French Wars of Religion

A series of civil wars between Catholics and Protestants in France from 1562 to 1598. They ended with the Edict of Nantes, which granted Protestants limited religious rights.

Massacre of Wassy: A 1562 killing of French Protestants by troops of Francis, Duke of Guise, that helped trigger open civil war. Its violence marked the outbreak of the first war.
Catherine de' Medici: Queen consort and regent of France who sought to preserve the Valois monarchy amid religious and factional conflict. Her regencies and diplomacy shaped royal policy through much of the wars.
French Reformation: The spread of Protestant ideas and communities in France during the sixteenth century. It created the French Protestant movement whose rights and survival became contested.
Religious toleration: The legal or political allowance of religious practices different from those of a governing authority or majority. The peace introduced a limited form of toleration rather than full religious equality.
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre: A wave of killings of Huguenots in Paris and other French cities beginning on 24 August 1572. The massacre intensified confessional violence during the wars.
Henry III of France: King of France from 1574 to 1589, the last monarch of the Valois dynasty. His weakening authority helped open the succession struggle of the final war.
Huguenots: French Protestants, most of whom followed the Reformed tradition associated with John Calvin. Their communities formed one of the principal sides in the civil wars.
Siege of La Rochelle (1627–1628): A French royal siege that ended La Rochelle's status as a fortified Huguenot stronghold. It shows how later royal policy dismantled protections and power left by the settlement.
War of the Three Henrys: The final major conflict of the French Wars of Religion, fought from 1587 to 1589 among three rival leaders named Henry. It brought the succession crisis and religious conflict to a head.
Henry IV of France: King of France from 1589 and founder of the Bourbon dynasty, who converted from Protestantism to Catholicism. His conversion and settlement with Protestants helped end the conflict.

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