's life, shooting him in the street from a window. The bullets went astray, causing merely the loss of a finger on his right hand and a broken left arm. Catherine and her supporters believed the Huguenots might stage a Coup , so they decided, with the approval of the King, to make a preemptive strike by assassinating every powerful Huguenot who might organize a counterattack. The city degenerated into anarchy, erupting into full-scale murder of Calvinist men, women and children, and the looting of their houses. Over the next few weeks it spread to cities across France. This event became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre . On the night of August 23 , perhaps 2,000 Huguenots were slaughtered in Paris and, in the days that followed, thousands more in the provinces. Both Philip II Of Spain and Pope Gregory XIII declared themselves pleased with the outcome, which naturally provoked horror and outrage by their religious opponents throughout Europe. In France, it all but decapitated Huguenot opposition to the crown. The massacres set off the Fourth War, which included Catholic Siege s of the cities of Sommières (by troops led by Henri I De Montmorency ), Sancerre and the La Rochelle (by troops led by the Duke d'Anjou). The end of hostilities was brought on by the election (11 - 15 May 1573) of the Duke of Anjou to the throne of Poland and by the Edict Of Boulogne (signed in July 1573) which severely curtailed many of the concessions previously granted to French Protestants. Based on the terms of the treaty, all Huguenots were granted amnesty for their past actions and the freedom of belief. However, they were permitted the freedom to worship only within the three towns of La Rochelle , Montauban , and Nimes , and even then only within their own residences; Protestant aristocrats with the right of high-justice were permitted to celebrate marriages and baptisms, but only before an assembly limited to ten persons outside of their family. Jouanna, p.213. HENRY III Three months after Henry of Anjou's coronation as King of Poland, his brother Charles IX died (May 1574 ). Henri secretly left Poland and returned via Venice to France, where he was crowned King Henry III in 1575 , at Rheims , but hostilities – Fifth War – had already flared up again. Henry soon found himself in the difficult position of trying to maintain royal authority in the face of feuding Warlords who refused to compromise. In 1576 , the King signed the Edict Of Beaulieu , granting minor concessions to the Calvinists, but his action resulted in the Catholic Henry I, Duke Of Guise forming the Catholic League . The Guise faction had the unwavering support of the Spanish Crown and were therefore in a very powerful position throughout the 1580s. The Huguenots, however, had the advantage of a strong power base in the southwest; they were also discretely supported by outside Protestant governments, but in practice, England or the German states could provide no actual troops. At the end of the Sixth War (1576-1577), after much posturing and negotiations, Henry III was forced to rescind most of the concessions that had been made to the Protestants in the Edict of Beaulieu with the Treaty Of Bergerac (also known as the "Edict of Poitiers"). Two years later, further hostilities — the '''Seventh War''' (1579-1580) — ended in the stalemate of the Treaty Of Fleix . The fragile compromise came to an end in 1584 , when the King's youngest brother and heir presumptive, François, Duke Of Anjou , died. As Henry III had no son, under Salic Law , the next heir to the throne was the Calvinist Prince Henri Of Navarre , a descendant of St. Louis IX whom Pope Sixtus V had excommunicated along with his cousin, Henri Prince De Condé . Under pressure from the Duke of Guise, Henri III reluctantly issued an edict suppressing Protestantism and annulling Henri of Navarre's right to the throne. In December 1584 , the Duke of Guise signed the Treaty Of Joinville on behalf of the League with Philip II Of Spain , who supplied a considerable annual grant to the League over the following decade hoping to destroy the French Calvinists. The House Of Guise had long been identified with the defence of the Catholic Church and the Duke of Guise and his relations — the Duke Of Mayenne , Duke Of Aumale , Duke Of Elboeuf , Duke Of Mercoeur and the Duke Of Lorraine — controlled extensive territories that were loyal to the League. The League also had a large following among the urban middle class. The King at first tried to coopt the head of the Catholic League and steer it towards a negotiated settlement. This was anathema to the Guise leaders, who wanted to bankrupt the Huguenots and divide their considerable assets with the King. The situation degenerated into the Eighth War (1585-1589), which (as the head of the Guise family was also a Henry), is sometimes called the " War Of The Three Henrys ". Henry of Navarre again sought foreign aid from the German princes and Elizabeth I Of England . Meanwhile, the people of Paris, under the influence of the Committee Of Sixteen were becoming dissatisfied with Henriy III and his failure to defeat the Calvinists. On 12 May 1588 , a popular uprising raised barricades on the streets of Paris and Henry III fled the city. The Committee of Sixteen took complete control of the government and welcomed the Duke of Guise to Paris. The Guises then proposed a settlement with a cipher as heir and demanded a meeting