French Wars of Religion, Parts One, Two, and Three

French Wars of Religion:

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Transcript:

Welcome back. I hope you all enjoyed hearing the story of the least impressive of the passed in this series, at least in my humble opinion. This week it’s time to look at religion. I do want to remind you all before I start that I have started a YouTube channel if that’s your preferred listening method, there will also be additional content on there coming soon. I want to be very clear that I’m not an expert on religion, I’m relying on those with far more expertises than I could imagine having. Saying that, I love reading about religion and this period, the rise of Lutheranism and the other reform religions and the Catholic church’s response to this change. My sources for this episode, at least the first bit are the Encyclopaedia Britannica, because I can only read so many books on religion and I really wanted the first bit to be a simple rundown of Christianity. I’ve also looked through the Catholic Encyclopaedia, which is freely available online and I recommend giving it a look if you want more information about the Catholic church in general. Once we get to the events in France I’ll be using a lot of the same resources from my episode. That’s because Antoine de Bourbon comes up a lot in little snippets during the start of this period.  So, again, these are Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France by Kathleen Wellman, The Age of Catherine de Medici by J.E. Neale, Frederic J Baumgartner’s Radical Reactionaries: the political thought of the French catholic league, and two books called the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, one by Barbara B. Diefendorf, and the other by Arlette Jouanna. Any other websites I use will be included in links in the show notes. 

To be clear on any bias, since I think it’s important to acknowledge and to examine, I was raised in a non-religious, but culturally Christian household. Despite not being religious myself it would be unfair to even try to claim that this reduces my bias. My mother did try to make church a part of our family but my sisters and I were never very interested in it. My father’s family is Wesleyan and my mother’s is Presbyterian, but neither are publicly religious themselves. But my childhood was steeped in Christianity, I grew up in an area that was moderately religious, and my parents both grew up in the deep south an area known for its religiosity. I also live in a country that had ongoing sociopolitical issues dealing with Evangelical Christianity in a traditionally Buddhist country. If anything my experiences make me more bias, to just wave away the political and religious events of this time period as ancient superstition from uneducated people who couldn’t see outside of their religious bubble. And, that’s really unfair of me and something I will try to avoid. Throughout writing this episode I have reminded myself that the people I’m talking about are just as intelligent as me and plenty were more educated than I am, though, sadly most were illiterate. They just didn’t have the option not to be religious. Honestly, until November 1859 not believing in a god, higher being, or creator was a pretty big leap to make. Yes, I’m aware that there isn’t a creator in Buddhism, but there are powerful individuals stuck in samsara, the cycle of rebirth. There’s one other important thing I want to avoid in this episode, assume that my listener knows anything about Christianity. Only 2.4 billion people on planet earth are Christian, which means about 5 billion aren’t. Even those who are Christian don’t necessarily know the history of their religion. So, I’m going to make sure to explain the basics that are important as I go. To those who know Christianity, Catholicism, or the Reformation this will be a bit of a review. 

With that, here is a quick history of Catholicism. Just in case you’re not aware the foundation of the Catholic church was the teachings of Jesus to his disciples. Jesus was a man likely born between 6 and 4 BCE (did you hear what I did there?), who was executed by the…wait? You all know who Jesus was? Okay, I’ll speed up a little. Jesus’ disciples had been instructed to carry on his message, the first pope was Peter, Saint Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples. In theory each pope elected since him is a direct successor to Peter and therefor Jesus. As you might know there have been more than a few times there has been an antipope or even multiple antipopes at the same time as the canonical pope. So, this whole, only one successor to Jesus thing, is a bit of a stretch, but oddly, not what the French Wars of Religion were about. Due to Christians being required to renounce other gods, they were often persecuted in the Roman Empire. Some decided that their faith wasn’t enough during this period and renounced their beliefs, this actually lead to early schisms within the Church. I will mention, in what I think is one of the more humours allegations, Christians were accused of being cannibals or incestious. The former is due to the eucharist, the consuming of the blood and body of Christ in the form of wine and a wafer. The latter is because Christians described themselves as brother and sisters in Christ. I guess it’s only humours if you’re not being persecuted. 

(If you hear this you are listening to an AI stolen copy of this Passed episode. Please visit passedpod.com for links to this show by it’s creator, Veronica Fortune)

Things changed for the early Church in 312 when Constantine, the Roman Emperor, associated his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge to Christianity. Prior to the battle Constantine had dreamt that his forces would be protected if he fought under the banner of Jesus. We don’t know exactly what banner was used, but he won the battle, so Jesus or good battle strategy? With the adoption of Christianity by the emperor Christianity became the state religion. This whole, what the king or emperor or even duke, in some cases, worships everyone else worships will be an important theme throughout this episode. If you’re interested, for the Roman Imperial period this had been the case, state religion was just how things were done. One emperor, Elagabalus, even tried to change the state religion of Rome, from the pantheon of the state gods to the primary worship of one god, Elagabal in 220 CE (oh, the other gods were still there, just not as important). I’m not going to go through this, but it was pretty disastrous for his rule, he was assassinated in 222. Unlike Elagabalus Constantine’s change went much better, Constantine died at old-ish age, so that’s a win for him. Constantine did, though, need to make sure everyone was worshipping the same way. This was a Roman thing. If the gods weren’t respected correctly then the gods wouldn’t support the state, change gods to one god, and you can see where this was going. Until this point Christianity had contained plenty of philosophy and thought that was spread between the various groups of practitioners. These communities could be spread out and could often have very different thoughts on the nature and person of Jesus and further the relation of Jesus to god. Bishops would meet to discuss what they should be teaching their flock, but there weren’t concrete rules and regulations within the religion. That would just never do now that Christianity was the religion of the Roman State. 

How did Constantine deal with this? Well, he called all those bishops, or at least 1,800 of them, to Nicaea in 325. It looks like fewer than 350 of those invited attended. I’m guessing this has something to do with travel being a little more difficult then than it is now, though Constantine did pay for travel costs, I wonder what his per diem was? This council, creatively named the Council of Nicaea, it’s usually called the First Council of Nicaea today, but they really thought they’d sort out all of Christianity in one fell swoop. In case you’re curious, the Catholic Church recognises 21 official ecumenical counsels. This counsel sorted out the nature of Jesus, this has a lot to do with his divinity. I’m going to save the other things that were discussed for my Anti-Pope episodes. They did sort out the proper time of year to celebrate Easter, which is great, I think. What they didn’t do was important, they didn’t decide the biblical canon, that had actually already been, mostly, sorted out. Remember, the religion had been around for almost 300 years at this point. There was one minor attempt to bring back the pantheon, but in general the religion of the Roman Empire was Christianity. 

For the Western Empire, basically what one would think of when saying Western Europe today, this meant that when the Roman West ‘fell’ (I hope you all heard those air quotes) in 476 the church was still there. Even in England there had been Roman churches, which fell into disuse due to, migratory and political changes (wow, that is just hiding a lot of complexity). Converting the kings of the successor states of the Roman Empire was one of its big goals. In France this was achieved with Clovis I, who had been born a pagan, and then converted to Arian Christianity (oh, and Arian Christianity will be explained later, but it was heretical to Catholic Christians, it’s a bit of a long story I’m saving for later episodes). His Wife, Clotilde was a Nicene Christian, Nicene Christianity will eventually fracture into various churches you may know today, the Catholic Church, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Clotilde was a convincing woman, and Clovis came around to her way of thinking and was baptised into the Nicene Church in 496. This conversion has a huge influence not just on the spread of Christianity throughout western Europe, but specifically, the church that will eventually become the Catholic Church we know today. Both Clovis and Clotilde are saints, Clovis exclusively in the Catholic faith of France, he’s not actually officially canonised or even beatified, and Clotilde in all major branches of Christianity. From here on it’s good to think of two ways of Christianity spreading through two routes, war and preaching (I’m including marriage in preaching and I’ll explain why in a moment). The former is for example, when a Christian king took over territory, those in that territory were often ‘persuaded’ to convert to Christianity. The preaching route was often lead by monks and missionaries, plus, wives. Yes, bishops would often see the daughters of kings or other high ranking men as a great way to convert a pagan king. They would send these daughters as brides, and part of the retinue of these women would include a priest. Gregory  I, the Great, was a pope from 590-604 was a big fan of the preaching route, missionaries were his thing. Clovis’ great-granddaughter, Bertha, married the pagan Old English king, Aethelberht of Kent in 580. French princesses had a certain cache as brides and she was promised she’d be allowed to practice her faith. She brought her chaplain with her and the two of them softened the entry for Augustine of Canterbury, who would help begin the reconversion of England. 

