French Wars of Religion

The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between Protestant Huguenots and the Catholic kings between 1562 and 1598. How did religious differences lead to such bloodshed? Was there a winner or a loser? This article will explore these questions and offer a better understanding of the circumstances of these terrible wars.

Fig. 1 Battle of Moncontour 1570

Causes of the French Wars of Religion

French kings believed that they were God's representatives on Earth, making them divine. This role meant that they had to safeguard their people against heresy. The king also controlled all French Church appointments, shifting the loyalty of priests to the king over the Church and religion. Therefore, there was no separation between Church and State. These royal appointments were more political than spiritual, leading to resentment from the French. New Protestant ideas from Martin Luther and John Calvin used this resentment to further their religious agenda.

Both political and religious reasons caused the wars. Protestant nobility led the resistance movement against an unstable monarchy produced by a series of three very young, weak kings due to King Henri II's untimely death in 1559. The kings could not stick to a steady religious policy despite the Protestant threat. The nobles took advantage of the monarchy's weakness to push forward their own political and religious agendas.

Social justice and religious fervor incited the common people to revolt. The nobility abused the peasant class by demanding more taxes and more labor from them, such as repairing roads in addition to their regular duties. The Catholic Church also ordered that peasants pay them ten percent of their income in tithes. Militant Calvinism offered an outlet to vent their frustration by smashing symbols of the Catholic faith, such as stained-glass windows and statues of saints. The Catholics responded with bloodshed.

Fig. 2 The Siege of La Rochelle (1573)

Effects of the French Wars of Religion

The Wars resulted in a devastating loss of life on the Catholic and Protestant sides. In addition, they wrecked the French economy and caused even greater divides between the upper and lower classes. This wealth divide caused even more social tensions. Some historians argue that these social divides led to the French Revolution in 1789.

Attempts at religious unity gave way to compromise with the Edict of Nantes, which made France officially Catholic but offered tolerance to Protestants. However, this was only the case in certain areas. Cities like Paris banned Protestant worship altogether. However, the Edict did not remove the Catholic majority's prejudice against Huguenots. Persecution against the minority religion continued, and in 1685 King Louis XIV revoked the Edict, demanding Catholic unity in France.

Politically, the Wars led a group of moderates called politiques to realize that the only way to achieve peace was to strengthen the monarchy. King Henri IV successfully stabilized the royal treasury and paid off the Crown's war debts, allowing France to regain its status as a powerful State. His reforms caused the rise of absolutism in France, strengthening the Crown's power for the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV.

Fig. 3 One Morning at the Gates of the Louvre by Édouard Debat-Ponsan, 1880

Summary of the French Wars of Religion

Protestantism, especially the sect led by Jean Calvin, exploded in popularity in the early sixteenth century. One potential reason was the proximity of Southern France to Calvin's stronghold in Geneva, allowing missionaries easy access to potential converts. By 1559, approximately one-tenth of French people were Calvinists. Calvinists, called Huguenots in France, fundamentally disagreed with Catholicism, especially on the use of sacred images and Communion. They began to assert their religious differences in 1534 publically.

The true origins of the name Huguenots are still unclear. One theory is that they were named after Besançon Hughes, a French reformer based in Geneva with Jean Calvin.

Timeline of the French Wars of Religion

• 1534: The Affair of the Placards. French Calvinists organized and issued a storm of anti-Catholic pamphlets posted all over Paris, including the king's bedchamber. This act infuriated King Francis I, and he declared Calvinism a heresy. In addition, the Affair caused the king to see Protestantism as a threat to the body politic and his authority.

• 1551: The Edict of Châteaubriand made Protestant gatherings illegal, offered incentives to informers of Protestant locations, and punished those who sheltered Huguenots.

• 1559: King Henri II died accidentally at his tournament, leaving his 15-year-old son Francis II as king.

• 1560: The Huguenot Louis, Prince of Conde, attempted to kidnap Francis II to get him away from the influence of his influential uncles, the Guises. Francis died the same year. His eleven-year-old brother Charles XI was named king, with his mother, Catherine de Medici, as regent until he came of age.

• 1572: Queen Catherine sought to maintain peace in France and negotiated a marriage alliance between her daughter Marguerite and the Huguenot Henry IV, King of Navarre. The wedding invitation stipulated that Huguenots should attend unarmed. However, the Catholics did not. On August 24, 1572, the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre occurred in Paris. Catholics slaughtered more than 2,000 Huguenots that day and the five days that followed.

War of the Three Henrys, 1585-1589

Henry III's brother's death in 1584 and the rise of the Catholic League's power led to what Historian Mack Holt calls "the longest and bloodiest of all the civil wars."¹ The major players in this war were King Henry III, Henry of Navarre IV, and Henry I, Duke of Guise, founder of the Catholic League.

• 1584: When his brother died, there were no more male heirs to become king after the childless Henry III. The next in line for the Crown was a cousin, the Protestant Henry IV of Navarre. The Catholic League mobilized to stop his succession.
• 1585: The Catholic League pressured Henry III to remove Henry of Navarre from the line of succession and make the Cardinal de Bourbon his heir in the Treaty of Nemours. The Treaty also removed all Huguenot protection. In response, civil war broke out again.

• May 12, 1588, The Day of the Barricades: The Sixteen leaders of the Catholic League seized Paris and the government from Henry III. The king and his mother, Queen Catherine, fled the city.
• December 23, 1588: The king invited Henry, Duke of Guise, to a meeting where he was ambushed by the king's guards and killed. Instead of gaining control over the Catholic League with its leader's death, the murder caused the opposite response. The League turned even more against Henry III.
• 1589: In desperation, Henry III joined forces with Henry of Navarre against the Catholic League. They negotiated a truce with the Huguenots and focused on retaking Paris. But unfortunately, Henry III's murder stopped their progress in its tracks. Henry of Navarre became King Henry IV, unrecognized by the League.
• September 1589-1591: Henry IV won significant victories against the League and laid siege to Paris for four months without success.
• 1593: Henry IV changed his religion to Catholicism, eliminating the League's primary reason for existence. The League fell apart, and Henry took the French throne.

Fig. 6 Frans Pourbus the Younger

The Edict of Nantes: April 1598

The Edict of Nantes ended the French Wars of Religion. It granted religious freedom to the Huguenots but kept the official religion Catholic. It allowed co-existence between Catholic and Protestant faiths but was not intended to provide a permanent solution to the faith divide in France. The ultimate goal, according to historian Mack Holt was still religious unity. However, it allowed religious pluralism and brought peace to France for nearly a century.