X-Nico

4 unusual facts about French Wars of Religion


Anna d'Este

Anna d'Este, also Anne d’Este (16 November 1531, Ferrara – 17 May 1607, Paris) was an important princess with considerable influence at the court of France and a central figure in the French Wars of Religion.

Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy

In the autumn of 1588, taking advantage of the civil war weakening France during the reign of his first cousin Henry III, he occupied the Marquisate of Saluzzo, which was under French protection.

Habsburg Spain

France was stricken for the next thirty years by civil war and unrest (see French Wars of Religion) and was unable to effectively compete with Spain and the Habsburgs in the European power struggle.

Philip Benedict

Benedict’s publications have ranged from economic history to the history of printmaking and information, but have chiefly focused on the social and political history of the Reformation, with primary reference to the French Wars of Religion and the Protestant minority in sixteenth and seventeenth-century France.


Battle of Vimory

The Battle of Vimory occurred on 26 October 1587 between the French royal (Catholic) forces of King Henry III of France commanded by Henry of Guise and German and Swiss mercenaires commanded by Fabien I, Burgrave of Dohna and William-Robert de la Marck, Duke of Bouillon who were hired to assist Henry of Navarre's Huguenot forces during the eighth and final war (1585-1598) of the French Wars of Religion.

Blaye

It was early an important stronghold which played an important part in the wars against the English (who burnt it in 1352) and the French Wars of Religion (when it was the site of a Spanish naval victory in 1593).

Château de Nemours

At the time of the Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants, it was the site of the signature of the Treaty of Nemours in 1585 between Catherine de' Medici and the Duke of Guise, which ratified the progress of the Catholic League and urged Protestants to leave the kingdom, before “good” King Henri IV finally put an end to the quarrels nearly a century later with the Edict of Nantes.

Château du Tournel

A former seat of the Barons of Tournel, one of the eight baronies of Gévaudan, it was destroyed during the French Wars of Religion by Huguenot troops under Matthieu Merle.

Georges d'Armagnac

The papal city of Avignon remained faithful in the bloody Wars of Religion that had broken out in earnest in 1562, but in the surrounding Venaissin the Huguenots were solidly implanted in Orange and the neighboring Dauphiné, and fierce fighting ensued.

Henri d'Angoulême

Henri d'Angoulême took a major role in the two extended military battle against Huguenot strongholds during the height of the French Wars of Religion, engaging in the massive Siege of La Rochelle (1572–1573), organized by the Duke of Anjou, future Henry III of France, and leading the five-year Siege of Ménerbes (1573–1578), fought at a citadel in the Luberon foothills cherished by Pope Pius V.

Léonor d'Orléans, duc de Longueville

Léonor d'Orléans (1540 – 7 August 1573) was duc de Longueville, prince of Châtellaillon, marquis of Rothelin, count of Montgommery and of Tancarville, visount of Abberville, Melun, count of Neufchâtel and of Valangin, was governor of Picardy and Normandy and one of the military leaders of the French Wars of Religion.

Martín de Padilla y Manrique, 1st Count of Santa Gadea

Martín de Padilla y Manrique, 1st Count of Santa Gadea, Adelantado of Castile, (Calatañazor, (present-day Castile and León), 1540 – El Puerto de Santa María, 1602), secretary of state and war of Philip II of Spain, was a Spanish Admiral during the Anglo–Spanish War (1585–1604), French Wars of Religion and the Eighty Years' War.

Marvejols

Following the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, the town walls were reinforced to protect the Huguenot population during the French Wars of Religion, Protestant Capt. Matthieu Merle based himself at Marvejols during his conquest of the Gévaudan.

Paul Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain

He served both Marie de' Medici and her son Louis XIII during a period of conflict between Catholics and Protestants in France, the French Wars of Religion.

Saint-Nectaire, Puy-de-Dôme

The eldest branch of this family held the marquisate of La Ferté, and produced a heroine of the religious wars of the 16th century, Madeleine de St Nectaire, who married Guy de St Exupery, seigneur de Miremont, in 1548, and fought successfully at the head of the Protestants in her territory against the troops of the League.


see also

Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye

Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1570) - terminated the third phase of the French Wars of Religion