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What happened to the French Wars of Religion

The French War of Religion (les Guerres de religion) (1562-1598, or 1559-1594), also known as the Huguenot War/Huguenot War.

In the 1540s, Calvinism began to spread in France, known as Huguenots. The great feudal nobles in southern France believed in Calvinism and attempted to use the Reformation Movement to achieve the purpose of seizing church property. They had a profound conflict of interest with the great feudal aristocrats who believed in Catholicism and had a tendency to split, which eventually evolved into a long civil war. Eighth successive violent confrontations between Catholics and Protestants wreaked havoc on sixteenth-century France. Henry IV promulgated the Edict of Nantes for religious tolerance in 1598, and the 30-year-old Huguenot War has since ended.

Although the Huguenot War had obvious religious overtones, in its nature and content it was a civil war in France. The war once caused the rising monarchy to collapse, the aristocratic separatist forces rose, and France fell into a period of anarchy. But the result of the war is that Catholics and Huguenots have their own gains, which helps to reinvigorate and strengthen the kingship, and creates conditions for the unity of the nation-state and the revival of the economy. However, the Edict of Nantes failed to completely resolve religious conflicts and had its limitations.

The war

The First time

(1562–1563)

It began on March 1, 1562, when the Duke of Guise, François de Lorraine, was passing near the town of Vascy, and found that Protestants violated the king’s prohibition to do Protestant ceremonies in the city. He thought this was a blatant challenge to him, Immediately ordered an attack on the banned Protestants, killing and wounding nearly 200 people. The “Vasi Town Massacre” became the direct trigger of the Huguenot War, which lasted for more than 30 years.

The troops on both sides were small, and they both relied on foreign powers in the war, the Catholics relied on Spain;

In December 1562, Montmorency, the Catholic general of the First World War in Dreux, was captured, and Marshal Saint Andrew was killed in battle.

In February 1563, the Duke of Guise was assassinated during the siege of Orleans. Condé was also captured at Dreux, and Antoine, king of Navarre, died at the siege of Rouen.

In March 1563, the Queen Mother Catherine de’ Medici issued the Edict of Amboise, granting Protestants freedom of belief and freedom to hold religious ceremonies in designated areas.

The Second time (1567–1568)

In September 1567, Condé and Coligny led the Protestant army to abduct the Queen Mother and Charles IX unsuccessfully and surrounded Paris. On November 10, in the battle of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, the two sides were tied. The German Protestant electors sent troops to the Huguenots, and the Catholics and the court succumbed.

In 1568, the two sides signed the Treaty of Lonjumo, which reaffirmed the Edict of Amboise.

The Third time (1569–1570)

In September 1568, under the pressure of the Catholic Church, Charles IX revoked the Edict of Religious Tolerance previously issued, prohibiting the Huguenots from holding any religious ceremony, all officials and judges must swear allegiance to the Catholic Church, and Protestant priests must After leaving France, the third war between the two sides broke out.

August 1568: Arrest of Protestant leader Louis I de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. In March 1569, the Catholic army defeated the Protestant army at Jarnac, and Condé was killed. On October 3, at the Battle of Moncontour, Coligny was defeated again. In August 1570, the Queen Mother Catherine signed the Edict of Saint-Germain, giving Protestants freedom of worship and the power to appoint governors in several fortified safe areas.

The Fourth time (1572–1573)

On the night of August 23-24, 1572, important figures of the Huguenots were gathering in Paris to celebrate the wedding of their leader, Henry of the Bourbons. Henri Guise (the son of the Duke of Guise), with the bells of Paris churches, led an army to launch a surprise attack, killing more than 2,000 Huguenots. Since the 24th was St. Bartholomew’s Day, the bloody night was historically known as the St. Bartholomew’s Massacre, which intensified the confrontation.

After this massacre, France once again fell apart. The Huguenots first formed a federal republic in the south and west against the central power.

In June 1573, Charles IX signed the Peace of La Rochelle, allowing Protestants to hold ordinances in La Rochelle, Nimes and Montauban, giving these cities freedom of belief.

