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movement. Thinking he would turn his attention to the issue of Protestantism in 1559 following
the end of his military campaigns, his unexpected death in June of the same year prevented this,
instead bringing to the throne his ten-year-old son François II (1559-1560). The new king’s
youth and inexperience nullified the authoritative role of the monarch, allowing members of the
staunchly Catholic house of Guise to assume control of the royal council. 12 The Guise family’s
newly acquired power triggered dissatisfactions with other aristocratic families, notably
members of the house of Bourbon, who in addition to being the nearest cousins to the king, and
thus first princes of the blood, were also recent converts to the Reformed faith. 13 The court’s
ensuing political instability, brought on by the tense relationship between the Guise and Bourbon
aristocrats, was only exacerbated by growing religious tensions between the Huguenots and the
Catholics. Members of the Reformed churches became increasingly militant through public
displays of preaching and abstention from Catholic processions and services. In response to the
outward rejection of traditional orthodoxy, Catholics escalated public attacks against Protestants
and persecuted the heretics in the courts.
The French monarchy continued to remain a central part of the religious problems during
the regency of Catherine de’ Medici, Henri II’s widow, who ruled for her ten-year-old son
Charles IX (1560-1574) following the death of François II. Adopting a policy of moderation that
gave the Protestants limited freedom of worship, the queen hoped to limit escalating religious
tensions and to prevent Huguenots from provoking Catholics. 14 While Catherine de’ Medici
thought that her strategy of moderation would give her time to develop a plan that would
ultimately reunite France under one Christian confession, the members of the Reformed churches
had different ideas. Upon receiving these rights, the Protestants took advantage of the situation
by engaging in prohibited acts, including gathering in assemblies, taking possession of more
churches, and performing acts of iconoclasm. Catholics retaliated with equally offensive acts of
religious violence ranging from invading known sites of Huguenot worship to setting fire to
Protestant churches.
In March 1562 these actions led to a clash between the two faiths, marking the beginning
of the first of the eight religious wars. The fighting was prompted by the duke of Guise, who
along with his entourage invaded a barn in the town of Vassy in Champagne where Protestants
were worshiping, leaving as many as fifty unarmed worshipers dead and injuring another one
hundred fifty. As characterized by Mack Holt, starting with this conflict, the battles established a
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