FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION 1562-1589                    

Valois Royal Succession:

      Henry II (1547-1559): married Catherine de Medici 1533: part of
      French alliance with Pope Clement VII Medici against Emperor Charles V
      died in 1559, in tournament celebrating end of Habsburg-Valois Wars
            (ended by Peace of Cateaux Cambresis, 1559)
      Catherine de Medici-"the wicked Italian Queen"; in power l559-1588
        daughter of Medici to whom Machiavelli dedicated The Prince
        regent for three young Valois sons: Francis II/Charles IX/Henry III

 French wars as civil war between factions competing for throne:
      1) Valois royal family: Catholic, but also politique: tendency
        to place political considerations before religious ones
      2)  Guise: ultra-Catholics  3)  Bourbons:  Huguenots (Calvinists)

Major Events in French Religious Wars
      1550's Calvinism spreads in southern France--laymen, nobles
      1562 Massacre at Vassy:  Duke of Guise kills group of Huguenots
       meeting on his lands = beginning of Wars of Religion
Struggle between Guise & Bourbon parties for control of Valois
      Catherine attempts to balance factions, arranges marriage alliance
      between Bourbon Prince Henry of Navarre and daughter Margot

1572:  St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre:
Huguenots in Paris for wedding slaughtered by Catholic rioters;
      Henry is forced to convert to Catholicism at sword point

1588-89:  War of the Three Henrys: final phase of war
      Guise Henry Duke of Guise (assassinated by Henry III 1588)
      Valois Henry III: last of Catherine's sons (assassinated 1589)
      Bourbon Henry of Navarre (Henry IV): military victor is Huguenot,
            but converts out of politique motives: "Paris is worth a Mass"

1589 Edict of Nantes: religious settlement of French religious wars
      Catholicism as official religion, but Calvinism tolerated in lands of      
      Huguenot nobles & towns (e.g. La Rochelle) until

1685 Revocation of Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV: absolutist monarch
      "un roi, un loi, un foi/one king, one law, one faith" 

II. Reformation Political Theory:  Theme of Resistance to Tyranny

Luther on German peasants' war: no resistance, but in l530's he
 supports German princes in War of Schmalkaldic League agst Emp.

Calvin's position in Institutes: 1559 edition, accepts
 political resistance by magistrates, even "open avengers"

French Huguenots after 1572 (St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre)
    begin to  expand theory of resistance to tyranny:
    impt. source of modern European revolutionary tradition

Common Themes: 1) resistance to tyrant as self-defense
2) appeals to feudal "constitution" & elective theory of monarchy
3) covenant theology: contract between God & his elect

Effect on English Civil War (1640-1660): Huguenot Calvinist
theories of resistance were used by Puritans in Parliament to
 justify revolt against King, and regicide (Charles I executed 1649)