The outbreak of the French Wars of Religion

In April 1559 the long series of Habsburg-Valois wars was brought to an end in the peace treaty of Cateau- Cambrésis. For the next few decades, western European international relations were dominated by civil wars in France and the Habsburg Netherlands. This article examines how political and religious factors led to the outbreak of a series of religious civil wars in France, commonly known as the French Wars of Religion. The first chapter describes the religious policies of Francis I and Henry II and the growth of Protestantism in France under their reign. Despite mounting persecution after the mid-1530s, Protestantism spread to many parts of France especially after the mid-1550s. Henry II was particularly alarmed by the spread of Calvinism among the nobility. At the end of the war in 1559, Henry was determined to give more attention to the religious problem in France. Instead, his premature death in July 1559 put the country into political and religious turmoil. The second chapter examines events leading to the outbreak of the first religious war in April 1562. After Henry’s death, the religious tension was exacerbated by a power struggle among noble families – such as the Guises, the militant defenders of the Catholic faith, and the Bourbons, who were sympathetic to the Protestant cause – to dominate Henry’s young sons, Francis II（ 1559-60） and Charles IX（ 1560-74）. Their mother, Catherine de Medici, tried hard to maintain a religious peace in France by means of a compromise between the two faiths, but in vain. The‘ massacre of Vassy’ in March 1562 provoked a Huguenot army to capture Orléans. The third chapter provides a brief description of the war itself and explains how the absence of a large standing army and the crown’s inability to fund military efforts for any protracted period of time prevented it from defeating the Huguenots. To sum up, this article shows that the war defies a simple explanation and was caused by various political and religious factors including the untimely death of Henry II, the power struggle among noble factions, the desire of many noblemen to display their military virtue, the belief of many Catholics that Protestantism was a serious threat to the peace and stability of their community, and the impossibility of achieving doctrinal compromise