The Roman Christianity of Constantine started showing signs of disagreement in the 720s. The eastern leaders began a process called Iconoclasm, or the breaking of images. This comes from ten commandments, specifically Thou shall make no graven images. The early church, both east and west, allowed the spread of icons, often small representations of Jesus or Mary or sometimes even saints, that would be kept in a small personal altar or even larger icons that were kept in churches. In the 720s the Church in the east wanted to get rid of these icons, the church in the west, led by Gregory III, was like, why? By why, I mean they were like ‘um no way, that’s never happening’. Charlemagne’s crowing as Roman Emperor on Christmas Day, 800, was also a huge change in the church. This didn’t split the East from the West yet, but it meant that the Church in the West now had its own protector. 

Throughout the 900s reforms emphasised the Pope’s leadership of the church, over secular leaders. In 1054 the east and west church had a huge fight. The Pope, used to being in charge, really wanted the East recognised his primacy. The East, said no. There had been ongoing issues between the two branches of the churches, but this was really it. Both sides disagreed about who was in charge of Sicily among other things. The pope, Leo IX, and the patriarch, Michael I, mutually excommunicated each other. I bring up this schism, the Great Schism, as it’s known, to really emphasise, as I’m hoping the earlier summary made clear, the church was always a moving, changing, up in the air thing. It wasn’t this monolith that was unchanging. 

Now, I’ve mentioned Arianism, which was heretical to Catholics, but it wasn’t the only heretical sect. France had its own rather major heretical sect, the Cathars. The Crusades as we think of them had started in 1095, but in 1209 a crusade in France was started, the Albigensian Crusade to destroy the Cathar heresy. This crusade would last until 1229 but ended with the destruction and genocide of the sect. The French leader for most of the crusade was Simon de Montfort, the elder, his son will feature in a future season. As the church started moving into the middle and the late middle ages there was a push from secular leaders to have more control of the church, this will lead to various investiture controversies. In 1309 there was an actual split in the church, the papacy moved to Avignon, an independent-ish holding of the HRE that was within the territory of France. Most of the popes who reigned in Avignon were actual popes, not anti-popes, but this wasn’t an easy time for the church. The papacy returned to Rome in 1378, but after this, well, there was a lovely little schism because some wanted the pope to remain in Avignon, yeah, this was settled in 1417. 

I’m not going to get into the church in the Americas in the episode, but do know that the Catholic Church had a bit of an impact there. Instead I”m going to jump ahead to March 1517 and discuss the Fifth Lateran Council. The council was held between 1512 and 1517, and it was called because, well the church was struggling. There had been ongoing disagreements between the Church and the Italian city-states, along with the French crown. The warrior pope, Julius II (not named after Julius I, but for Julius Caesar) had tried to do the warrior thing and solve his disagreements with French with war, as a member of the League of Cambria. It actually went poorly for him, at first. Gaston of Foix, who patrons will recognise, was highly successful against the League, but when he died League forces had their day. Julius II, had, prior to the war, promised to call a Council, but had waited. Instead of him calling a Council an, well, um, anti-Council was called in Pisa, okay, a schismatic Council. There might have been an anti-Pope elected during this council, don’t worry, I’ll get there eventually. Julius II, realising he might want to get control of his church back called his own Council with a bull issued in July 1511. In the end this council sorted out very little, which really hurts the papacy and the Catholic Church in the long-run, because there was a lot that should have been looked at, especially dealing with the finances of the church. One of the things I need to mention is that the Council lasted for so long that Julius II died and his successor, Leo X was elected pope. Leo, unlike the warrior Pope Julius, was a cultural pope. He wanted to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica and shore up church finances. In his defence, St. Peter’s looks amazing, but that was a lot of money to spend. To do this, he allowed the selling of indulgences at a level not seen for about fifty years at this point. Notice, indulgences had been critiqued within the church for at least a century at this point, even Pope Boniface IX condemned the granting of indulgences by religious orders that were abusing the practice. 

Now, in general an indulgence isn’t a horrible idea. Prior to actually looking into it I had always thought it was buying less time in purgatory, but that’s not quite correct. Originally they were a way to reduce the time period of punishment after death, which isn’t purgatory, it’s penury. The idea that absolution, ie, the pronouncement that a sin was forgiven by a priest, usually through confession and penance, may not be enough to remit a sin. An indulgence, which was first offered to crusaders, could, in religious theory, help with the time we needed to spend serving penury. I actually found at good example on Catholic Straight Answers . com, I struggled to find the words, but ‘For example, if I damage my neighbours car, I can sincerely plead for forgiveness and my neighbour can genuinely forgive me; yet I will also in justice had to pay for the damage to the car.’ So, the indulgence was kind of like damage insurance. Your sin had been forgiven, but there still needed to be some punishment, and the indulgence got you out of that. As I mentioned these for first granted to crusaders, but eventually granted for acts of charity, say the giving of alms, penance, or piety, often linked to praying extra, and remember, one had to be truly contrite, and ask for forgiveness, even with their indulgence and absolution. I will note that indulgences are still granted today, in fact there were rather specific ones related to the recent global health event. In the late middle ages though, some, who were in charge of raising funds for church projects, say the building of a leper colony or a school, would grant indulgences regardless of contrition, to those who donated the ‘right’ amount. The earlier church had tried to control for this, at the 1215 Lateran Council, for example, limits were put on the length of time an indulgence could be granted, so one year or 40 days. But Leo X didn’t seem to have such qualms. And this lack of ethics will lead directly to the Protestant Reformation, the French Wars of Religion, the Reform in England, and the Reformation in the principalities of Germany. 

An intellectual discussion (ie, the rise of Luther):

You have probably heard of Martin Luther. For my American listeners Martin Luther King Jr was renamed for him, His father, born Michael King, was a preacher for the Baptist Church. In 1934 he visited Germany for the Baptist World Alliance and learned a great deal about Martin Luther. Upon his return to America he had his name changed to Martin Luther King and changed his oldest son’s name from Michael King Jr to Martin Luther King Jr. Honestly, the teaching of the first Martin Luther greatly influenced both Kings and is something to look into if you’re interested, it’s a little tidbit of history I love. The first Martin Luther, was born in 1483 or 84, and was ordained in 1507. He had come from a wealthy family, not nobility, but coming up in the world. His father had wanted him to be a lawyer, but Luther struggled to find his calling within the university, until, well he found his calling. He claimed that he was stuck in a thunderstorm in 1505 and a lightening bolt struck the ground near him. He swore to St. Anne that he would become a monk and this became his vow. His university friends were devastated to see him leave their institution and thought they might never see him again. Luther joined an Augustinian order and by all accounts was a devout monk, but felt spiritual despair. To occupy Luther’s mind his superior ordered that he return to academia. He actually began teaching theology in 1508, but wasn’t awarded his doctorate until 1512, university was a bit different back in the day! His career was going well, until 1516, when his archbishop appointed a Dominican friar who had come to Germany to sell indulgences, as the general commissioner of their bishopric. Luther’s archbishop was deeply in debt and requested permission from Leo X to sell further indulgences, with half the proceeds staying with the Archbishop. Luther, hearing about this was offended, and in 1517 wrote to his Archbishop expressing his opposition. He included an early draft of what we call his Ninety-Five Theses. This was purely academic and within his protest Luther was asking for guidance and not trying to confront his leader. He likely never nailed his theses to a church door, since it was a philosophical discussion piece for theologians, not a pamphlet meant for mass consumption. 

Luther’s Archbishop did forward the letter, without response, to Rome to have it checked for heresy. At this point if he had wanted it to be such he could have had it printed, really the printing press was around. Eventually the theses was shared, and in early 1518 some of Luther’s friends translated it from Latin to German. In that same year Luther was examined for heresy and it went poorly, he actually snuck out of the city the examination was being held at overnight. Now, I’ve read through the full English Translation. I’m not going to read it out here, but, I may do so for this week’s This Too Shall Passed. It might be a little longer than usual episodes, but I think that will be worth it. It took less than two weeks for Luther’s writing to spread throughout Germany. I’m a huge fan of the printing press and this is one of the moments in time where a great idea met a great invention. I’m sure it John Wycliffe and his Lollards would have had a big impact as well if they’d had the printing press. The Cathars might have survived if they’d had the printing press, or have been taken out sooner. And this doesn’t even start to account for the countless other reformers who haven’t come up in this show yet, they will come up at some point (just don’t want anyone to think I’m forgetting about the Hussites). I’m mainly pointing out that Luther wasn’t the first to question to the church on something, he just happened to do so at the right time. 

His timing was amazing. Students flocked to him to hear him teach, his Theses had reached England and France by 1519. By 1520 he had come to the conclusion, based on his reading and teaching of the Bible that faith alone, through God’s grace, and faith in Jesus was the only was to salvation. Luther was excommunicated on the 15ht of June 1520. He continued writing through the rest of his life. Now, I’m not going continue with Luther’s story at the moment, I may actually include him as an Anti-Pope as long as everyone promises to see it as the tongue in cheek joke I meant it as. Let me know what you think, it will take about four more years to get there, so if you’re listening in 2027 hopefully I’ll be getting close! One thing I shouldn’t forget to mention is that Luther was heavily in favour of the Bible in the vernacular, as part of his faith alone stance. One could understand faith through reading the Bible. 

