French Wars of Religion: A Visual History

The French Wars of Religion (1562-1598) were a series of eight civil wars between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots that killed 2 to 4 million people through fighting, massacre, famine and disease. Sparked by the massacre of Vassy in March 1562, they were driven by the weakness of the crown under Catherine de' Medici's sons and the rivalry of the Guise, Bourbon and Montmorency families. The St Bartholomew's Day massacre of August 1572 killed thousands of Huguenots; the War of the Three Henrys ended with the murders of the Duke of Guise (1588) and Henry III (1589). The Protestant Henry of Navarre became Henry IV, converted to Catholicism in 1593, and issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598 granting Huguenots toleration.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

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Estimated Huguenot share of France's population

Timeline of the French Wars of Religion

1. 1562
   Massacre of Vassy; first war
2. 1572
   St Bartholomew's Day massacre24 August.
3. 1576
   Catholic League formed
4. 1587
   Coutras
5. 1588
   Day of the Barricades; Guise murdered
6. 1589
   Henry III assassinated; Henry IV king
7. 1593
   Henry IV converts
8. 1598
   Edict of Nantes; Peace of Vervins

Vassy to St Bartholomew

Calvinism had won perhaps a tenth of France, including many nobles, by 1560. Catherine de' Medici, regent for the boy Charles IX, tried toleration; the Duke of Guise's men killed Huguenot worshippers at Vassy in 1562 and war began. Three wars, the deaths of Guise (assassinated 1563) and Conde (killed 1569), and the Peace of Saint-Germain (1570) led to the marriage of Henry of Navarre to the king's sister in August 1572. Days later, after a failed attempt on Admiral Coligny, the king and Catherine ordered the Huguenot leaders killed; Paris mobs slaughtered about 3,000 and provincial massacres killed perhaps 10,000 more.

The Catholic League and the Three Henrys

Henry III (1574-1589) faced the ultra-Catholic League led by Henry, Duke of Guise, backed by Spain, and the Huguenots led by Henry of Navarre, heir to the throne after 1584. Navarre won at Coutras (1587); Guise entered Paris in triumph on the Day of the Barricades (1588) and drove the king out; Henry III had Guise and his brother murdered at Blois in December 1588, and was himself stabbed by a monk in August 1589 while besieging Paris with Navarre.

Henry IV

Henry IV won at Arques and Ivry (1590) but could not take Paris, which the League held with Spanish help through starvation. Recognising that France would not accept a Protestant king, he abjured in July 1593 ('Paris is worth a Mass'), was crowned at Chartres and entered Paris in 1594. He fought Spain to the Peace of Vervins (1598) and in April 1598 issued the Edict of Nantes: liberty of conscience, worship in specified places, garrisoned towns and equal civil rights for Huguenots. He was assassinated by a Catholic fanatic in 1610; Louis XIV revoked the Edict in 1685.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Kingdom of France (Middle Ages) (987 to 1498)
• Spanish Empire (1492 to 1976)
• Holy Roman Empire (800 to 1806)
• First French colonial empire (1534 to 1814)
• Danish colonial empire (1536 to 1953)
• Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 to 1795)

Wars of the same era and region

• Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt) (1568 to 1648)
• Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1648)
• Northern Wars (1554 to 1721)

8 surprising things about the French Wars of Religion

1. Pope Gregory XIII had a Te Deum sung and a medal struck to celebrate the St Bartholomew's Day massacre.
2. Henry IV changed religion at least five times in his life.
3. 'Paris is worth a Mass' is attributed to Henry IV but was probably invented by his enemies.
4. The wars produced the first modern political theorists of resistance and toleration, the 'monarchomachs' and Bodin.
5. Catherine de' Medici was accused of poisoning enemies with gloves; the legend is unproven.
6. Henry III's assassin, the Dominican Jacques Clement, was hailed as a martyr by the League.
7. The Edict of Nantes was the first grant of religious toleration by a major European monarchy.
8. The Huguenot exodus after 1685 took skilled weavers and craftsmen to England, Prussia and South Africa.

Sources

• Wars of Religion Encyclopaedia Britannica
• French Wars of Religion Wikipedia
• French Wars of Religion World History Encyclopedia
• Mack P. Holt, The French Wars of Religion 1562-1629 (1995) Cambridge University Press

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