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Fourth War of Religion

French Wars of Religion
Part of European wars of religion
Francois Dubois 001.jpg
Depiction of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre by François Dubois
Date March 1562 – April 1598 (36 years and 1 month)
Location France
Result

Uneasy Catholic-Protestant truce

  • House of Bourbon gains the French throne
  • Roman Catholic supremacy in France preserved but monarchy weakened
  • Edict of Nantes grants substantial rights to Protestants in restricted areas
  • Paris and several other territories declared permanently Roman Catholic
  • Catholic-Protestant hostility continues
  • Foreign powers fail to weaken France and gain territories
Belligerents
Protestants:
Croix huguenote.svg Huguenots
 England
 Scotland
Bandera de Reino de Navarra.svg Navarre
 France Catholics:
Emblem of the Papacy SE.svg Catholic League
 Spain
 Duchy of Savoy
Commanders and leaders
Croix huguenote.svg Henry of Navarre (until 1589)
Croix huguenote.svg Princes of Condé
Kingdom of England Elizabeth I
Kingdom of Scotland James VI
Bandera de Reino de Navarra.svg Jeanne d'Albret
Kingdom of France Catherine de Médici
Kingdom of France Charles IX
Kingdom of France Henry III 
Kingdom of France Henry IV (after 1589)
Emblem of the Papacy SE.svg House of Guise
Spanish Empire Philip II
Emblem of the Papacy SE.svg Pope Sixtus V
Duchy of Savoy Charles Emmanuel I
Casualties and losses
2,000,000—4,000,000

Uneasy Catholic-Protestant truce

The French Wars of Religion, or Huguenot Wars of the 16th century, are names for a period of civil infighting, military operations and religious war primarily fought between Roman Catholics and Huguenots (Reformed Protestants) in the Kingdom of France. It involved several pre-modern day principalities around the borders of today's France, like the Kingdom of Navarre and parts of Burgundy, and occasionally spilled beyond the French region, for instance, in the war with Spain, from 1595-1598, into northern Italy, some of the German states of the Holy Roman Empire and the Duchy of Burgundy possessions in the Low Countries.

Approximately 3,000,000 people perished as a result of violence, famine and disease in what is accounted as the second deadliest European religious war (behind the Thirty Years' War, which took 8,000,000 lives in present-day Germany). Unlike all other religious wars at the time, the French wars retained their religious character without being confounded by dynastic considerations.

The conflict involved disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, mainly the Reformed House of Condé (a branch of the House of Bourbon) and the Roman Catholic House of Guise (a branch of the House of Lorraine), and both sides received assistance from foreign sources.


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