French Lutheranism ie. Calvinism:

In France, at least in relation to Calvinism and Huguenots, things were a little different. the early theology of this branch of Protestantism was expressed by Huldrych Zwingli, a Swiss man, in 1519. He was aware of Luther but his theology was created independently. One area they really clashed was on their beliefs regarding transubstantiation. Luther felt the literal body of Christ was present, whereas Zwingli saw this as a symbolic representation of Jesus. Luther actually called Zwingli blasphemous, yeah, reform groups were just as ready to challenge each other as they were to challenge the Catholic Church. Zwingli’s influence was mainly in urban areas of Switzerland, and he would die in 1531 while fighting against Swiss Catholics during the Second War of Kappel. 

Zwingli’s cause was taken up by John Calvin, well and a few others, but we’re going to focus on Calvin. Calvin was a Frenchman whose father wanted him to be a lawyer, but he was rather fascinated by theology. Yeah, I know, it sounds rather parallel Luther, but, no they’re a bit different. He was forced to flee France after the Affair of the Placards, in October of 1534, patrons already know a bit about this, but I will cover. He didn’t end up in Geneva right away, but through a series of chances he’d arrive there in 1536, planning to stay just one night, instead he would stay there for the next two years. Calvin was not in favour of the title Calvinism and actually condemned it. But, his book Institutes of the Christian Religion was so influential that he really couldn’t stop the name from spreading. This book was written as a defence of Calvin’s faith. I’m not going to cover it here, it will come up again in a few years and I’ll give it the coverage it deserve then.

The name Huguenot, in case you’re curious, obviously has nothing to do with either the name John Calvin or Huldrych Zwingli, so where did it come from? Apparently a man named Genevan magistrate named Basancon Hugues. Oddly, despite being associated with French Protestantism Hugues was Catholic, and while sympathetic to Protestants, he was in favour of Catholic leadership. Just thought you’d like leaning this little fact.

Now, before I finish this episode I need to discuss the state a religion. I have touched on it a few times, both in this episode, how Christianity becoming the state religion of Rome is what help it spread and then how the State, either Rome or France or England, helped the religion spread further. I’ve also talked about it in earlier episodes, especially in Antoine de Bourbon’s episode. What I need to note here though is how deeply intwined this was. There wasn’t an idea of religious pluralism at this time. Pluralism is the idea that diversity within a political body is acceptable, our modern society, in most cases, allows multiple ideas to exist side-by-side, in theory. When applied to religion this just means that different religions can co-exist. There was no way for this idea to exist in the minds of 16th century people. The religion of the state needed to be the king’s religion, and further, the people needed to follow that religion. It was expected, by Calvinist in France that Catholicism would shrink, until inevitably, Calvinism took over. And Catholics thought they would be able to hold back to reform tide. 

With this I will see you next week where I will actually start discussing the French Wars of Religion. I did warn you last week that this might be a few episodes. I would like to welcome my newest Patron, John, thank you for joining us. Patrons, if I’ve managed to forget you please email me, I want you to know your support means so much and it hasn’t been intentional. Before I go I wanted to remind you all the visit the Youtube page, there will be additional content coming soon, so please check that out. I will include links in the show notes and on social media. Also, please remember that I am an affiliate with bookshop.org for my American and UK listeners, if you purchase through my link it really helps me, so thank you in advance. Links are in the show notes and on all my social media sites. I hope I’ll see you next week.

The French Wars of Religion, Part Two: 

Welcome back, let’s discuss some wars, specifically religious wars. Before I get started just a reminder to take a look at the Passed YouTube page, links are in the show notes! 

Now, as might have been suggested in the last episode, well, prior to reading the 95 Theses, a lot of Europe was struggling with religion and in turn wars, around this same time. The English Reformation is probably the best known in the English-speaking world, due mainly to the leader of it, Henry VIII. You may know a bit of what happened in the German states, which was complicated by the power of the various princes, and the responses from their nominal leader, the Holy Roman Emperor, during the period we’re looking at Charles V, his brother Ferdinand I, and Ferdinand’s son Maximilian and Maximilian’s son Rudolph. Despite the Empire including Spain during the rule of Charles V, by the time period we’re looking at, 1562-1598 Charles had divided his empire, giving the HRE to his brother and Spain, Spanish Netherlands, and his Italian holdings to his son, Philip II. Philip II’s rule in Spain will be important for our discussion today and next week. So, I’m actually going to discuss him for a moment first. But, just because I don’t want to forget to say it, I want you all to remember that regardless of the amount of religion discussed throughout this episode and the previous one the Wars of Religion were a succession crisis as much as a religious crisis. I’ll remind you that at the very start of this war the premier prince du sang was Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre and he was succeeded, as premier prince du sang, by his son his son, Henry, less than a year after this conflict started. You may remember, but Henry was a Calvinist, being raised by a Calvinist mother, Jeanne, queen of Navarre. Okay, but, Philip first, at least a little about him. 

Despite starting out his rule having lost half his European Empire, he still held one of the largest empires of his age, due to his holdings in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. He also united Spain and Portugal in 1581, and the countries would stay united until 1640. He was also a hardline Catholic. Through his first wife he had one son, Carlos, who will die in 1568 and won’t play a great part in this upcoming conflict. His second wife was Mary I of England. It does appear that to him this was a political marriage, though Mary did have a false pregnancy and it appears that to her it was a love match. His third marriage is what brings him into the French Wars of Religion, well, that and the pope. In 1559 he married Elizabeth of Valois, the eldest daughter of Henri II and Catherine de’Medici. The couple had four pregnancies which produced two surviving daughter, Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catherine Michaela. Philip will push for his older daughter to be made queen of France and this is why she’s getting an episode. Once the Catholic League was formed for the second time in 1589 (we will get there), Philip was their major financier. While involving himself in French politics he was also involved in his cousin’s wars with the Ottoman Empire, his own Italian wars, and his previously mentioned work to consolidate the Iberian Peninsula. 

So, now onto the actual start of the wars. One thing you need to know are numbers, the population of France around the time the was around 20 million, by the mid-point of these wars the Huguenot population was 2 million. Paris had a population of between 210 and 280,000. As you’ll remember from Antoine’s episode, the starting point of the wars was the Massacre of Vassy. Of course, at the time no one knew this would lead to more than 35 years of on and off fighting in France. And this is where I’m going to start, Antoine’s episode really does include a good primer of the religious and political issues that were going on immediately prior to the start of these wars. Remember though, France immediately prior to this period was ruled by a weak boy king, Francis I until his death in 1560, at which point his much younger brother, Charles IX, who was only 10 upon his accession and 11 when Vassy occurred. Young Charles, obviously, had a regent, his mother, Catherine de’Medici. Catherine had struggled with the uncles-in-law of Francis II, the Guise brother, Francis, Duke de Guise, and Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine. I want to defend Catherine for a moment, her young son had inherited a broke country, so much had been spent on wars in Italy and with the Empire, it wasn’t an easy set of circumstances. Catherine had been in favour of reforming the church, but, like other Catholic reformers, she didn’t want to overthrow the Catholic church, she was still Catholic. Instead of continuing her husband’s attempts to eradicate the religion, or allowing it to overthrow Catholicism and institute a Calvinist monarchy. Instead, she chose to end persecutions but not allow open practicing by Calvinists. The Guise did agree with this, for the moment, but it doesn’t mean they were happy with it. 

The Guise brothers were hardline Catholics and while they were out of direct power in the palace with the reign of young Charles, they were still powerful. The Duke de Guise held a great deal of land and also had a great deal of military power, his brother was also the Archbishop of Rheims, which was the primate of the French church. Primate is not the class that humans, other apes, and monkeys belong to, it means that highest ranked leader of the Catholic Church in France. You’ll remember from Antoine’s episode that the Duke de Guise is at least partially at fault for the Massacre of Vassy. A quick review of that, the Duke de Guise was traveling to Paris through his holdings. At the village of Vassy, on the 1st of March 1562, he witnessed a Calvinist religious service occurring and either ordered or allowed his men to kill at least 50 parishioners. Now, to be fair to Guise, he may have been unable to stop his men, but he also could have been unwilling to stop them, hardline Catholic and enraged by seeing this public practice, remember. 

This massacre was basically a call to action for Huguenots. Antoine’s brother, Conde, led this charge. Their plan was to ‘liberate’ the king from the Catholic hardliners also known as his ‘evil councillors’ yes, that gem. And this is the start of the first of eight or nine wars. 

Now this is also where I should discuss the three groups (yes, three) that will make up this conflict, first, the Huguenots, the French Protestants who are also known as Calvinists, the second, the hardline Catholics, whom are referred to as the Catholic League or Leaguers, and finally the Politiques, who are the royalists, yes, this will be a confusing set of conflicts. Each party had foreign supporters, well, sort of. The Huguenots received support for England, Scotland, the Protestant provinces of the Netherlands, known as the United Provences. The League received support from Spain, Portugal, and the Pope, and the Politiques received support for the Papal States and Spain until 1588, and yes, there’s a big change then and a good reason for this. I should note the Catholic League didn’t actually come into play until 1576, so they’re not involved with the first five wars, I’ll let you know when they come in!