of the Estates-General , which was to be held in Blois . Viewing the House of Guise as a dangerous threat to the power of the Crown, King Henri decided to strike first. On December 23 , 1588 , at the Château De Blois , Henry of Guise and his brother, the Cardinal De Guise , were lured into a trap by the King's guards. The Duke arrived in the council chamber where his brother the Cardinal waited. The Duke was told that the King wished to see him in the private room adjoining the royal chambers. There guardsmen hacked the Duke to death with halberds and dealt the same to the Cardinal. To make sure that no contender for the French throne was free to act against him, the King had the Duke's son imprisoned. The Duke of Guise had been highly popular in France, and the enraged citizens turned against King Henri. The Parlement instituted criminal charges against the King, who fled Paris to seek asylum with Henri of Navarre. It thus fell upon the younger brother of the Guise, the Duke Of Mayenne , to become the leader of the Catholic League. The League presses began printing anti-royalist tracts under a variety of pseudonyms, while the Sorbonne proclaimed that it was just and necessary to depose Henri III, and that any private citizen was morally free to commit Regicide . In July 1589 , in the royal camp at Saint-Cloud , a monk named Jacques Clément gained an audience with the King and drove a long knife into his spleen. Clément was executed on the spot, taking with him the information of who, if anyone, had hired him. On his deathbed, Henri III called for Henri of Navarre, and begged him, in the name of Statecraft , to become a Catholic, citing the brutal warfare that would ensue if he refused. In keeping with Salic Law , he named Henri as his heir. HENRY IV The situation on the ground in 1589 was that King Henry IV Of France , as Navarre had become, held the south and west, and the Catholic League the north and east. The leadership of the Catholic League had devolved on the Duke de Mayenne, who was appointed Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. He and his troops controlled most of rural Normandy. However, in September 1589, Henri inflicted a severe defeat on the Duke at the Battle Of Arques . Henri's army swept through Normandy, taking town after town throughout the winter. The King knew that he had to take Paris if he stood any chance of ruling all of France. This, however, was no easy task. The Catholic League's presses and supporters continued to spread stories about the very real atrocities against Catholic priests and the laity in Protestant England (see Forty Martyrs Of England And Wales ). The city prepared to fight to the death rather than accept a Calvinist King. The Battle Of Ivry , fought on March 14 , 1590, was another decisive victory for Henri against the forces led by the Duc De Mayenne . Henry's forces went on to lay siege to Paris , but the siege was broken by Spanish support. Realising that Henri III had been right and that there was no prospect of a Protestant king succeeding in fanatically Catholic Paris, Henry supposedly uttered the famous phrase ''Paris vaut bien une messe'' (Paris is well worth a mass). He was formally received into the Roman Catholic Church and was crowned at Chartres in 1594 . WAR IN BRITTANY In 1582 Henry III Of France , the last living male-line grandson of Claude, Duchess Of Brittany , had made Philippe Emmanuel, Duke Of Mercoeur , a leader of Catholic League , governor of Brittany . Mercoeur put himself at the head of the Catholic League in Brittany, and had himself proclaimed protector of the Roman Catholic Church in the province in 1588 . Invoking the hereditary rights of his wife, Marie De Luxembourg , who was a descendant of the Dukes Of Brittany and heiress of the Blois-Brosse claim to the duchy as well as Duchess Of Penthievre in Brittany, he endeavoured to make himself independent in that province, and organized a government at Nantes , proclaiming his son "prince and duke of Brittany". He allied with Philip II Of Spain , who however sought to put his own daughter, infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia , to the throne of Brittany. With the aid of the Spaniards, Mercoeur defeated the Duc De Montpensier , whom Henry IV Of France had sent against him, at Craon in 1592 , but the royal troops, reinforced by English contingents, soon recovered the advantage. The king marched against Mercoeur in person, and received his submission at Angers on March 20 , 1598 . Mercoeur subsequently went to exile in Hungary. Mercoeur's daughter and heiress was married to César De Bourbon, Duc De Vendôme , an illegitimate son of king Henry. TOWARDS PEACE Some members of the League fought on, but enough Catholics were won over by the King's conversion to make the diehards increasingly isolated. The Spanish withdrew from France under the terms of the Peace Of Vervins . Henry was faced with the task of rebuilding a shattered and impoverished Kingdom. The essential first step in this was the negotiation of the Edict Of Nantes , which, rather than being a kind of genuine toleration, was in fact a kind of grudging truce between the religions, with guarantees for both sides. The Edict can be said to mark the end of the Wars of Religion. Henry IV and his advisor Sully continued the work of reconstruction and led France into a peaceful and prosperous age. CHRONOLOGY
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