The Catholic League of France (), sometimes referred to by contemporary (and modern)
Catholics
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
as the Holy League (), was a major participant in the
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...
. The League, founded and led by
Henry I, Duke of Guise
Henri I de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, Prince of Joinville, Count of Eu (31 December 1550 – 23 December 1588), sometimes called ('Scarface'), was the eldest son of François, Duke of Guise, and Anna d'Este. His maternal grandparents were Ercole ...
, intended the eradication of Protestantism from Catholic France, as well as the replacement of the French
King Henry III, who had acquiesced to Protestant worship in the
Edict of Beaulieu
The Edict of Beaulieu (also known at the time as the Peace of Monsieur) was promulgated from Beaulieu-lès-Loches on 6 May 1576 by Henry III of France, who was pressured by François, Duke of Anjou, Alençon's support of the Protestant army besieg ...
(1576). The League also fought against
Henry of Navarre, the Protestant prince who became presumptive heir to the French throne in 1584.
Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V (; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death, in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order, where h ...
,
Philip II of Spain
Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...
, and the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
were all supporters of this Catholic party.
Origins

Local confraternities were initially established by French Catholics to counter the
Edict of Beaulieu
The Edict of Beaulieu (also known at the time as the Peace of Monsieur) was promulgated from Beaulieu-lès-Loches on 6 May 1576 by Henry III of France, who was pressured by François, Duke of Anjou, Alençon's support of the Protestant army besieg ...
in 1576.
King Henry III placed himself at the head of these associations as a counter-balance to the ultra-Catholic League of Peronne. Following the repudiation of that edict by the
Estates General, most of the local leagues were disbanded.
In June 1584, the illness and death of Henry III's heir
François, Duke of Anjou made the Protestant
Henry of Navarre the new heir presumptive under
Salic law
The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish Civil law (legal system), civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis I, Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is deba ...
. Faced with the prospect of a Protestant king, Catholic nobles gathered at Nancy in December 1584, and the League drew up a treaty with Philip II's ambassadors at
Joinville
Joinville () is the largest city in Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina, in the Southern Brazil, Southern Region of Brazil. It is the third largest municipality in the southern region of Brazil, after the much larger state capitals of Curitib ...
. Following this agreement, the Catholic confraternities and leagues were united as the Catholic League under the leadership of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
The Catholic League aimed to preempt any seizure of power by the
Huguenots
The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
, who made up nearly half of the
French nobility
The French nobility () was an Aristocracy, aristocratic social class in France from the France in the Middle Ages, Middle Ages until its abolition on 23 June 1790 during the French Revolution.
From 1808 to 1815 during the First French Empire, ...
, and to protect French Catholics' right to worship. The Catholic League's cause was fueled by the doctrine ''
Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
The Latin phrase (meaning 'outside the Church here isno salvation' or 'no salvation outside the Church')[House of Valois
The Capetian House of Valois ( , also , ) was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. They succeeded the House of Capet (or "Direct Capetians") to the List of French monarchs, French throne, and were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589. ...]
would weaken the Catholic position by attempting to
appease the Huguenots.
The League was also inspired by the writings of the English Catholic refugee
Richard Verstegan, who published accounts of the suffering of
English, Welsh, and
Irish Catholic Martyrs
Irish Catholic Martyrs () were 24 Irish men and women who have been beatified or canonized for both a life of heroic virtue and for dying for their Catholic faith between the reign of King Henry VIII and Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
The more ...
under the Protestant monarchy of England. In 1588, Verstegan was briefly imprisoned by
Henri III at the insistence of the English ambassador Sir
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her " spymaster".
Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wa ...
,
but soon released at the insistence of the Catholic League and the
Papal Nuncio
An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is a ...
.
By this time "the League in Paris had fallen from its first ideals into mere partisanship", and the Duke of Guise increasingly used it not only to defend the Catholic cause, but as a political tool in an attempt to
usurp
A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it a ...
the French throne.
Catholic Leaguers saw their fight against Calvinism (the primary branch of Protestantism in France) as a
Crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
against
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy.
Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...
and to defend French Catholics from Elizabethan-style persecution. The League's
pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...
eers blamed any natural disaster as God's way of punishing France for tolerating heretics.
Both the League and the hardline Calvinists scorned Henry III's attempts to mediate peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants. The League also opposed the pragmatic French
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...
s and
intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...
s known as
Politiques, who recoiled from the murderous sectarian loathing and sought a strong monarchy to rise above religious differences.
History
The League immediately began to exert pressure on King Henry III and his heir Henry of Navarre. Faced with this mounting opposition, the King canceled the
Peace of La Rochelle, re-criminalizing Protestantism and beginning a new chapter in the
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...
. However, Henry III also feared the growing power of the
Duke of Guise
Count of Guise and Duke of Guise ( , ) were titles in the French nobility.
