HI306K: THE FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION (2024-2025)

This course deals with the French Wars of Religion, fought between Catholics and Protestants (or Huguenots) in the second half of the sixteenth century. It provides an opportunity to study the ways in which the civil wars transformed France’s politics, society and culture. While the formation of religious parties disintegrated traditional faction politics, efforts to end violence gave rise to the concept of religious toleration, and debates around the right of resistance contributed paradoxically to the development of Gallican absolutism. Thus, the Wars of Religion fostered new ways of considering civil society, individuality, and the state, which had a profound impact on modern European history.

Exploring a range of primary sources (in English translation), we will discuss some of the main interpretative trends in historical scholarship on the period, considering topics such as: Gallicanism, reform and Calvinism; the formation of religious parties and the extent to which they reflected pre-existing social and political tensions; religious ideologies and court politics; religious violence and its rituals, including iconoclasm and large-scale collective violence, for instance during the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day (1572); debates on the limits of the king’s power, and on the right of resistance, led in particular by the Monarchomachs; the parallel government – based on political assemblies – created by the Huguenots as part of the Union of Provinces in the south of France (1573); political propaganda and print culture during the wars; irenicism, ‘Moyenneurs’, ‘Politiques’, and the invention of religious toleration; peace restoration policies and strategies, including the use of general amnesty and guarantees given to Protestants regarding equal rights in terms of law, justice and access to public offices, as reflected notably in the Edict of Nantes (1598); the renovation of the state under Henry IV and the role that ways of remembering the wars played in the formation of Bourbon political culture (up to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685); and finally the characteristics and long-term significance of the first wave of Huguenot immigration resulting from the civil wars.

The course also offers an opportunity to examine historiographical discussions – originating from the Enlightenment – around the role of the Wars of Religion in fostering a form of civil society where religion is relegated to private life, and in creating a modern polity which guarantees civil rights in exchange for loyalty to a sovereign nation-state.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

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There are no assessments for this course.