The Disintegration and Reconstruction of France

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Section 3.15

• The Disintegration and Reconstruction of France

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France and Wars of Religion
Concord of Bologna
Edict of Nantes
Ascension of Henry IV (Bourbon)
1516 1572 1589 1598 1610
War of the Three Henrys
Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre
Assassination of Henry IV
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Question to consider

• To what extent did the monarchy succeed in
  imposing unity on France by the second half of
  the 16th century? What is meant by the term
  feudal as used after the Middle Ages?
• Describe the background, nature, and outcome of
  the civil and religious wars in France in the
  16th century.
• Of what long-range significance was the position
  taken by the politiques in the civil wars in
  France?
• How did Henry IV come to the throne in 1589? What
  is the deeper meaning of the remark, Paris is
  well worth a Mass?
• How did Henry IV attempt to settle the religious
  issue? Of what significance was his reign for the
  development of the French monarchy?
• How would you assess the objectives and
  accomplishments of Cardinal Richelieu?

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Francis I (1515-1547)

• New Monarch
• Ordinance placed France under central fiscal and
  judicial control
• Made French official language of court
• Sold public offices as means to raise revenue
• Hereditary title exempted family from taxes
• Concordat of Bologna (1516)
• agreement between King Francis I of France and
  Pope Leo X
• Allowed Pope to collect income from Church in
  France
• King given right to appoint clerics
• Made Catholicism official state religion
• Ecclesiastical officials used as public servants
• IE. Many bishops lacked any spiritual
  qualifications
• Calvinism attractive to many

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Feudal Vestiges

• Black Death and 100 Years War had also ended
  serfdom
• Francis I began centralizing authority
• But Nobles still retained power
• Challenges to the centralization came from
• over 300 different legal systems in 300 small
  regions
• bonnes villes (good towns) stubbornly held onto
  their corporate rights

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What divided France?

• Huguenot
• French Calvinist
• Calvins Institutes was written in French
• Comprised of wealth nobles class, bourgeois in
  towns
• Over 33 nobility became Calvinist
• Feudal laws allowed lords to regulate religion in
  their estates
• gave them opportunity to appoint Calvinistic
  preachers
• Iconoclastic
• Destroyed iconic images of saints, Virgin
• Sought to purify French Church of Papist
  influence
• Unskilled laboring population remained Catholic

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Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre (1572)

• Huguenot Nobles
• Used religion as pretext to assert power
• Religious diversity considered impossible
• Violent clashes occurred often as religious
  ceremonies
• Francis II (d. 1560), Charles IX (d. 1574), and
  Henry III (d. 1589) were weak and erratic rulers
• Catherine de Medici
• regent ruler

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Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre (1572)

• Arranged marriage between Huguenot Henry Navarre
  and Catherine ds daughter Margaret of Valois
  (1572)
• Meant to reconcile religious
• Assassination attempt and then success of Admiral
  Gaspard de Coligny triggered massacre
• St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
• August 24, 1572
• Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris
• Massacres took place in other towns in the weeks
  following,
• Up to 12 thousand murdered
• Led to 15 year civil war (War of the Three
  Henrys)
• Henry Guise
• Powerful and ambition Catholic noble
• King Henry III
• Catholic but leery of Guise
• Henry of Navarre
• Hugeonot and politique

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The Politiques

• Out of chaos rose third party called the
  Politiques
• said that too much was being made of religion
• What was needed was civil order
• a strong monarchy
• Had a secular rather than a religious view
• Believed in philosophy of Jean Bodin
• Six Books of the State (1576)
• first to discuss the modern theory of sovereignty
• every society must have 1 power strong enough to
  give law
• Absolutism
• Threw support behind Henry of Navarre

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Henry IV (r. 1589-1610)

• 1589 Henry III of France and Henry of Guise
  assassinated next legal inheritor is Henry
  Bourbon (of Navarre) (Henry IV)
• Henry of Navarre brings the Bourbon dynasty to
  the throne
• a Huguenot but recognized that Catholicism was
  the faith of the majority
• Converts to Catholicism in 1593
• Paris is well worth a mass.

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Edict of Nantes (1598)

• Law which recognized Huguenots liberty of
  conscience and of public worship
• rights to defend themselves and maintain private
  armies (had 100 fortified towns)
• Parlements refused to recognize the Edict
• Silenced them by granting favors to Jesuits

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Reconstruction under Henry IV

• Henry IV begins rebuilding France
• A chicken in the pot for every Frenchmen
• repaired roads, began rebuilding of business,
  ect.
• Never summons the estates general
• Laid the foundations for absolutism
• 1610 Henry IV is killed by Catholic fanatic

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Cardinal Richelieu

• Governments of Marie de Medici and her son Louis
  XIII administered by Cardinal Richelieu
• Cardinal but really a politique
• Continued Henry IVs policies of centralization
• Advances mercantilism
• Encouraged nobility to develop interests in
  commerce without loss of title or status
• Encouraged merchants with grants of titles of
  nobility
• Developed commercial companies

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Peace of Alais

• Prohibits private warfare and orders the
  destruction of fortified castles not used by the
  king
• Peace of Alais amends the Edict of Nantes after
  Protestant uprising is put down
• Huguenots can not share political power, can not
  keep private armies
• Huguenots can practice Protestantism
• Path toward absolutism solidified

Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle.