The French Wars of Religion Note
- Explanations for the outbreak and continuation of civil war
- The monarchy: Francis II; Charles IX; Henry III; Catherine de Medici
- Structural problems: nance and the economy; particularism; government and
administration
- The nobility; powers and independence; rivalries
- Huguenotism; strengths and distribution
- Foreign intervention
- Pattern of the wars and attempts to achieve peace; critical events, the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew’s Day; the role of Paris
Past Questions
1) With what justi cation can the civil strife in France in the second half of the sixteenth
century be regarded as ‘wars of religion’? (2010
2) How effectively did the French monarchy deal with the challenge of the Huguenots in
the period 1559–1610? (2011
3) To what extent was the weakness of the monarchy the principal cause of the civil wars
in France between 1559 and 1598? (2012
4) Why did the Civil Wars in France last so long? (2014
5) What best explains the survival of the Huguenots in France in the later sixteenth
century? (2015
6) How important were the nobles in bringing about the Civil War in France? (2016
Background Cause
1) Religio
Early Protestantism in Franc
Luther’s writing entered France under Francis I, and were able to circulate freely for a year before
being condemned by the Sorbonne in April 1521. Even after that, Francis I refused to accept even
the Sorbonne’s de nition of heresy if it clashed with his personal inclinations and the
encouragement he liked to give to the New Learning. His indecisiveness allowed Lutheranism to
take root and after 1530 it was to be found in almost every province
The Affair of the Placards (night in October 1534, when Protestant placards attacking the Mass
were publicly displayed in several towns) ended Francis’ policy of religious toleration. The Affair
showed how French Protestant were closer to Zwingli than Luther and clari ed the battle lines
between orthodoxy and dissent
The Edict of Fontainebleau (June 1540) handed control of heresy cases to parlements, increasing
the ow of repressive legislation
Under Henry II, the “Chambre ardente" was set up in 1547 specially to deal with heretics,
sentencing more than 500 in the rst three years of the reign. In 1547 death became the only
penalty judges could award for heresy
Religion under Henry II and his son
France bordered Switzerland which was full of Protestants. This allowed missionaries and
pamphlets to circulate easily in France
By 1555, there were fully-established Calvinist churches in Paris, Meaux, Angers and Poitiers,
which were sending out missionaries
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,Between 1555 and 1562, Geneva sent 88 missionaries to France to help organise the new church.
These missionaries were vetted by the Venerable Company
These Calvinist missionaries helped to create a centralised organisation
May 1558: Jean Maçar (minister of the reformed church in Paris) said to Calvin “The re is lit in all
parts of this kingdom and all the waters in the sea will not suf ce to extinguish it.
There were 2 million Huguenots by 1560 (12% of the population) in around 1,200 churches. By this
time, around one third of the French nobility had become Calvinists
Most Protestants were to be found south of the Loire and in Normandy. The fact that Calvin sent
more missionaries to certain towns then to whole provinces shows his success among the urban
middle-classes. Calvinism made little headway in the north-east where the Guises and
Montmorency were powerful
In March 1560, the second national Synod prepared for political action at the next meeting of the
Estates General, drawing up a memorandum casting doubt on the right of the Guises to serve as
the king’s advisors and appointed a group of representatives to work secretly at court. They were
applying political pressure on the king
In 1561, Calvin stepped up operations to France as Catherine showed a willingness to come to
terms with the Huguenots
Conversions have been ascribed to anti-clericalism and women, who were often attracted early on
to Calvinism. However, clients often changed their religion in line with their lord (e.g. the conversion
of the Count of Montgomery in Normandy prompted ve families to convert too, and the ckle
Count Lude’s clients also changed religion whenever he did. Calvin appreciated the impact of
clientage on religious conversion and attached great importance to winning over the nobility
Condé converted in 1558 and became the political leader of the Huguenots. The Châtillon brothers
converted, as did Anthony of Navarre in 1557 (although he continued to celebrate mass)
Analysis of the role of religion in causing the Wars of Religio
Recent emphasis has been on religion rather than on political or economic concerns
The Guises urged Henry II and Francis II to rid France of Protestantism. Thus factional struggle
