6 - The French Wars of Religion

Summary

Calvin thus advised the French Reformed communities to await the consequences of King Henry II’s sudden death in a jousting accident several months earlier. French Calvinists (hereafter called Huguenots) could hope and pray that the late king’s policy of repression might change under his successor. With the historians’ gift of hindsight, however, we know that the opposite occurred: Henry II’s death catapulted France into an extended period of political, religious, and social upheaval that encompassed the second half of the sixteenth century. We also know that during the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598), Huguenots did not “possess [their] souls in patience.” They suffered greatly, but they also organized and fought against their Catholic opponents, defied the French crown, and ultimately became a protected if vulnerable religious minority in a Catholic kingdom.