The Fifth time (1574–1576)

In 1574 the Protestant leader Henry I de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and Henry of Navarre fled the court.

In May 1574, the Protestant Church revolted. The Languedoc was formally divided under the leadership of the original governor, the Earl of Danville.

In 1575, the Protestants launched a general uprising, and all the Huguenots mobilized to avenge the massacre on St. Bartholomew’s Night.

In May 1576, Henry III signed the Edict of Beaulieu, condemning the massacre on the night of St. Bartholomew, agreeing to honor the dead, and all French cities, except Paris and the royal residence, have the right to hold Protestant ceremonies. The decree also gave Huguenots the right to hold public office, allowing them to occupy eight cities with political and military advantages, to establish mixed judicial institutions in the cities, and to set up special courts in the High Court to ensure fair debate. The Edict of Beaulieu effectively recognized the territories occupied by the Huguenots as “a state within a state.”

The Sixth time (1576–1577)

The Edict of Beaulieu caused strong dissatisfaction among Catholics. In 1576, Guise organized the “Catholic Holy Alliance” in the north, levied taxes, recruited troops, demanded the restoration of the kingdom’s religious unity, refused to implement the edict, and the war between the two factions started again. During the war, the Huguenots suffered a major setback, with La Chaliday in the center and Bruja in the west falling into the hands of the Catholic League.

In September 1577, the two factions concluded the “Peace of Bergerac”, which stipulated the dissolution of the Catholic League and the restriction of the freedom and rights granted to Protestants by the Edict of Beaulieu. Protestants can only hold religious ceremonies in one city in each district and their own safe zone, which they have only 6 years of control over.

The Seventh time (?–1580)

1579–1580: Begins with the dissolution of the Holy League by Henry III. Finally, the Treaty of Fleix was signed, and it was agreed that the Protestants would have the right to dominate the fortified safe area for 6 years.

November 26, 1580: Peace of Fleix.

February 28, 1579: Edict of Nérac.

The Eighth time (1584–1593)

Beginning in 1585, the “Battle of Three Henrys” began in France. The leaders of the parties were King Henry III, Henry the Duke of Guise, and Henry of the House of Bourbons.

In 1585, Henry, Duke of Guise, obtained the support of King Philip II of Spain and reorganized the Catholic League in Nantes, and cities such as Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Dijon and so on were all attached. At the same time, King Henry III of France revoked two edicts of reconciliation. The Huguenots had to fight under the banner of King Henry of Navarre of the House of Bourbons, supported by the Protestant princes of England and Germany.

On October 20, 1587, Protestant troops defeated the Catholic Confederates at Kutra. The Guise brothers soon also devastated the Huguenot army.

In May 1588, Paris, under the control of the Catholic League, welcomed the Duke of Guise into the city and surrounded the Louvre, the royal residence. King Henry fled Paris and signed the edict of the League in Rouen, meeting all the requirements of the Catholic sect. In December of the same year, the King’s Guard assassinated Henri I de Lorraine, 3rd Duke of Guise, and his brother, Louis II de Guise, 2nd Cardinal of Guise. After hearing the news in Paris

A riot broke out and a new regime headed by the fourth Duke of Guise was established. Henry III, attacked by old and new sects, allied himself with the king of Navarre.

On August 1, 1589, Henry III was assassinated, a fanatical priest, and King Henry of Navarre became King Henry IV of France. But Catholics refused to admit it, and the civil war continued to burn. Henry IV had successive military victories, but was unable to invade Paris. Given that more than 90% of the French population is Catholic, Henry IV converted to Catholicism on July 25, 1593 at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. The doors of Paris thus opened for him. Six days later, the two factions of the old and new religions reached a three-month truce agreement.

On March 22, 1594, Henry IV triumphantly entered Paris and received a grand welcome. In the following four years, various places surrendered, and Henry IV drove away the Spanish army that had invaded France in the melee.

In 1598, Henry IV issued the Amnesty of the South, finally ending the war that lasted more than three decades.