After half a
century of
self-confident
but
inconclusive
pursuit of
military glory
in Italy,
brought to an
end by the
Treaty
of
Cateau-Cambrésis
in 1559,
France was
plunged into
another period
of devastating
internal
conflict. The
Protestant
ideas of
Luther and
Calvin had
gained
widespread
adherence
among all
classes of
society,
despite
sporadic
brutal
attempts by
François I
and Henri II
to stamp them
out.
When Catherine
de Médicis
, acting as
regent for
Henri III,
implemented a
more tolerant
policy, she
provoked
violent
reaction from
the
ultra-Catholic
faction led by
the Guise
family. Their
massacre of a
Protestant
congregation
coming out of
church in
March 1562
began a civil war
of religions
that,
interspersed
with
ineffective
truces and
accords,
lasted for the
next thirty
years.
Well
organized and
well led by
the Prince de
Condé and
Admiral
Coligny, the Huguenots
- French
Protestants -
kept their end
up very
successfully,
until Condé
was killed at
the battle of
Jarnac in
1569. Three
years later
came one of
the blackest
events in the
memory of
French
Protestants,
even today:
the massacre
of St
Bartholomew's
Day .
Coligny and
three thousand
Protestants
who had
gathered in
Paris for the
wedding of
Marguerite,
the king's
sister, to the
Protestant
Henri of
Navarre were
slaughtered at
the
instigation of
the Guises,
and the
bloodbath was
repeated
across France,
especially in
the south and
west where the
Protestants
were
strongest.
In 1584 the
king's son
died, leaving
his
brother-in-law,
Henri of
Navarre ,
heir to the
throne, to the
fury of the
Guises and
their Catholic
league, who
seized Paris
and drove out
the king. In
retaliation,
Henri III
murdered the
Duc de Guise,
and found
himself forced
into alliance
with Henri of
Navarre, whom
the pope had
excommunicated.
In 1589 Henri
III was
himself
assassinated,
leaving Henri
of Navarre to
become Henri
IV of France.
It took
another four
years of
fighting and
the abjuration
of his faith
for the new
king to be
recognized.
"Paris is
worth a
Mass", he
is reputed to
have said.
Once on the
throne Henri
IV set about
reconstructing
and
reconciling
the nation. By
the Edict
of Nantes
of 1598 the
Huguenots were
accorded
freedom of
conscience,
freedom of
worship in
certain
places, the
right to
attend the
same schools
and hold the
same offices
as Catholics,
their own
courts and the
possession of
a number of
fortresses as
a guarantee
against
renewed
attack, the
most important
being La
Rochelle and
Montpellier.