The first war was ‘fought’ from 1562-63, this is the portion of the wars that Antoine died in. But, there was another important death during this first period of the Wars, the Duke de Guise! He was assassinated during the siege of Orleans. Yes, he was assassinated during a siege. Apparently the duke was close to winning the siege and a Frenchman, Jean de Poltrot. Poltrot had become aware that the duke was near unguarded in the evenings while returning to his home after battle. Poltrot was able to hide along this route and shot de Guise on the 18th of February. So while the act occurred during the period of the siege it was outside of the actual battle, hence an assassination. De Guise didn’t die right away, it actually looked like he might live, and had penicillin been an option he likely would have. His doctors, realising there was an infection attempted to remove the bullet, which worsened his condition and he died on the 24th of February 1563. Before he died he wanted to apologise for Vassy and expressed that he was in favour of reform within the Catholic Church, but his family made sure his confession was taken by a hardline confessor. Poltrot was apprehended, tortured and executed on the 18th of March, he had named Gaspard II de Coligny, the Admiral of France, as his co-conspirator. Coligny was not prosecuted, but he and Guise’s son would have a bit of a feud. Guise’s son, Henry, would succeed to the Guise dukedom. He was only 12 at the time of his father’s death. I feel that Coligny probably needs a much longer introduction, but I’m not ready to give it here. Through the tangled web that is DNA he is the great-great grandfather of William III of England, as in William and Mary, and also the ancestor of all king of Prussia. Yeah, his daughter married very well, which is surprising when we get to the end of his story. 

Guise’s death and the fact that Orleans didn’t fall to the Catholics led to the first truce, the Edict of Amboise was issued by Catherine de’Medici on the 19th of March 1563, which happened to be the same day as Guise’s funeral. This Edict granted Huguenots the right to worship openly, in specific suburbs in each town. Remember, prior to this, Huguenots hadn’t officially been allowed to worship publicly. Protestant worship was not allowed in Paris. Property seized by Huguenots from the Catholic church was to be returned and offices and property expropriated due to the holder being a Protestant was to be returned. Armed, religious assemblies for either group were banned. Registering this edict with the Parlements was a struggle, but Charles IX declared his majority in August 1563, which actually helped. By the way Charles was 13 at the time, so while he was an adult he did allow his mother to continue to assist him. 

Despite the no more arms rule everyone kept arms. Huguenots felt threatened, because they literally were, and Catholics couldn’t let their enemies have more arms. Charles IX went on a grand tour of his kingdom, like a royal progress. He did bring his mom, because, well, he was 14 at that point. This was meant to show him as a strong king. He met with Jeanne, the queen of Navarre while on tour. 

The peace lasted until 1567, when Charles was given a bit of a surprise, sadly, it wasn’t one he wanted. The Surprise of Meaux was a coup attempt that involved…wait for it…trying to kidnap the king, yeah, it does appear to be the go-to plan for this period. This one did make it further into the planning stage than the attempt to kidnap Francis II at Ambois, but it was discovered. Charles and his court fled Meaux at 3am on the morning of the 26th of September 1567. The court reached Paris. In case you’re wondering the Huguenot leader of this plot was Prince Conde, the figurehead of the last attempt to kidnap a French king. This coup, in addition to failing, led to negative feelings towards Huguenots, in know, surprising. I feel that maybe, just maybe, had the Huguenots picked a different strategy things might have gone better for them in the long run.

Now we’re back at war, this will happen more than a few times. The first battle of this war was Battle of Saint-Denis. And, another long-time mention in this series, Anne Montmorency dies at this battle. Now, dying in battle is horrible, I’m sure, but he was about 74 years old at this point! I’m impressed he was even leading troops. He was shot when he refused to surrender after he was surrounded following a charge (he had been taken prisoner a few times before, as many of you know, and apparently wasn’t keen to be a prisoner again). His sons were able to reach him and get him to safety, but he died two days later on the 12th of November 1567. Royal forces won the battle, prior to his death, but the Protestant forces were able to make an orderly retreat. Montmorency will be the last Constable of France until 1593, when his second, but oldest surviving son, Henri was appointed to the role, by spoilers, Henri IV. I do feel a bit like this episode is becoming a bit killing off of various people I’ve introduced over the last few episodes. I hope it doesn’t get too depressing. Okay, that might have been slightly disingenuous, because we’re only in the second war, and there are a lot of deaths. 

Charles IX, who, as almost 17, was taking more control of his kingdom, sent a letter to Prince Conde and the other Huguenot leaders. The king offered the rebels amnesty if they would lay down their arms, Conde and the other leaders said they would agree as long as they were given freedom of worship. The king, acting like a petulant child, was angered by this and said he wouldn’t negotiate with his subjects. He told the rebels they had three days to agree to his ‘request’ and that they could worship in their own homes. Oh, and the royalist would remain armed. Fighting continued, sporadically, and the Protestant forces were able to leave France and meet up with Germany mercenaries. Conde’s biggest problem was, he didn’t have the money to pay his mercenaries. Conde returned in early 1568 and began besieging royal forces Chartres in late February, with the goal of sacking the city to pay his mercenaries. Gaspard II de Coligny, probably the second most important Huguenot leader in France had taken a portion of these mercenary forces to relieve Orleans, and was successful in that while also taking to further cities. 

Prince Conde’s siege of Chartres was successful at a few points, but in the end he could not maintain any advantage he won. By the 13th of March a truce was declared. Weeks later the Peace of Longjumeau, sometimes known as the Edict of Longjumeau was signed in March. This edict provided, well, almost nothing more than the previous edict. The crown did help Conde pay for his mercenaries, probably because unpaid mercenaries are just bad for any country and France had way too much experience with this. Unlike the previous edict this one was registered in the various parlements rather quickly. The peace lasted for an even shorter time than the last one, in fact, a group of Catholics continued to besiege a protestant town for a week after it was registered. 

Conde, remember, he is a prince du sang and a member of court as such, and probably more interesting, Gaspard II de Coligny was the Admiral of France and had been since 1552. Yeah, they were both members of court while leading forces against royal forces. After the peace was finally put in place, legally, Catholics started banding together against the peace. Conde and Coligny actually fled court and Huguenots were murdered throughout the country. Charles IX decided to throw some fuel on the fire and issued the Edict of Saint-Maur. This edict, well, it let Huguenots do nothing, as in it revoked all their earlier religious freedoms, oh, and it gave them two weeks to leave France. The Huguenots who weren’t running for their lives, began to organise with Dutch Protestants. And this would lead to the third war, yes, there wasn’t much of a gap between the second and third war. 

Now, here re-enters someone you should all remember, Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, last seen making a rush for the Navarrese border to avoid being placed in a convent by her rather upset husband (reminder, she didn’t make it to her husband’s deathbed). Just to remind you all Jeanne was the only surviving child of Henri of Navarre and Marguerite of Angouleme. This means she was the only niece of Francis I, Henri II’s only paternal first cousin and a cousin of both Francis II and now Charles IX. Jeanne was also the widow of Antoine de Bourbon, our last subject, and the mother of Henri, who will become the king of Navarre upon her death as Henri III and, big spoilers, the king of France as Henri IV. Jeanne had remained neutral through the first two wars, but had likely been first moved to support the Huguenots in Franc when the pope, Pius IV at this time, threw together a plot to have her kidnapped and turned over to the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects that. This plot didn’t just upset Jeanne, it actually scared Philip of Spain and Catherine de’Medici, who were both alarmed and offended by the Pope attempting to take direct control of religious issues near their countries. Also, France and Spain would have received a divided Navarre, which at this point was a Protestant kingdom. Jeanne actually met with Catherine in 1565 to discuss the situation, obviously prior to the outbreak of the second war. Jeanne hoped for the establishment of Guyenne, combined with Navarre as basically a Protestant state. This wouldn’t happen for course, but throughout 1568, 69 and 70 she did what she could to make this happen.

November of 1568 saw the Dutch, led by William of Orange, invade France to support the Huguenots, This invasion quickly fizzled when Charles IX offered him a bunch of money. The broke William said, ‘thank you, I’ll see myself out.’ Conde led most of the resistance from the south of the country. German, Protestant militias supported Conde, and they were paid via loan from England that Jeanne guaranteed with her crown jewels. Charles IX’s brother, Henri, the future Henri III, led the royalist forces. In March 1569 Huguenot and Royalist forces met at the Battle of Jarnac. This fight didn’t go well for the Huguenots, and it went especially poorly for Conde. He was unhorsed and actually surrendered, and then he was executed. With Conde’s death de Coligny became the nominal leader of the Huguenot forces. Conde’s son, Henri, and Jeanne’s son Henri were 16 and 15, respectively, at this time, and a bit too young to be leading things, so Coligny was leading on their behalf. With Coligny leading Huguenot’s did better, I’m not blaming Conde, just Coligny seemed to have been really good at strategy. His forces were able to pillage Toulouse and were threatening the rest of France. The royal coffers were empty and Charles asked for peace. 

The Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was signed on the 8th of August 1570 after a long negotiation and follow almost two years of various members of the nobility telling the king that maybe he should go back to the earlier peace (please, please note, that there is a second treaty of the same name signed in 1919, these are very different treaties as you can guess). Charles IX, Gaspard II de Coligny and Jeanne of Navarre were the primary negotiators, there are 38 Articles within this treaty and each one seemed to make one side or the other unhappy. This peace ordered that earlier issued brought up in the three wars be forgotten, and importantly it banned the investigation into the faith of others. The king asked that his citizens lived peacefully. Calvinism was allowed to be practiced on private estates and within noble holdings, and suburbs were to be selected for free Calvinist worship within towns. But, worship could not happen within two leagues of court, a league is 4.38 km or 3 miles for my American listeners. Huguenots were allowed to keep their arms within the Calvinists cities of southern France, but Catholic worship had to be retuned to those cities. Article 32 was pretty contentious in Paris, this article voided all sentences that were brought about due to the war on the basis of religious matter, meaning Coligny was no longer under a 50,000 ecu bounty, win for him. But it also required the destruction of all monuments built in commemoration of those who had been executed through the earlier wars. Charles IX didn’t mess around this time, he ordered the Parlements to register this immediately and ordered that all officers of his court swear to it. 

Now, even with this peace there was some drama. Henri de Guise, the young Duke de Guise, had begun an affair with Marguerite, Charles IX’s youngest sister. Having an affair with the king’s sister is a scandal on its own, it’s an even biggest scandal when the king plans to marry this sister to another king. Yes, Charles and his mother, Catherine, were planning on marrying Marguerite to Henri of Navarre. Henri de Guise was exiled from court and Marguerite was told off. The Duke de Guise’s uncle, the Cardinal de Loraine also left court around the same time, being discharged for telling the Duke de Guise to make a move on Marguerite. Yeah, the whole de Guise family really wasn’t looking good at the moment. 

After the peace was registered and things went well (for over a year and a half) Catherine de Medici and Jeanne of Navarre, with some minor input from Charles IX of France and Henri of Navarre, began negotiating the marriage between Henri and Marguerite. Jeanne was not as keen on this marriage as the French court was, she was worried her son would be forced to reject his Calvinist faith (foreshadowing), but felt it might bring long-term peace. Jeanne was unimpressed with the lack of morality in the French court, and warned her son of such. These negotiations started in earnest in February 1572. The marriage contract was signed on the 11th of April 1572. Jeanne remained in Paris after the negotiations were complete, preparing for the wedding. She took ill on the 4th of June 1572, over the next five days she became sicker, having a fever and complaining for pain. She died of natural causes on the 9th of June 1572 at only 43. Her son Henri was now Henri III of Navarre. She had a daughter, Catherine, who probably gets less attention from history than she deserves. Catherine will act as regent in Navarre for the next two decades due to, well, the things that are about to happen. Ready? Before I get to where things really go wrong I want to note that the reason I don’t suggest Jeanne was poisoned is because an autopsy performed at the time found no indications of poison, and you’ll have to visit Patreon and listen to Catherine de’Medici’s special episode for a discussion on poison! But now, let’s have a wedding, that’ll be fun, right?

On the 18th of August 1572 Henri III of Navarre married Marguerite of Valois, as that whole marriage contract said they’d do. There was one major problem with this marriage from a legal point of view, Papal dispensation was not received, and yes, like everyone, they were related (they shared great-grandparents, which is only three degrees of consanguinity). Cardinal de Bourbon, the next subject in this miniseries agreed to perform the wedding, he was the groom’s uncle after all. Many of the kingdoms Calvinists came into Paris for the wedding, as expected, Henri’s court was Calvinists and Coligny was the leading general of his forces, plus a member of the French court. Henri was 18 and Marguerite was 19. Marguerite was now queen of Navarre and the wedding brought peace to France and Navarre, right? Well, no, not even a little. You’ll remember from my earlier episodes that Paris was Catholic, very Catholic. The University of Paris was a huge reason for this, as was the Paris Parlement, as you can probably tell from earlier episodes. During the reign of Francis I, Charles IX’s grandfather and Henri III’s great uncle, Francis’ sister, Marguerite (who was Henri III’s grandmother), was accused of being a Protestant by the University. Throughout the reigns of Francis I, Henry II, and now Francis II and Charles IX Parlement had shown itself to be aligned with Catholic interests. These two institutions and the presents of court in Paris were all parts of the explanation as to why Paris remained Catholic with minimal Calvinist presence.  But let’s not get over fixated on the less-than fun parts of it, there’s just been a wedding, we need a wedding party!

On the 20th of August, two days after the wedding, Catherine de’Medici, the only surviving parent of either the bride or groom, threw a grande performance. This was possibly one of the first ballet de cour, or court ballet and it was held at the Petiti-Bourbon. This was a city palace that had once belonged to the Bourbon family, until that traitorous Charles de Bourbon, remember, Anne of France’s son in law, committed treason during the reign of Francis I. A court ballet is best described as a performance during a masquerade ball, where once the performance was complete the guests were asked to join in with the performers, who themselves were often guests. At the ball held to celebrate this royal wedding Catherine had her sons, Charles IX, Henri, and Hercule-Francis, pantomime a tournament where they protected angelic nymphs from the evil Huguenots, who included Henry III of Navarre, and Prince Conde (remember, this is the 19 year old son of the previous Prince Conde). The Huguenots were, unsurprisingly, sent to hell in the performance. I know, not sublet at all. The play ended with French king and princes rescuing the Huguenots from hell. Now, nothing overly exciting happened. Coligny was at the various wedding events and seemed sad, he’d been hoping to discuss things with the king, but Charles IX had been ignoring his requests. On the 21st a second pantomime was performed, like the first it was well received. This was the end of the public festivities. 

Not long after this second day of festivities the new Duke of Montmorency, Anne’s oldest son, Francis, left court, claiming he felt unwell. I will note that he was the governor of Paris, oh, and also the brother-in-law of the French king via Herni II’s illegitimate daughter, Diane de France (did I mentioned everyone is related). Coligny still hadn’t been able to see the king and was waiting to return to his pregnant young wife until he could meet with the king. He had left her and his three children from his first marriage in Chatillon-Coligny, a town about 150 kms south of Paris. Coligny attended council, led by Henry, the Duke of Anjou, Charles XI’s younger brother, followed by a tennis match with Charles IX on the 22nd of August (I will call Henri, Duke of Anjou, Anjou for now, he gets a few fancy new titles in a few years). As he was returning to his house in the city he was shot! The ball, there weren’t bullets in this day (Phil?) injured his right finger and left arm. He apparently hardly reacted and was able to point out the direction of the shot, and while his assailant escaped his companions found the musket. So, yay, and assassination attempt thwarted by luck with only minor injuries. 

The king was enraged when he was informed! While Charles had been ready to ban Huguenots from practicing, he wasn’t about to put up with someone trying to kill one of his leading men, plus, they had peace now. This is like someone trying to assassinate Lisa M. Franchetti for my American listeners, for my non-American listeners that is the highest ranked naval officer in the US. The king promised that those responsible would pay. The rest of the royal family was in shock. Unsurprisingly the Huguenot leadership blamed the Guise faction for this assassination attempt. Coligny asked the king to visit him, because he was wounded and couldn’t attend the king. When the king arrived they discussed matters, apparently, you just need to get shot to get the king’s attention? Coligny was supportive of Charles but warned him that some of his advisors might not be serving him well. The king promised justice. Coligny remained at his residence despite the king’s request that he move to the royal palace at the Louvre. Even after the royal visit the Huguenot faction was upset, understandably. They made threatening remarks and even protests near the properties of the powerful, including to the dowager queen, Catherine, in the royal gardens. The Huguenots were implying that they didn’t trust the king’s justice. Despite all this by the evening of the attempted assassination everything seemed calm, it appears that all sides had decided to let the king handle justice. 

You’re probably all wondering who tried to kill Coligny, well, the person who pulled the trigger was likely Charles de Louviers, He was a minor nobleman who had been a Guise retainer early in his career, but converted to Protestantism. At some point he murdered his own tutor and later he killed his commanding officer right before re-defecting to the Royalist side of the ongoing conflict. At this point he joined Anjou’s retinue. Shockingly he was not popular with the royal army. Overall he sounds like a really horrible guy who happened to be lucky enough to come from a family with just enough power to make him matter enough that no one killed him. So, I’ve named two leading men that could have encouraged Louviers to attempt to kill Coligny, the Duke de Guise, and Anjou, but could he have acted alone? Well, maybe, here’s the thing, we don’t know who called the shot so to speak. Yeah, it’s one of history’s enduring mysteries. I will in fairness tell you that the house the shot was made from belongs to the Duke de Guise and his senior servant had been seen coming and going around the time of the assassination, just saying. 

