French Wars of Religion

V

Third French War of Religion

Both sides remained at arms during the summer of 1568, and a third war was ignited in August when Catherine and Charles, now openly allied with the Guises, attempted to arrest the Huguenot leaders, including Condé. After Catholic victories at Jarnac, in March 1569, after which Condé was executed, and at Moncontour, in October 1569, the Huguenots, now led by Gaspard de Coligny, retreated to the west and south-west to regroup. After capturing Toulouse in the spring of 1570, the Huguenots were able to open negotiations with Charles, who was hugely in debt and keen on a peaceful solution. The Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in August 1570, was favourable for the Huguenots, reconfirming the terms of the Peace of Amboise, promising an end to forced conversions to Catholicism, and granting them the right to garrison the fortresses of La Rochelle, Cognac, Montauban, and La Charité for two years.

VI

Fourth French War of Religion

In 1571, hoping to heal the rifts at Court, Charles IX took the initiative and arranged the marriage of his sister, Margaret of Valois, to his Huguenot relative, Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV), for the following summer. The marriage was also intended to divert internal tensions to the Low Countries, where the Protestant William I of Orange was organizing a revolt against a Catholic Spanish army under the Duke of Alva. Gaspard de Coligny, now advisor to Charles, convinced the king to send an army of both Huguenots and Catholics to the Low Countries in response to this destabilizing threat on their border. The plan was opposed by the Guises, and Catherine de Médicis, threatened by Coligny’s influence over the king, ordered his assassination. The attempt, on August 22, 1572, failed, and Catherine, in order to conceal her involvement from the Huguenot nobles gathering at Court for Henry of Navarre’s wedding, panicked Charles into believing a Huguenot plot existed against him and that he should liquidate their leadership. In the subsequent Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Day of August 24, 1572, Coligny and other Huguenot leaders were murdered. The bloodshed quickly spread across Paris and then into the provinces, resulting, by October, in the deaths of thousands of Huguenots (estimates vary from 2,000 to 100,000). Many thousands more were forced to convert to Catholicism, including Condé’s son and Henry of Navarre, who was imprisoned at court. The massacre provoked a fourth war, during which the Huguenot towns of Languedoc, in southern France, formed an independent federation which seized control of the province. The war, whose other principal episode was the failure of the Catholics to capture La Rochelle and Nîmes, was ended by the Edict of Boulogne in July 1573, which although allowing the Huguenots an amnesty and recognizing their freedom of belief, restricted their freedom to worship to the towns of La Rochelle, Montauban, and Nîmes, and within their own homes only.

VII

Fifth French War of Religion

Many moderate Catholics, or politiques, were appalled at the Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Day, and in the spring of 1574 a politique plot to kidnap Charles IX and Catherine de Médicis was successfully uncovered. Nevertheless, by the time Charles died in May 1574, to be succeeded by his brother, Henry III, a fifth war had broken out as Huguenots joined in a revolt by a number of politique nobles that eventually included the king's younger brother, the Duke of Anjou. The war was ended by the Edict of Beaulieu in May 1576, which, reflecting the Catholic rebels’ strength, gave the Huguenots freedom of worship in all towns except Paris, and allowed them to garrison eight fortresses.

VIII

Sixth French War of Religion

Determined to resist the edict, which they saw as too favourable to the Huguenots, extremist Catholics, under the leadership of Henri I, 3rd Duc de Guise, and supported by the Spanish Crown, formed the Holy League in 1576 and renewed the war with the Huguenots. Their incipient revolt was quickly taken over by Henry III, who took control of the Holy League. He secured the support of most of the politique nobles and forced the Huguenots to accept a return to the terms of 1570 at the Treaty of Bergerac in September 1577. Having thus revoked some of the concessions made to the Huguenots in the Edict of Beaulieu, Henry then dissolved the Holy League.

IX

Seventh French War of Religion

Royal authority disintegrated over the next few years as a multitude of noble and religious factions all attempted to further their own interests, and the peasantry registered its discontent through intermittent revolts. A seventh war broke out in 1579 and was ended at the Peace of Fleix in November 1580 (ratifying the Edict of Nérac of February 1579), which accorded the Huguenots 15 towns of safety for a period of six years and recognized all religious privileges previously granted to them.