A series of religious and political conflicts between groups of Protestants and Catholics in France between 1562 and 1629. Religious dissent and reform movements had swept through Europe in the early sixteenth century, destroying the unity of the Latin Christian church. French kings employed repressive measures beginning in the 1530s, causing reformers such as John Calvin to flee. Divisions hardened between groups who were increasingly known as Catholics and Protestants. Urban and elite women were crucial in the spread of Protestantism, converting their husbands and sons. By the 1550s probably almost a tenth of France’s population and a third of its nobles had become Protestant, most of them practicing Calvinism. This religious minority increasingly demanded legal protections for their religious practices, while many Catholics felt that Protestants polluted their communities at a time when everyone saw religion as public. The religious divisions deepened after King Henri II died in 1559, leading to the outbreak of religious warfare in 1562.
Two French queens played important roles in directing policy and organizing warfare during the French Wars of Religion. French law stipulated that only males could rule the kingdom, but allowed for women to head temporary regency governments to manage the country on behalf of kings too young to govern. Queen Catherine de Medici, wife of Henri II, acted as regent for her three sons, all of whom died as young men. Through three decades of continuing succession crises and religious conflicts, Catherine attempted to manage religious conflicts and negotiate peace in France. However, she maintained firm support for Catholicism and approved a preemptive strike against Calvin-ist leaders in 1572 when she feared that they were plotting to take over Paris, resulting in the infamous Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Later, Marie de Medici acted as regent after her husband, king Henri IV, was assassinated in 1610. Both of these queens wielded considerable power as regents, but also faced serious challenges by nobles and royal officials who contested the authority that they exercised on behalf of their sons.
Women of all social backgrounds were directly involved in all phases of the French Wars of Religion, participating directly in reform movements, pious activities, and religious conflict. Noblewomen often managed family estates, defended chateaux, and engaged in political activity while their husbands were fighting. Female family members of noblemen who were captured often had to raise money and negotiate for their ransom. In remote rural areas peasant women could shape the religious destinies of their villages. Urban women were often entangled in struggles for control of religious sites and civic spaces in religiously divided areas of France. When armies besieged cities, women within the walls helped to defend their communities, assisting in religious, medical, and logistical activities. Besieged women could even take up arms and participate directly in combat.
The French Wars of Religion embroiled women and other non-combatants in brutal civil warfare and horrifying atrocities. Armies routinely intimidated women as they extracted contributions and pillaged communities. Women often suffered physical and sexual violence, especially in mixed-religious areas where fighting frequently erupted. Soldiers and civic guards raped, mutilated, and killed women during orgies of religious massacres or when cities were sacked.
