French Wars of Religion

The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four million people died from violence, famine or diseases which were directly caused by the conflict; additionally, the conflict severely damaged the power of the French monarchy. The fighting ended in 1598 when Henry of Navarre, who had converted to Catholicism in 1593, was proclaimed Henry IV of France and issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights and freedoms to the Huguenots. However, the Catholics continued to have a hostile opinion of Protestants in general and they also continued to have a hostile opinion of him as a person, and his assassination in 1610 triggered a fresh round of Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s.

Tensions between the two religions had been building since the 1530s, exacerbating existing regional divisions. The death of Henry II of France in July 1559 initiated a prolonged struggle for power between his widow Catherine de' Medici and powerful nobles. These included a fervently Catholic faction led by the Guise and Montmorency families and Protestants headed by the House of Condé and Jeanne d'Albret. Both sides received assistance from external powers, Spain and Savoy supporting the Catholics, while England and the Dutch Republic backed the Protestants.

Moderates, also known as Politiques, hoped to maintain order by centralising power and making concessions to Huguenots, rather than the policies of repression pursued by Henry II and his father Francis I. They were initially supported by Catherine de' Medici, whose January 1562 Edict of Saint-Germain was strongly opposed by the Guise faction and led to the outbreak of widespread fighting in March. She later hardened her stance and backed the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris, which resulted in Catholic mobs killing between 5,000 and 30,000 Protestants throughout France.

The wars threatened the authority of the monarchy and the last Valois kings, Catherine's three sons Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. Their Bourbon successor Henry IV responded by creating a strong central state and extending toleration to Huguenots; the latter policy would last until 1685, when Henry's grandson, Louis XIV of France, revoked the Edict of Nantes.

Name and periodisation

Along with "French Wars of Religion" and "Huguenot Wars", the wars have also been variously described as the "Eight Wars of Religion", or simply the "Wars of Religion" (only within France).

The exact number of wars and their respective dates are subject to continued debate by historians: some assert that the Edict of Nantes (13 April 1598) and the Peace of Vervins (2 May 1598) concluded the wars, while the ensuing 1620s Huguenot rebellions lead others to believe the Peace of Alès in 1629 is the actual conclusion. However, the agreed upon beginning of the wars is the Massacre of Wassy in 1562, and the Edict of Nantes at least ended this series of conflicts. During this time, complex diplomatic negotiations and agreements of peace were followed by renewed conflict and power struggles.

American military historians Kiser, Drass & Brustein (1994) maintained the following divisions, periodisations and locations:
* Massacre of Vassy (1562) – Western France
* First War of Religion (1562–63) – Western and Southwestern France
* Second War of Religion (1567–68) – Western and Southwestern France
* Third War of Religion (1568–70) – Western and Southwestern France
* St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572) – Northeastern France
* Fourth War of Religion (1572–73) – Western and Southwestern France
* Fifth War of Religion (1575–76) – Western and Southwestern France
* Sixth War of Religion (1576–77) – Western and Southwestern France
* Seventh War of Religion (1580) – Western and Southwestern France
* Eighth War of Religion (1585–89) – Western and Southwestern France
* Ninth War of Religion (1589–98) – Western and Southwestern France

Both Kohn (2013) and Clodfelter (2017) followed the same counting and periodisation and noted that " War of the Three Henrys" was another name for the Eighth War of Religion, with Kohn adding "Lovers' War" as another name for the Seventh War. In her Michel de Montaigne biography (2014), Elizabeth Guild concurred with this chronology as well, except for dating the Seventh War of Religion to 1579–1580 rather than just 1580. Holt (2005) asserted a rather different periodisation from 1562 to 1629, writing of 'civil wars' rather than wars of religion, dating the Sixth War to March–September 1577, and dating the Eight War from June 1584 (death of Anjou) to April 1598 (Edict of Nantes); finally, although he didn't put a number on it, Holt regarded the 1610–1629 period as 'the last war of religion'.

Background

Introduction of Reformation ideas

Renaissance humanism began during the 14th century in Italy and arrived in France in the early 16th, coinciding with the rise of Protestantism in France. The movement emphasised the importance of '' ad fontes'', or study of original sources, and initially focused on the reconstruction of secular Greek and Latin texts. It later expanded into the reading, study and translation of works by the Church Fathers and the New Testament, with a view to religious renewal and reform. Humanist scholars argued interpretation of the Bible required an ability to read the New Testament and Old Testaments in the original Greek and Hebrew, rather than relying on the 4th century Latin translation known as the "Vulgate Bible".

In 1495, the Venetian Aldus Manutius began using the newly invented printing press to produce small, inexpensive, pocket editions of Greek, Latin, and vernacular