became caught up with religious strife
Religion extended the con ict beyond the nobility and into the towns and countryside. Towns where
Calvinists were powerful looked to the Bourbons or Châtillons to provide armed help where
necessary. This meant that by 1560, French Protestantism had assumed a distinctly military air,
with local noblemen and clients of the Bourbons and Châtillons agreeing to act as protectors of
nearby communities
Koenigsberger: Religion was the binding force which made possible the development of
revolutionary parties of a distinctly modern kind. Earlier oppositions had almost always been limited
to one social class or region. Only religion could unite the divergent interests of nobles, bourgeoisie
and peasants over an area as large as France and cause nationwide con ict
Between 1555 and 1562, there were many plots against the French government all of which
involved Geneva in some way. For example, the Tumult of Amboise's (March 1560) chief
conspirator La Renaudie had visited Geneva beforehand to try and win the support of the
Venerable Company, which Calvin refused because Navarre was not involved
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, Condé stopped in Geneva in 1555 on the way home from a military campaign in Italy and asked to
hear a sermon. It seems that he was interested in Calvinism from an early date and that this may
not have been entirely a matter of political convenience
The Huguenots set themselves apart from the rest of society by their sombre clothes, abstentions
from popular festivities and high moral conduct
They also disrupted Catholic services and desecrated the host and religious images. Such attacks
were seen by Catholics as a threat to the entire community - 16th century France “did not
distinguish between the moral order and the natural world; an attack on a church or shrine seemed
bound to arouse God’s wrath, which might be expressed as a plague or ood” (Knecht
Hostility to the Huguenots was also in some cases a reaction to their risings in the rst two civil
wars, which had been followed by attacks on churches and by measures that discriminated against
Catholics
Religion offered people the hope of personal salvation. Religion was not merely a cloak used by
the great aristocratic families to give respectability to their pursuit of power
Holt emphasises the role of religion in a social rather than in a doctrinal sense. It was not
necessarily the intricate doctrinal details of the eucharist that mattered but the centrality of belief
and faith within the community. Thus Catholics viewed Huguenots as seditious rebels. This is
evidenced by the peace treaties that followed each war. None of the clauses discussed
transubstantiation or doctrine, but rather where and when Huguenot worship could take place
Whilst many nobles adopted Calvinism for material gain, local studies show that the advent of
Protestantism severely shook communities of believers throughout France and undermined the
Gallican principles upon which stability rested
2) Nobilit
There was a build up of faction. Mary Queen of Scots, a Guise, was married to Francis II, so the
Guise family gained control of the government (to the upset of the Bourbons and the
Montmorency). The Guises persuaded Francis to deprive Montmorency of all his of ces and give
them control of the army, church affairs and foreign policy. Within three days of Francis’ accession,
the English ambassador reported “the house of Guise ruleth and doth all about the French king”
The ghting centred around the three great noble families
- Montmorency (oldest noble family with great loyalty to the crown, the head Anne was Catholic
but his nephews (e.g. Coligny) were Huguenots, had lands in the centre of France). The
Châtillon brothers (Coligny (admiral of France), Dandelot (colonel-general of the infantry) and
Cardinal Ôdet) were closely related to Montmorency and had done well under Henry II, although
badly under Francis I. Few of Montmorency’s male relatives went into the Church, which
enabled Guise to gain control of the upper clergy
- Guise (their relative Mary was married to Francis II, royal favourites with diverse ecclesiastical
holdings and international in uence, staunchly Catholic, lands in the east). Their interests were
more closely linked to those of the Valois by the marriage of Mary Stuart to the Dauphin Francis
and by Francis of Guise’s marriage to Anna d’Este, granddaughter of Louis XII of France.
Francis of Guise’s success in taking Calais from the English in only eight days won military glory
for his house, and his brother Charles (Cardinal of Lorraine) built up an extensive ecclesiastical
clientele and was an arch-pluralist (gaining the abbey of St Denis, the richest bene ce in France
that was normally reserved for members of the royal family), obtaining an income of 300,000
livres a year
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