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The Reformation in France

The First Phase

Condé was in the field at the time as well. He was widely faulted at the time, and by historians today, because at this critical juncture he failed to go to Paris and protect the queen. Instead, he delayed and the Duke of Guise went there instead. The result was that Catherine was now under the influence of the Catholic Guises.

The Guise family continued to hold power at court, even though Guise himself was assassinated in 1563. The wars themselves proceeded by fits and starts, mainly as one side or the other was able to call in armies from elsewhere. The first campaigns were 1562-63, the second were 1567-68, and a third in 1568-70. In this latter campaign, Condé was killed and Coligny became the Huguenot leader.

The last phase ended with the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1570), which granted the Huguenots religious freedom within their own territories, conceded the power of the Huguenot nobility, and granted the Huguenots the right to fortify their cities, which numbered two hundred. At this point it looked very much as if France would take the path taken in Germany: cuius regio, cuius religio.

Just when Protestant fortunes seemed to be on the rise, however, there fell a most serious blow that changed circumstances and again plunged France into religious civil war.