The French wars
1562-1598
Summary
The French wars lasted from 1562-1598. It was a conflict between the Huguenots led by King Henry of Navarre and the Catholic Guise Family. There was a bunch of wars in different parts of the world. The overall outcome of this war is kind of a draw. Both sides didn't exactly get what they wanted, but in the end they compromised and came to an agreement.
The First War
The massacre of Vassy which was on March 1, 1562 started hostilities between the Huguenots and the Catholics. It was the Huguenot nobles telling the Catholics that they wanted to separate from the Catholic Church. That led to an argument and to the start of the French wars. The first battle was when the Protestants took control of a little area that the Catholics owned. They killed their lutenant. The Catholics revolted and they started fighting in Conde. 3000 people were killed. It was mostly Protestants so it was a win for the Catholics. And then the war was started.
The Edict of Longjemeau
In March of 1567 the Huguenots got back into fighting. They took over parts of France. The Catholics didn't like it so they came up with this treaty to get them out. The treaty's went successful. It only lasted 5 months.
St. Bartholemues Day massacre
Everything got shaken up when a princess of France was going to get married to King Henry of Navarre in 1572. Well that is what everyone thought. The actual plan was to get all the hugeonouts in one place. So they could all get executed. The plan worked really good. They killed a lot of very high Protestants, but they accidentally married the king to the Thorne. So he was next in line. The the king died and he became the king of France.
The Catholic League
When he became the king the Catholic court made him become Catholic. He agreed because he could say he was Catholic, take control of France, and still be a Protestant. He would just say he was a Catholic.
The Edict of Nantes 1598
It is a truce between the two religions. It states that you can pick to be what religion you want to be. The only exception is you have to be Catholic in the main city. This also allowed them some political freedoms as well. Overall the Protestants got what they wanted. Freedom of religion.
KEY FIGURES
Hugueonouts
The hugueonouts were the Leading people on the charge for religious freedom. They were founded by John Calvin you made the idea for freedom of religion.
Henry the fourth
He was the leader of the Hugeonouts. Later on in life he became the king of France. But he still was on the hugeonouts side. He then fought for the hugeonouts any chance he got. In the end he was still a hugeonout saying he was a Catholic.
Catherine de Medici
She was a very influential catholic. She was always against the hugeonouts. She was the person that orchestrated the Saint Batholomews Day Massacre.
Cause
The straight cause was one side wanted to control their religion. And the other wanted to keep the control over the other side. The direct cause is a little skirmish occurred an the two sides got real butt hurt so they broke out into a huge war.
Outcome
The huguenots one the war and got what they wanted. Religious freedom. The only part they weren't all for is all the rules of the treaty. The treaty states that you can pick what religion you want to be outside of Paris. If you live inside of have to be Christian.
Main significance
Or the Edict of Nantes allowed Huguenots to exercise new rights, but only in their designated town and territories. This eased tensions between Protestants and Catholics.
Now people will say that this changed our whole outlook on society and how it changed for the better. People accepting people for what they wanted to believe. But it didn't really change anything. Sure it was a win there for the people that wanted to make a change. But for centuries later people still don't accept people. People don't appreciate people for who they are or what the believe in. They always try to discriminate against them for many reasons. So the overall cause the Huguenots were trying to achieve. To create freedom of religion. And to just create freedom of anything you believe in. Was not met. It was met at that time. But in the overall view of history. It was not met at all. They basically failed their goal.