So, there is an investigation going on. The Protestants had calmed down overnight on the 22nd, and by the 23rd they were helping with the investigation. The king had promised them safety and so the majority remained in Paris. The Duke de Guise’s senior servant had been ordered arrested, but had somehow managed to leave the city. The Duke de Guise himself stated he would be leave the city, but instead stayed covertly. Anjou’s men were now guarding Coligny. His fellow Protestants also planned to confront the Duke de Guise on the 24th, since they knew he was still in town. As you can imagine rumours were flying throughout the city. One leading man had been shot, it had been implied that another had planned it, the king’s justice had been questioned, both Catholics and Protestants felt unsafe. 

A small council, made of Catherine, Charles, and a few of their Catholic advisors met on the 23rd, and decided that the leading Protestants needed to be, well, removed, to calm things. Later that day the same council met in the evening of the 23rd to discuss exactly what would happen. There were arguments that Henri of Navarra and Prince Conde be spared because they were royal (and hopefully because one of them was family). Oh and they were also right at hand, they were lodging at the Louvre. Apparently it was also discussed that trying to arrest the Huguenot leadership would be too dangerous, better to kill them. They did finally agree to not kill Henri of Navarre. This group then invited the Duke de Guise to join them. Once he was there (along with his uncle), he was told he would be killing Coligny and the Huguenots around him. The plan had been set to assassinate all high ranking Huguenots, remember, how the king had promised them they’d be safe, well, they weren’t. And the king was in on the plan, whether he lead the plan of just went along with others it doesn’t matter, he was the king and he let this happen. Different primary sources blame different members of the royal family and nobility, but at the end of the day the king is where it stops. 

After the final decisions were made the gates of the city were ordered closed. On the morning on the 24th of August, St Bartholomew’s Day, Guise and his cohort broke into Coligny’s residence, he ordered his followers to flee to the rooftop. Coligny was killed by one of Guise’s followers and his body left in the street to be mutilated by local Catholics. Oddly, Coligny had remained stoic in his last moments. Henri of Navarre and Prince Conde promised to convert to Catholicism to survive what came next. The Swiss mercenaries of the King’s guard were tasked with killing the other Huguenots in the palace. Outside of Paris massacres occurred as well. Twelve cities that had Huguenot minorities suffered from this. There was one major town, Nantes, that a massacre would be expected, but the city’s mayor had decided not to follow through on the letter he received from Anjou right away, and luckily waited until he had received counter orders from the king. Do we know how many people died in total in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre? No, honestly the number range from 5,000 to 30,000. And, as you can imagine the wars are back on. This is also the moment where the Politiques, the royal party of the French Wars of Religion is started to be seen as a seperate group from the Catholic party which will eventually form the Catholic League.

Because I was curious, I looked up a bit about St. Bartholomew. He was one of Jesus’ apostles, those that were taught directly by Jesus and sent to spread his word after his crucifixion. Bartholomew, by tradition, travelled to India to preach the gospel. He was eventually martyred horrifically, either, depending on the account, by crucifixion, drowning, or being flayed alive. It’s a reminder that humanity is far too cruel to each other far too often.  

Oh, in case you’re curious, because I mentioned it a bit. Coligny’s wife and children survived the massacre. His wife gave birth to their only child five months after his death. The little girl grew up and was married well, but I can’t find much other information about her. His oldest daughter, Louise, though lived a life that was recorded a bit better. Her first husband was a Huguenot who was killed during the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, in the palace of all place. Louise was sent to Switzerland by her step-mother for her safety. In April 1583 Louise married William the Silent, the founder of the House of Orange and the first Prince of Orange. Through him she was the mother of Fredrick Henry, who was the grandfather of William III of England as in William and Mary William. Further, Fredrick Henry’s daughter, Luise Henriette, was the mother of Fredrick I of Prussia. Which means that Coligny, the Admiral of France who’s attempted assassination basically led to the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre is the ancestor of the dissolved Kingdom of Germany, the current king of the Netherlands, and possibly a few other royal families of Europe (because, don’t forget, everyone is related). I don’t think anything special comes through DNA other than survival, but I just find this little historic note interesting. 

With that, I’ll be back next week for more war, as you know there are still a few more to get through. This next bit really shows us the family dispute that this is quickly becoming alongside the ongoing religious conflict. If you’re enjoying what you’re hearing please take a few minutes and leave a review on iTunes or your favourite podcast provider. It really helps the show grow. Thank you as always and do remember I’ve started a YouTube page, so have a look when you can!

Wars of Religion, Part Three:

Welcome back. Before I start today I want to let you know that due to the scheduling hicup that was my personal life I won’t be able to finish this miniseries before the end of the year. I will be releasing Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, on Boxing Day (for my American listeners that’s the 26th of December) and then covering Isabella Clara Eugenia and Charles of Valois in the new year. I also just wanted to remind you all the check the feed on Christmas. I will be releasing a Christmas special again this year, I think I’ll be discussing another important event that happened on the 25th of December, any guesses? Now, onto this week’s episode, I’ll be starting with the fourth war of religion, it is a short one.

The fourth war basically started with the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and is almost an extension of it. There were a few cities besieged, including La Rochelle, which was besieged by Anjou. In one of the most interesting historical decisions on the 16th of May 1573, so about nine months after the initial outbreak of violence, Anjou was elected king of Poland. Yeah, weird, I know. He campaigned for it, not in person, he sent someone. Note, at this point I will still call him Anjou, but he’ll be busy in Poland for a while. This led to the Edict of Boulogne in June 1573. Much of the earlier freedoms granted to Huguenots in the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Outside of the cities of La Rochelle, and two other Protestant held cites, Calvinist worship was banned, oh, and then it was only allowed in private homes. So, a poor moment for Protestants in France. 

Now, there’s some peace and with that pause before the next war, which is coming, I need to discuss the royal family. Much like Philip IV more than 200 years earlier, Henry II and Catherine de’Medici had so many sons it seemed impossible that their male line would fail. Their oldest, Francis II, is deceased at this point in our story. 

You should all remember that the king is currently Charles IX, the second surviving son of Henry II and Catherine de’Medici. His younger brother, Henry, whom I’ll be calling Anjou for a while longer, is now the king of Poland via election and is there for the moment. He is crowned on the 22nd of February 1574. Their youngest surviving brother, Hercule-Francis, is 18 at this point. And it’s him I want to focus on. Hercule was his name at birth, but he had taken the name of his oldest brother, Francis, the late Francis II, when he was 13 as part of his confirmation. Since he had one of the more unique names in French royal history, I will stick to calling him Hercule. Interestingly for long-time listeners he’s the Duke of Alencon at this time, so not even slightly unique for this show. Just want to make sure each of the royal princes is known. 

One further reminder, Henri of Navarre and Prince Conde are both temporarily Catholic, and under royal guard. This prevents them from acting as a rallying point for the Huguenot cause, so that side was stuck for a bit. However, there was someone else they could look to for potential leadership, oh yeah, Hercule. I know, a bit unexpected for one of the royal princes to go all Calvinist, but he did. He agreed to join the cause, but only if they could smuggle him out of court. This didn’t happen, but there were plans. Overall things were calm though. 

But, things don’t stay calm for long, because life is just like that. On the 30th of May 1574 Charles IX died, he was 23. He had been depressed basically since the massacre, which isn’t surprising when we remember he allowed or ordered the murder of members of his own council and court along with so many other citizens. I may not have made it clear earlier, but he and Coligny were close, he had basically ordered the murder of one of his friends. Now, Charles had been married, to Elizabeth of Austria, and the couple had one child, a daughter, Marie Elizabeth. The little girl was about one and a half when her father died. Being a girl she wasn’t able to succeed. Her mother would leave France a bit more than a year and she would be raised by the French royal family. Since Charles’ only child was a daughter he was succeeded by his brother Anjou, who, as you’ll remember, was the king of Poland. Well, Anjou found out he was the king of France now and basically ran away from Poland. They even sent him notice that if he didn’t return he would be replace. He didn’t respond. 

Six months after Charles IX’s death Henri de Montmorency, the second son of the late constable, Anne Montmorency, defected to the Huguenot cause. Now, I did forget to tell you something important earlier. Coligny was actually Anne Montmorency’s nephew, oh yes, everyone is related. This means that Henri Montmorency was Coligny’s cousin and had been suspected of being a Protestant earlier, but had always denied the charge. He had been the governor of Languedoc for more than ten years, and this will come up towards the end of this episode, just remember it for now. There were also, over this period various Huguenot uprisings that had some impact, but nothing too big to worry about. Big heads up here, at some point before 1575 Prince Conde escaped from French court. I have looked through all five books I’m using for this and I cannot find how he managed this or the date, one random blog I’ve found online say it occurred during one of Hercule’s attempts to leave court. He fled to Germany and was able to act as a leader-in-exile. 

