A series of eight civil wars fought in France between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots from 1562 to 1598, entangled from the start with a succession crisis over the French throne. Fighting alternated with uneasy truces across the period; the wars' most notorious episode, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, killed thousands of Huguenots, beginning in Paris and spreading to other cities. The conflict ended when the Protestant-born Henry IV, having converted to Catholicism to secure the throne, issued the 1598 Edict of Nantes, granting Huguenots limited freedom of worship, civil rights and a number of fortified towns of their own, an early instance of a state extending legal toleration to a religious minority it had just finished fighting.
Facts
Disputed
Death Toll, Low EstimateThe lower end of the total war-dead estimate, from violence, famine and disease over the eight wars, roughly a tenth of France's pre-war population. The figure has been specifically challenged as difficult to verify against the surviving parish and military records, so it is recorded here as the widely cited estimate rather than a settled count. Death Toll, High EstimateThe higher end of the same estimate, roughly a sixth of France's pre-war population, carrying the same verifiability caveat as the lower bound. YearConventionally dated from the March 1562 Massacre of Vassy, which opened the first of the wars' eight phases, to the April 1598 Edict of Nantes. Connections
Associated With
The kingdom's own civil wars between Catholic and Huguenot factions, fought within its territory from 1562 to 1598.
Source The French Wars of Religion, 1559-1598R. J. Knecht
In Era
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. The French Wars of Religion, 1559-1598
R. J. Knecht, LongmanFrench Wars of Religion: Event Type
A series of eight civil wars fought in France between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots from 1562 to 1598, entangled from the start with a succession crisis over the French throne.
- Associated With: The Kingdom of France
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