HUUUENOT8 



troop- I'KIIII l..-imaiiy, llliil hiege t< Poitiers, l.llt 

 .igain defeat. !' li\ the Duke of Anjou at 

 .intoiir. Fie-Oi reinforoemenU from England, 



S\\ it/erland, Hinl Germany enabled Coligny 1<> 

 take Ntmes in 1509, ami to relieve La Roe&eUa. 

 whilM l.anoue obtained a victory over tlie ri\al 

 troops at I, neon. Catliarine ami her son now 

 sought for |H?ace ; and a treaty, concluded at St 

 (..-imam .-n |.a\,. in August 1570, gave to the 

 Piod-tant* an amnesty, tin- free exercise of their 

 religion even where except in Paris, and the poaaei 

 sion iif a number nf places nf security. 



Catharine, having failed to overthrow tin- IV" 

 testant cause in the open field, sought to accom- 

 pli.-h her object by treachery ; and by a general 

 massacre, of Protestants on St Bartholomew's Day 

 (q.v. ) 1.Y72, 30,000 Huguenots were slain within 

 t\\u nioiitlis in Paris and in the provinces. Al- 

 though deprived of their leaders, and weakened 

 by the slaughter of great numl>er8 of their best and 

 bravest, the Protestants flew to anus. The Duke 

 of Aniou, after having lost his army before La 

 Roehelle, took advantage of his election to the 

 throne of Poland, and in 1573 concluded a peace 

 by which the Protestants obtained the free exercise 

 or their religion in their places of security, Mont- 

 auban, Nimes, and La Roehelle. A section of the 

 1 Ionian Catholic nobility, at whose head was the 

 Duke of Alencon, the youngest son of Catharine, 

 from purely political motives united with the 

 Protestants in opposition to the queen-mother and 

 tin- (Hii-es. Catliarine, therefore, incited her third 

 son, now Henry III., immediately to recommence 

 hostilities against the Protestants. But, contrary 

 to all expectation, the Protestant cause was in 

 the highest degree prosperous during the year 

 1575. A peace was concluded at Beaulieu by 

 which the Protestants were freed from all restric- 

 tions in the exercise of their religion, and obtained 

 eight new places of security. The Duke of Guise 

 originated a Catholic association, called the Holy 

 League, at the head of which the king put him- 

 self in the Assembly of the States at Blois in 

 ]">7t), and the sixth religious war began. Peace 

 was, however, ajjain concluded by the king him- 

 self at Bergerac, in 1577, on the former conditions ; 

 and Catharine, to diminish the power of the Duke 

 of Guise, entered into a private treaty with Henry 

 of Navarre. The terms of peace being violated by 

 the court, Henry I., Prince of Conde, son of Louis 

 I., commenced the seventh religious war (called 

 the guerre des amoureux) in November 1579; but 

 he and his colleague Henry of Navarre being van- 

 quished, peace was concluded at Fleix, November 

 1680. 



There was now a comparatively long interval of 

 repose till 1584, when, by the death of the Duke 

 of Anjou ( formerly of Alencon ), Henry of Navarre 

 became heir to the throne of France. Hereupon 

 Henry, Duke of Guise, exerted himself for the 

 revival of the League, entered into an alliance with 

 Spain and the pope for the extirpation of heresy, 

 declared the Cardinal of Bourbon heir to the throne, 

 and began hostilities against the Protestants. This 

 war is commonly known as the ' war of the three 

 Henries.' The king soon made terms with Guise, 

 and declared all the privileges of the Protestants 

 to be forfeited. The Protestants, having obtained 

 troops from Germany and money from England, 

 entered on the eighth religious war, Henry of 

 Navarre commanding the Protestant army. 'The 

 Duke of Guise, in the midst of these troubles, 

 grasped the whole power of the state. But his 

 designs with regard to the throne having become 

 very evident, the king caused him and his brother 

 the cardinal to be assassinated at the Assembly of 

 the States at Blois in September 1588. In less 

 than a year the king was himself assassinated by 



a monk named Jacquea Clement, and Henry of 

 Navarre succeeded to the throne, and nigned the 

 famoiiH Edict of Nantes (Me NANTEH) on 13th 

 April 1508. 



