The French Wars of Religion

This book aims - through translations of key documents concerning war, communal religious violence, political confrontation and aristocratic faction - to provide the means to study the French Wars of Religion through most important contemporary sources of the period 1560-1600. The overall theme is the inseparability of religious and political violence during that period. The 226 documents printed include: key legislative acts of the period, from Edicts concerning religion and toleration in 1560-2 to the 1590s; sources on the forms of religious violence during the early years of conflict; a detailed examination of the interpretative problems raised by the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew; the early years of Henry III and the emergence of the first of the major Catholic Leagues; the breakdown of royal authority in the 1580s and its restoration by Henry IV. Each section is accompanied by a commentary which guides the reader through the documents translated and there are genealogical tables and maps to accompany them. A guide to further secondary reading in English is provided.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.