One morning at the gates of the Louvre by

Édouard Debat-Ponsan

e li g io n
a r s of R
n c h W
Fre ruggle
of p ower b et w een

 The st e Hugue not s

and t h
at h olics
 the F rench C
 Preconditions
Growth of Calvinism

Rise of factionism

The Amboise conspiracy

Iconoclasm and civic disturbances

Death of Francis II

The Colloquy of Poissy and the Edict of Saint-
Germain
Amboise conspiracy Iconoclasm

John Calvin Francis II

preconditions continued
 Appeal of
Calvinism
• Majority of Huguenot population only in the regions of
Dauphiné and Languedoc

• 2/5 of aristocracy and 1/15 of the population

Huguenots – and strongly opposed by the more
powerful segments of French society

• Many hoped to establish principle of territorial

sovereignty (like Peace of Augsburg) = political
decentralization

• Justified and inspired political resistance

• Religious reasons weren’t the only reason to convert,

and it casted suspicion on Calvinists

• Both Calvinists and Catholics served to gain from one

another
 Arm ed procession of t he Holy League in Paris in
1590

Procession de la Ligue dans l'Ile de la Cité by François II



Bunel

Catholic League
Catherine de’ Medici and the

• 1562 – issued January Edict which allowed

Protestants to worship publicly outside of towns and
privately within them

• March 1562 – thrown comes under Guise control

Guises

• April 1562 – March 1563 First War = Hesse and

Palatinate troops fought with the Huguenots

• 1567-1568 conflict resumes; bloodiest in 1568-1670;

Condé killed and Huguenot leadership goes to
Coligny

• Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye ends third war

• Royal family sides with Huguenots while Catherine

plots with Guise

• St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre was to ‘stop a

Protestant coup’
 Franco-Gallia by François Hotman (1573)

Theodore Beza wrote the On the

Right of Magistrates over Their
Subjects (1574)

Classical
Defense of Liberty
Huguenot theories of
against Tyrants by resistance
Philippe du Plessis
Mornay (1579)

The Rise to Power
of Henry of
Navarre
 Henry III and Henry IV both
were politiques – valued the
political unity of France over
religious unity
 Peace of Beaulieu (May
1576) allowed Huguenots
almost complete religious
and political freedom
 Henry III was forced to
truncate it by the Catholic
League
 Henry of Navarre was legal
heir to the throne through St
Louis IX and leader of the
Protestants
 Day of the Barricades 1588 -
Henry III attempted to rout
the League with a surprise
attack
 Henry III killed the Guise duke
and cardinal and had to
make an alliance with Henry
of Navarre
 Henry III assassinated and
Henry of Navarre comes
into power
 25 July 1593 – “Paris is worth
the mass”
 1598 – Catholic League
dispersed, ties with Spain
severed, and religious wars
were ‘over’
 O

immigrated to other countries, crushing the

Protestants could publicly worship and gained

18 Oct. 1685 Louis XIV revokes the edict and

French thinker began to doubt churches that
claimed to have the only correct doctrine
The Edict of Nantes

The Huguenots would not gain back any of

ut

their rights until the French Revolution

took away all the Protestants liberties

Thereafter 400 thousand Huguenots

Ended wars and fixed many broken treaties
as well as making new ones
co
m
Special courts established and parliament
dealt with problems from Edict

e/I
Universities in Montauban, Montpellier,
Sedan and Saumer allowed to be
Huguenots and 100 cities given to

French economy
m
Huguenots for 8 years

full civil rights

Represented by Pope Clement VII, French


catholic clergy, and French parliament
pa
Queen Margot video
ct
Henry 4 video