Anjou, now Henri III of France was crowned on the 14th of February 1575 (I’ll stick to calling him Henri of France, since there are a lot of Henris in this episode. The day after his coronation he married Louise of Lorraine, no massacres occurred after this wedding, so that’s a win. In April Henri of France was hoping to negotiate with the Huguenots, because really, that is just what a new king has to do. Remember, new king means making sure all the earlier treaties, or edicts still stood. Things were looking okay, for the Catholic and Royal faction, which are separating at this point, until September 1575, when Hercule managed to flee the capital. Ooops. Henry of Navarre doesn’t escape until 1576 and I can’t find details of how he managed it, I looked through all of my sources and I cannot figure it out. I assume he got lucky when his guards were distracted, oh and not long after escaping Henri renounced his Catholic conversation (yes, that does make him a relapsed heretic). His sister was reappointed as his regent in Navarre. 

But, this bit isn’t really about Henri of Navarre, no, instead it’s about the brotherly relationship between Henri of France and Hercule (yeah, I’m just going to call him that, France could have had a king named Hercule). I haven’t really mentioned it, but Henri of France was his mother’s favourite child, and Hercule was probably the least favourite of her sons (her least favourites were her amazing daughters). Hercule-Francis’ supporters were called the Malcontents, I know, great nickname. These men were a mix of Catholics and Huguenots, other than Hercule-Francis other members included Henri of Navarre, Prince Conde, Henri of Montmorency, and others. In addition to religious safety the group was trying to prevent Henri of France’s goals of absolutism. This group began to besiege Paris in 1576. By April Henri of France was done and negotiated the Peace of Monsieur (mew suer), primarily with his brother, hence the name of the peace, Monsieur being the address of the oldest younger brother of the king, and highly associated with this specific younger brother of the king (those Henri of France and Charles IX had both been addressed by this honorific). This peace was promulgated as the Edict of Beaulieu, and Henri of France basically forced it through Parlement. The Edict gave the religion pretendue reformee (reeligeeon pray tan due rey formee), the supposed reformed religion, the new description for Huguenots, the right to practice openly everywhere except Paris and court. They could build churches and were being treated like proper citizens with their religion legally respected. This was huge, and the response from the Catholics will be huge, as you’ll see in a moment. By September of 1577 most of the rights that had been gained by this edict were removed. The Treaty of Bergerac codified this. 

With his brother’s defection, and the escape of his two high-ranking hostages) though Henri of France needed another layer of support. His mother, Catherine, would still be involved, he was her favourite son and she wanted to support his reign, but this episode isn’t about her, she’s getting her own. But, Henri of France knew that there was one group that in theory would support him, the Catholics. And this is the response I was talking about. 

I mentioned early in the last episode, the Catholic League didn’t even come into existence until 1576, this entire time I’ve covered to this point there hadn’t been an official Catholic military group, but now there was. The Catholics had usually supported the Politiques. To be very clear Henri of France did not found the Catholic League, it was actually rather organic. Local Catholics in various cities formed their own confraternities to stand against the reformers. These groups communicated with each other in a loose confederation until 1576. After the Edict of Beaulieu these groups became a bit more organise and Henri of France managed to place himself at the head of this initial Catholic League. This wasn’t popular with most members of this newly-formed league. Despite Henri of France’s general pro-Catholic stance, he was still political in nature. Once the Treaty of Bergerac replicated the Edict of Beaulieu the national league was basically defunct and the local leagues stopped meeting. There was a minor seventh war in 1579, which ended in November of 1580 after Prince Conde took the town of Fleix, the Treaty of Fleix was signed at the end of November 1580. This treaty restored Huguenot rights, Hercule-Francis negotiated this treaty as well. And for the moment things were relatively peaceful in France. I shouldn’t forget that in 1579 an influential tract was published, one that I’m a fan of in theory. Vindiciae contra tyrannos, defence against tyrants, which was published under the pseudonym Stephen Junius Brutus. So, I’m guessing his first name was Stephen, or he was hoping to be martyred in the fight for Protestantism. Because I don’t want to assume that everyone gets biblical references Saint Steven is regarded as the first Christian martyr, and Junius Brutus are the nomen and cognomen of Marcus Junius Brutus, often just called Brutus who is probably the most famous person to stand up to a tyrant in 30 AD (the tyrant was Julius Cesar, and et tu Brute from Shakespeare is talking about him). I’m putting a link to a free download for this pamphlet in the show notes. I hope you’ll take the time to read it. It asks four big questions, as say chapters, and each of these four questions are covered through multiple discussion points. The link I’ve included is an English translation of the original French. It does assume knowledge of biblical history and works, so if you haven’t spent time studying this recently be ready to google, which is great, we should all admit when we don’t know things. I will warn you that it’s more than 200 pages long, so it’s not a short read. 

While France was peaceful-ish Hercule-Francis had been trying to woo Elizabeth I of England. Though she and he apparently became engaged the wedding did not happen (spoilers, Elizabeth actually never married). He returned to the continent and began making some problems in the Netherlands. He had been invited by William the Silent to become the king of the United Provinces, no one had asked the people of the United Provinces what they wanted. His time as the leader of the area was short-lived and in the end he took Antwerp but was quickly expelled when his troops were ambushed. His mother, Catherine told him she wished he had died young, oh, and Elizabeth broke their engagement. It appears that he had contracted malaria while in the Low Countries. He died on the 10th of June 1584 at 29. Which means there was only Henri of France and then next in line is suddenly Henri III of Navarre. a Huguenot! The Catholics of France were appalled. And this will lead to the country almost, almost, giving up in Salic Law, it probably didn’t help that Henri of Navarre’s heir was Prince Conde. To note, Charles IX, Henri of France’s older brother and predecessor was the only son of Henri II to have a legitimate child, his daughter, Marie Elisabeth, who had sadly died at this point. Henri of France was married, but had no children by his wife. Unlike other kings he didn’t feel the need to find a new one, so it was highly unlikely he would have a child (much to his and his wife’s regret, they did seem to care for each other greatly. 

And now we get to the big war in the Wars of Religion, the War of the Three Henris or in French Guerre des trois Henri. For those keeping track this is the eighth war of the religious war. In case you’re curious the three Henris named are Henri III of France, Henri III of Navarre, and Henri of Lorraine, Duke de Guise. This is also where we see the three groups of the wars of religion clearly, Henri III of France was the head of the Politiques, Henri III of Navarre was the head of the Huguenots and supported by the English, as in Elizabeth I (a fourth Henri can be found in this group, Prince Conde), and the Duke de Guise was now the head of the reformed Catholic League and they had the financial backing of Philip II of Spain, remember him? 

I’m not going to go through each battle of the War of the Three Henris, that would probably not be interesting. Instead, I’m going to focus on the political movements. Now, while Henri of France had placed himself at the head of the first iteration of The League he couldn’t manage that with the second. The League was appalled at the idea that a Protestant could be the king of France. There were even attempts at the University of Paris that Henri of Navarre couldn’t be heir to the throne using two main legal arguments (which cancel each other out). The first argument was the Henri of Navarre’s father, Antoine had never officially been the premier prince du sang because he had died prior to the death of all of the royal princes. They were ignoring that it hadn’t really worked that way in the past, it hadn’t previously mattered if a father with a claim had died prior to earlier claimants. The whole Valois-Angouleme claim came from Charles of Angouleme who was never the prince du sang, that was Louis of Orleans who became Louis XI. It was a weak argument, there had never been a need for one to be premier prince du sang to succeed to the throne. The second argument they made was via proximity of blood. You may remember this from an earlier This Too Shall Passed episode. It’s the idea that a person more closely related by generations should be the heir, not the descendant. So a sibling had precedents over a child. Using this legal argument though they claimed that Henri of Navarre’s Catholic uncle, Charles Cardinal de Bourbon, should be the heir because he was closer to the current line by one generation over Henri of Navarre. The Catholic League, who was both in support of and supported by the University of Paris, was also willing to allow a woman to be made a possible heir. It probably helped the this heir was Isabella Clara Eugenia, whose father, Philip II of Spain was financing them. Despite this level of support though the Catholic League only has a hollow victory; in the end Henri of Navarre will win, how you ask? The truth, he lived longer than everyone else, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. 

Here is a simple fact, in France the king, at least in the Capetian period and prior, was elected. Yes, but the nobility was usually told by the last king to elect his oldest son as the king, and they did. Except those few times in the Carolingian period when they didn’t. When Philip V became king he was technically elected, and the whole Salic Law thing was a big excuse. Really, in fact one of the arguments against Henri of Navarre was that Salic Law had been written by a pagan, which was technically correct, because Clovis was a pagan at the time the law was written, but philosophically ungenerous, since his conversion to Christianity make him one of the most important French kings. The reason I’m pointing this out is that in theory France could have just not had a war and waited until Henri of France died and elect a new king. The problem was there weren’t a lot of good choices around. The Duke de Guise wasn’t really royal, and while firmly Catholic, he might have been a little too Catholic. As for the royal family, the only sister of Henri of France to have a child was his sister, Claude, and her oldest son Henri, really so many Henris, was in his early twenties. He may have been an option had a few things turned out differently, but at the start of this war his father, the Duke of Lorraine, Charles, was technically neutral. The nobility of the kingdom could also have picked a completely unrelated person as king, I’m kidding, everyone is related. And I should probably note that the Catholic church, would, in theory, be required to approve of their choice. But in all reality having three factions with various nobles divided between them meant that France was unlikely to agree on one leader to succeed Henri of France. 