I'nder tlie reign of Henry IV. the Prote*UuiU 

 lived in tranquillity, lint when, during the minor- 

 ity of I .mi i- XIII., Mary de' Medici, tlie queen of 

 Henry IV., assumed the reins of government, the 

 marriage treaties with the Spanish court excited 

 the appielien-iiins of the Protestants to such a 

 degree that in November lil."> the Prince of Conde 

 set up the standard of rebellion. In spite of the 

 treaty of Loudun ( 1016), in June 1617 a royal edict 

 commanded the entire suppression at once of the 

 Protestant Church and of political privileg. 

 the province of Beam ; an edict not carried into 

 full effect till 1620. Hostilities again broke out 

 in May 1621. At the head of the Protestants were 

 the two brothers, the Duke of Rohan and the 

 Prince Soubise. Their cause, however, was feebly 

 maintained ; and after the capitulation of Mont- 

 pellier, 21st October 1622, there followed a general 

 peace, by which the Edict of Nantes was con- 

 lirmed, out the right of prohibiting the assem- 

 blies of the Protestants was assumed on the part 

 of the crown. The court, however, paid little 

 attention to the treaty, and the Protestants again 

 rose in arms. Soubise, with a fleet furnished by 

 the town of La Roehelle, oftener than once defeated 

 the weak royal navy ; and Cardinal Richelieu (q.v.) 

 resolved upon the capture of La Roehelle. This 

 he accomplished after a heroic resistance by the 

 inhabitants. The fall of La Roehelle was speedily 

 followed by that of Nlmes, Montauban, Castres, 

 and all the other Protestant strongholds. Now 

 left defenceless, and bereft of all political power, 

 the Protestants were entirely dependent on the 

 will of the court, which, however, made no attempt 

 to deprive them of their liberty of conscience. It 

 was Louis XIV. who, at the instigation of Madame 

 de Maintenon and his confessor Lachaise, com- 

 menced anew the persecution of the Protestants, 

 gradually deprived them of their equal civil rights, 

 and endeavoured to put down the Protestant 

 Church altogether. Bodies of troops, accompanied 

 by monks, passed through the southern provinces, 

 compelling the inhabitants to renounce their 

 religion, demolishing the places of worship, and 

 putting to death the preachers ( see DRAGONXADES). 

 Fenelon was conspicuous for his zeal in seeking the 

 conversion of Protestants. Hundreds of thousands 

 fled to Switzerland, the Netherlands, England, and 

 Germany. Many Protestants also made an insin- 

 cere profession of Roman Catholicism. On 23d 

 October 1685 Louis at last revoked the Edict of 

 Nantes. Hereupon began a new flight, followed 

 by a still more fearful persecution of the Pro- 

 testants. Their marriages were declared null ; 

 their children deprived of the right of inheritance, 

 and forcibly shut up in convents; their preachers 

 indiscriminately put to death. From the vicinity 

 of Nfmes, where they had always U-en very 

 numerous, thousands betook themselves to the 

 mountains of the Cevennes, ami continued the 

 exercise of their religion in secret. Amongst these 

 and the mountaineers of the Cevennes a remarkable 

 fanatical enthusiasm displayed itself, and, under 

 the name of Camisards (q.v.), thev maintained 

 for a number of years a wonderfully siicce-Mul 

 opposition to the forces of the great monarchy. 

 The War of the Cevennes, or Camisard War, was 

 not terminated till 17<Xi. the suppression of the local 

 rel>ellion being attended with circumstances of 

 great cruelty. France lost in twenty years more 

 than half a million of her mo-t active, enten>ri-ing, 

 and industrious citizens ; and, notwithstanding all 

 the persecutions, about two millions continued to 

 adhere to the Protestant religion. 



