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- Alternative article First English Civil War(1642–1646)
The First Civil War was pretentiously a religion-based war fought in France in 1562 and 1563. It was a part of a ceaseless struggle for mastery by the powerful house of Guise. The Huguenots lost the first great battle of the religious war at Dreux on December 19, 1562. The skill of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny saved the remnants of the Huguenots' army. The Duke of Guise was assassinated on February 18, 1563. The war ended when the Queen Mother concluded the Peace of Amboise on March 19, 1563. Amboise is the place where the name "Huguenot" was first applied to the Protestant party.
The Huguenots had been proclaimed to be rebels. They received foreign aid in the struggle against their enemies. Admiral Gaspard de Coligny had embraced the Reformed church earlier, which led him to become one of the great leaders of the Huguenots. He sent an expedition to the New World in 1562 in search of a safe haven for the practitioners of his religion.
A Second Civil War was Fought in France in 1567 and 1568. It was ended on March 23, 1568 by the Treaty of Longjumeau. The Third Civil War was concluded on August 8, 1570 by the Treaty agreed to at Saint-Germain-et-Laye. Eight civil wars were fought in the space of a generation.
Causes of the War
Protestantism had been unknown in France until about 1520 to 1523. John Calvin (1509-64), a Frenchman, exerted a powerful influence on the reform movement.
In 1559, delegates from 66 Protestant churches in France met at Paris in a national synod which drew up a confession of faith and a book of discipline. Thus was organized the first national Protestant church of France. Its members were thereafter commonly known as Huguenots, probably a corruption of Eidgenossen, the name of the Confederates of Switzerland and Geneva from whom the French drew so much of their religious thought and organization.
The era of the 1520s to the 1550s was a time of armed conflicts being fought in France. Henry II annexed the bishoprics of Toul, Metz, and Verdun in 1552. His three sons who succeeded him were incapable leaders. King Francis II (1544-60) was a very weak and feeble person whose characteristics allowed ambitious people to foment disastrous conflicts and wars. His brother, Charles IX was also an inept King who ruled from 1560-1574, as was yet another brother, Henry III, who ruled from 1574-1589.
Unfortunately, the Huguenot cause in France became involved in the rivalries of political factions. The massacre of the Protestants at Wassy on March 1, 1562 inflamed the Huguenots. François de Lorraine, second Duke of Guise may have instigated the massacre.
The Prince of Condé, Louis I de Bourbon (1530-69), had early accepted Protestant ideas, then threw in his lot with the Huguenots in 1559 upon the accession of Francis II. He fought in many battles from 1552 to 1569, when he was wounded, taken prisoner, and subsequently assassinated.
Books
- History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France, H. M. Baird, (new edition, two volumes, New York, 1907)
- The Wars of Religion in France, 1559-1576, J. W. Thompson, (Chicago, 1909)
- The Renaissance, the Protestant Revolution, and the Catholic Reaction in Continental Europe, E. M. Hulme, (New York, 1914)
- A History of the Reformation, T. M. Lindsay, (New York, 1906)