As many of you have probably already guessed the Catholic League and the Politiques were on close to the same page at the start of the war. This alliance was one of political expediency for the latter and a fight for the soul of France for the former. The war started out poorly for the outnumbered Huguenots, Prince Conde didn’t seem to realise how bad his numbers were and Henri of Navarre, well, he wrote a lot. Yeah, Henri of Navarre, like his grandmother, Marguerite of Angouleme, knew how to use the written word to get his ideas out there. He, like most Protestants, was also well educated on the books of the Bible, and was able to use the philosophy and history contained within it to bolster his cause. By late 1586 Henri of France had reached out to Henri of Navarre to begin negotiations, these failed because neither man trusted each other that much, but importantly, this hurt Henri of France’s standing with the Catholic League. This loss of standing will come back to bite Henri of France very soon.

The following year, 1587 saw further involvement of English funding, German and Swiss mercenaries and the first Huguenot victory! The Germans had come in support of Henri of Navarre, and the Swiss in support of Henri of France, but Henri of France didn’t trust his Swiss supporters and sent them away, as they were leaving the country the Germans recruited them. It looked like there might be a second Huguenot victory, but instead the combined German-Swiss forces were routed by Henri of Guise in a surprise attack. This attack protected Paris from Huguenot forces, but it also made Henri of France look bad. Guise was, rightly, given all the credit for the protection of Paris and Henri of France, well, he was about to have a rather bad few months. 

The city of Paris wasn’t supporting Henri of France any more than they were basically legally required to. Henri of France had told Henri de Guise to stay out of Paris, but Guise ignored this an was welcomed as a hero in April of 1588. Henri of France decided the proper response to this was to call up his remaining Swiss troops, which he had quartered in the city. This quartering was, um, well, illegal, Paris, like London, has its own special set of rules and quartering foreign troops was against these rules. Henri of France also tried to ferret out Guise supporters to expel them from the city by ordering a census for the 12th of May 1588. This gave Guise and the Catholic League the excuse they needed. Guise, along with the Spanish ambassador, who helped Spain switch to supporting the Catholic League, used a little political theatre. On the 12th of May 1588, instead of a census happening, the people of Paris rose up against the king in a ‘spontaneous’ uprising. As you can tell, I’m pretty confident that Guise and the Spanish ambassador planned this whole thing, further proof is that they closed all but one gate of the city, kind of forcing the king out. The following day the French king did just that a fled to Chartres. While this can be seen as a win for Guise and possibly his chance at making himself king it would actually lead directly to his downfall and an outcome of this war that would have surprised those who lived through it. 

Henri of France was forced to sign the Edict of Union in July 1588. This edict removed Henri of Navarre from the succession and, again, outlawed Huguenots in France, so original. Guise’s plans to have himself made king of France were given a blow in August of that year when the Spanish Armada was defeated by the English. This removed the ability of Spain to support the Catholic League. And then Guise’s aim of become king was dealt its final blow, he was assassinated by the Quarante Cinq, Henri of France’s personal body guard. Guise had been planning to kill Henri of France, but Henri struck first. 

I should back up a bit, prior to the assassination, Henri of France had called the Estates General, the first estate was controlled by Cardinal de Guise and Cardinal de Bourbon, the latter an uncle of Henri of Navarre, but a staunch Leaguer, the former was also a Leaguer and the uncle of Henri de Guise (yes, everyone is related). The second estate was also lead by a Leaguer, one who had helped try to drive Henri of France from Paris, and the third estate also lead by a Leaguer. It looked bad for Henri of France, but the king was able to get a few cutting blows, reminding the leading Frenchmen that he was the king and would remember if committed treason in the future. I should note that trying to usurp the king is treason, looking at you Guise. The Leaguers told the king they were upset with his behaviour towards the church and they really wanted him to name someone other than Henri of Navarre. They also threatened to take away some of his tax revenue. As you would imagine this didn’t sit well with Henri of France and he blamed Guise. There were further quarrels between these two Henries, including Guise’s brother referring to him as king at a rather presumptive family meal, their sister suggested she give Henri of France a hair cut. I promise that’s a really funny historical joke and when I get to the first kingdom of the Franks, the Merovingian you will all laugh. Regardless of all of us not getting the joke Henri of France understood it well when it was reported to him. In case you’re wondering where the third Henri of Navarre was well, just not around, he was in Navarre, which makes sense when you remember all of this was taking place in autumn and winter, a time when leaving the mountain kingdom would not be easy. The French king and his supporters planned the assassination in mid-December and carried it out on the 23rd of December. Henri of France didn’t kill Guise himself, that would just be too lowbrow. Instead, as I mentioned earlier, his personal body guard did so, these were the Quarante Cinq, the 45. These men worked in three rotations of 15 to protect Henri of France at all times. Oddly, this same group, but made up a different men, would support Henri of Navarre in full as well. On the 24th of December Cardinal de Guise was assassinated. When Henri of Navarre learned of their deaths he was saddened, remember, these were his cousins, and in fact the king’s cousins. The brothers bodies were either burnt or buried in anonymous graves. I should note that there was a third Guise brother, Charles, the Duke of Mayenne, who would take up the cause his brothers died for. The Duke de Guise was succeeded by his 17 year old son, who was in-prisoned by the royal family. Interestingly, the younger Duke de Guise will support his cousin, Henri of Navarre in the long run. Cardinal de Bourbon, Henri of Navarre’s uncle (Henri of France’s cousin and the late Henri de Guise’s cousin) had been taken into royal control prior to the assassinations and was kept under royal control. I don’t want to share his whole story here, since he’ll be getting his own episode, but he would be under royal control for a bit. 

As you can imagine the assassination of a senior Duke and Cardinal did not go over well with the French population. While the Estates were made aware of the power of the king and the first two estates purged the Leaguers from their number, the third estate though still stood up against the king. The church as well did not approve, which isn’t surprising. They declared Henri of France a tyrant and church leaders sought an excommunication from the Pope. The pope, Sixtus V, demanded the king come to Rome to explain his actions. Henri of France never made it to Rome. He actually reached out to his cousin, Henri of Navarre, and the two men came to an agreement, which was released publicly. This document reads like a plea to his people that Henri of France was looking out for their religious health. He declared that he wanted Henri of Navarre to convert to Catholicism. The pair began to retake France after their agreement in April 1589. They were besieging the city by the end of July 1589. On the first of August Henri of France was visited by a friar, Jacques Clement. Clement was given an audience with the king, and stabbed him to death. As many of you may know Henri of France didn’t die right away, it actually looked like he might survive. He told his officers to support Henri of Navarre and the following day, the 2nd of August, the last Valois king died. His mother, Catherine de Medici had died in January of that year, so she did not live long enough to see her last son die, I like to think the universe gave her one kindness. 

While legally and by tradition Henri of Navarre was now Henri IV of France it would take him four years to actually hold the throne. The Catholic League initially recognised our next subject, Cardinal de Bourbon, Henri of Navarre’s uncle, who was still under royal, not Henri of Navarre’s control. The League’s second choice, when Cardinal de Bourbon didn’t work out, was the subject that will follow Cardinal de Bourbon, Isabella Clara Eugenia. Spoilers for those two episodes, Henri of Navarre will become the actual king of France in 1593, publicly doing the opposite of what his father, Antoine de Bourbon, had done in secret, renouncing his religion. Henry IV of France decided that he didn’t want to keep battling his people, he wanted to lead them to a better France, and he did in many ways. His conversion to Catholicism stopped opposition to his rule and slowly but surely his former enemies joined him. Henri IV did maintain a care for his Protestant upbringing, he would issue the Edict of Nantes in 1598, granting Huguenots many rights, basically establishing that their religion wasn’t a barrier to their participation in the state. This document is impressive, it separated ones religious beliefs from ones civic duty. This is a basic ideal accepted in a pluralistic society, and he did this in 1598. His grandson, Louis XIV would revoke this almost one hundred years later. Louis XIV’s decision had some pretty bad impacts on France, it lead to an expulsion of Protestants from France and was rather unimpressive to France’s neighbours, since directly to the east was a rather large population of Protestants. 

Sources:

http://www.portagepub.com/products/law/vindiciae.html (include in show notes)

https://catholicstraightanswers.com/what-are-indulgences/

https://www.simplycatholic.com/what-are-indulgences/

https://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_fifth_war_religion.html

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/