Originally a Fiefdom, seigneurie, in 1417 Guise was erected into a county for René I of Naples, René, a younger son of Louis II of Anjou.
While disputed by the House of ...
, the head of the Catholic League. On the
Day of the Barricades
In the French Wars of Religion, the Day of the Barricades (in ), 12 May 1588, was an outwardly spontaneous public uprising in staunchly Catholic Paris against the moderate, hesitant, temporizing policies of Henry III. It was in fact called forth ...
, Henry III was forced to flee Paris, leaving Guise as de facto ruler of France. To recover the King's position, on 23 December 1588 royal guardsmen assassinated the Duke and his brother
Louis II, while the Duke's son
Charles of Lorraine was imprisoned in the
Bastille
The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a ...
.
This move did little to consolidate the King's power and enraged both the surviving Guises and their followers. The King again fled Paris to join Henry of Navarre, and began building an army to besiege the capital.
On 1 August 1589, as the two Henrys sat before the city preparing for their final assault,
Jacques Clément
Jacques Clément (1567 – 1 August 1589) was a French conspirator and the regicide of King Henry III.
Early life
He was born at Serbonnes, in today's Yonne '' département'', in Burgundy, and became a lay brother of the Third Order of S ...
, a
Dominican lay brother
Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choi ...
with ties to the League and enraged by the killing of the Duke, infiltrated the King's entourage dressed as a priest, and assassinated him. As he lay dying, the King begged Henry of Navarre to convert to Catholicism, calling it the only way to prevent further bloodshed. The King's death threw the army into disarray and Henry of Navarre was forced to lift the siege.
Although Henry of Navarre was now the legitimate King of France, the League's armies forced him to retreat south. Using arms and military advisors provided by
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...
of England, he achieved several military victories. However, he was unable to overcome the superior forces of the League, which commanded the loyalty of most Frenchmen and had the support of Philip II of Spain. On 21 November 1589 the League attempted to declare the
Cardinal of Bourbon, Henry's uncle, as king Charles X of France. However, the Cardinal was under guard by Henry's men, and he refused to usurp the throne from his nephew; he died in May 1590.
The Catholic jurist and poet
Jean de La Ceppède, a
Politique supporter of Henry of Navarre, was arrested in 1589 when
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...
fell to the League's armies. After a failed attempt to escape disguised as a shoemaker, he was released on the orders of an admirer who was a senior member of the League.
Keith Bosley
Keith Anthony Bosley (16 September 1937 – 24 June 2018) was a British poet, translator, and Presenter (radio), radio broadcaster. Born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, he studied French at university before starting his career at the BBC, where ...
(1983), ''From the Theorems of Master Jean de La Ceppède: LXX Sonnets'', p. 5.
In the
estates general of 1593
The Estates General of 1593 was a national meeting of the three orders of France that met from January to August 1593. Unlike any other Estates General of France, it was convoked without the authority of a king, at the behest of Charles, Duke of Ma ...
, the League was unable even to unite behind a single candidate for the French throne, splitting between several candidates including the Spanish princess
Isabella. The League's position was further weakened, but they still securely held Paris. The stalemate was finally ended when Henry of Navarre was received into the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
on 25 July 1593, and was welcomed into Paris as King Henry IV on 27 February 1594.
The Catholic League, now lacking the threat of a Calvinist king, continued to disintegrate. The last remaining senior leader of the League was
Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur, who, with Spanish backing, was also
fighting to restore the
political independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of a ...
of the
Duchy of Brittany
The Duchy of Brittany (, ; ) was a medieval feudal state that existed between approximately 939 and 1547. Its territory covered the northwestern peninsula of France, bordered by the Bay of Biscay to the west, and the English Channel to the north. ...
under his own rule.
With reinforcements sent from England, King Henry at last marched against the Duke of Mercœur in person, but instead received his submission, as the last remaining military leader of the Catholic League, at
Angers
Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...
on 20 March 1598. King Henry IV then assured his dynasty's future inheritance of Brittany by arranging the marriage of his illegitimate son,
César Duc de Vendôme, to Mercœur's daughter Francoise. In April 1598, the King issued the
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes () was an edict signed in April 1598 by Henry IV of France, King Henry IV and granted the minority Calvinism, Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was predominantl ...
, granting
religious toleration
Religious tolerance or religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, ...
and limited autonomy to the Huguenots, while retaining the
Catholic Church in France
The Catholic Church in France, Gallican Church, or French Catholic Church, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome. Established in the 2nd century in unbroken communion with the bishop of Rome, it was sometim ...
as the Established Church of the realm, and finally ended the civil war.
Assessment
Historian Mack Holt argues that historians have sometimes overemphasised the political role of the League at the expense of its religious and devotional character:
References
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{{Authority control
Counter-Reformation
History of Catholicism in France
Religion in the Ancien Régime
1576 establishments in France
French Wars of Religion