Through a wide-ranging and close analysis of archival sources, this book re-evaluates both the role of royal authority and of local agency in the French religious wars in the lead up to the Edict of Nantes of 1598. Drawing on extensive research, it provides a new perspective on the political, religious, social and cultural history of the conflict.

A new look at the French wars of religion, designed for undergraduate students and general readers.

Through translations of documents concerning communal religious violence, political confrontation and war, this book aims to provide the means to study the French Wars of Religion through contemporary sources. Documents include: legislative acts of the period from the edicts concerning religion and toleration in 1560-62 to the 1590s; sources on types of religious violence during the early years of the wars; an examination of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew; and the breakdown in the 1580s and its restoration by Henry IV.

Aimed firmly at the student reader, this handbook offers an overview of the full range of the history of France, from the origins of the concept of post-Roman "Francia," through the emergence of a consolidated French monarchy and the development of both nation-state and global empire into the modern era, forward to the current complexities of a modern republic integrated into the European Union and struggling with the global legacies of its past. Short, incisive contributions by a wide range of expert scholars offer both a spine of chronological overviews and a diverse spectrum of up-to-date insights into areas of key interest to historians today. From the ravages of the Vikings to the role of gastronomy in the definition of French culture, from Caribbean slavery to the place of Algerians in present-day France, from the role of French queens in medieval diplomacy to the youth-culture explosion of the 1960s and the explosions of France’s nuclear weapons program, this handbook provides accessible summaries and selected further reading to explore any and all of these issues further, in the classroom and beyond.

This collection of essays seeks to analyse historically these influences, connections, and impact from multiple points of view, such as – but not limited to – the links between war and rebellion, the issues of trust and religious violence, early modern university debates on war and peace, the problems engendered by intolerance and the difficult management of tolerance, the delicate matters of politico-religious accommodation and the implementation of peace in towns and contested territories, the reappraisals and changes in the narratives of military prowess and religious fidelity, the role of women in the religious conflicts in the 'long sixteenth century', the porous boundaries (imagined or real) which existed between 'enemies' in times of war and the issues connected to the cohabitation with the 'Other' in times of peace.

Religious War and Religious Peace in Early Modern Europe presents a novel account of the origins of religious pluralism in Europe. Combining comparative historical analysis with contentious political analysis, it surveys six clusters of increasingly destructive religious wars between 1529 and 1651, analyzes the diverse settlements that brought these wars to an end, and describes the complex religious peace that emerged from two centuries of experimentation in accommodating religious differences. Rejecting the older authoritarian interpretations of the age of religious wars, the author uses traditional documentary sources as well as photographic evidence to show how a broad range Europeans - from authoritative elites to a colorful array of religious 'dissenters' - replaced the cultural 'unity and purity' of late-medieval Christendom with a variable and durable pattern of religious diversity, deeply embedded in political, legal, and cultural institutions.

The Emergence of Pastoral Authority in the French Reformed Church, c.1555-c.1572 offers an account of the issues and ambiguities connected to the implementation of the authority of the first generation of Geneva-trained French Reformed pastors.