The French Wars of Religion

In the late 16th century, France was torn apart by a series of violent religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, with several noble families competing for mastery over the kingdom's salvation

- DANNY BIRD

Both sides used propaganda to vilify the other, as seen in this scene showing alleged Huguenot atrocities against Catholics

WHAT WERE THE FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION AND WHY DID THEY BREAK OUT?

Beginning in 1562, the French Wars of Religion were a series of eight civil wars fought between Roman Catholics and Protestants (or Huguenots) that engulfed the country for 36 years. With the arrival of Protestantism earlier that century into France, a kingdom whose population was overwhelmingly Catholic, years of mounting suspicion and sporadic violence between the two faiths soon divided French society. Efforts by the Crown to tolerate the Huguenots were tentative, although the Edict of Saint-Germain, adopted in January 1562, granted them limited rights.

Nevertheless, fervent Catholics, such as the noble Guise family, believed Protestantism to be heresy and rejected the edict. Two months later, while travelling through Wassy, a town on his estate, Francis, 2nd Duke of Guise and his troops were outraged to discover Huguenots at worship inside a barn. A standoff ensued and quickly descended into a bloodbath, which left about 50 Huguenots dead, including several women and a child. It was the event that triggered the Wars of Religion.

Paris became a charnel house during the St Bartholomew's Day massacre, as shown in this painting by François Dubois

WHO WERE THE HUGUENOTS AND WHAT ROLE DID THEY PLAY IN THE ROAD TO WAR?