L’Histoire Recent de la France

L’Histoire Recente de la France

Or, in English, Recent French History. Most of us know a good deal about what was going on in England during the Renaissance, but little enough about France or other countries, except as it impacts English history. However, if we’re going to be French, we probably ought to know that there were Big Important Issues and actual bloodshed over them in the France of the day. Herewith, then, a timeline, with explanations and comments where necessary.

Date	Event	Commentary
1515	François I becomes King of France	François (Frahnswa) was famous for several things, including his looks and fighting ability, his sexual appetite, being the French king Henry VIII of England met on the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and bringing Leonardo da Vinci to France. He was also a Valois, one of several French families, all with claims on the throne, which were then competing for power and would continue to do so throughout this period.
1519	François’s son Henri (Onree) born
ca. 1533	Henry VII creates the Anglican Church	Henry never intended the Church of England to be Protestant, but rather a ‘Catholic’ church that reported to (and obeyed) him, not the Pope, thereby giving him a useful additional source of funds and, coincidentally, his divorce. However, many English politicians and church leaders disagreed, and the English church gradually became more and more Protestant.
1533	Both Henry VIII of England (who is between wives) and James V of Scotland seek the hand of Marie de Guise; she marries James in 1538	The Guise (gueeze) family was one of the most powerful in France at the time. Headed by the Duc (Duke) de Guise, they also included a Cardinal and the Abbess of one of the major convents. Marie was the Duc de Guise’s sister, and widow of the Duc de Longueville. James’s mother had been Henry VIII’s younger sister; he therefore had the next claim on the English throne after Henry’s children.
December, 1542	James V of Scotland’s daughter Mary born; six days later, her father dies, leaving her Queen of Scots	England and Scotland were then at war; the English had just won a decisive victory at Solway Moss in November; James is said to have died of a broken heart over the loss.
1544	After several years of marriage, Prince Henri of France and his wife, Catherine de Medicis, finally have a child, a son, who is named François.	Catherine de Medicis, of the famous and wealthy Florentine family, was the Pope’s niece at the time of her marriage. She was an extremely committed Catholic all her life. Henri and Catherine had three other sons: Charles (Sharl), Henri, and a second François, as well as three daughters.
1547	François I of France and Henry VII of England both die; Henri II and Edward VI become King	The men who became Edward’s regents over the next few years were committed Protestants; by the end of his short reign, so was the Church of England.
1548	Mary, Queen of Scots, is betrothed to François, Dauphin of France, and goes to France to be raised.	Dauphin (Dauw-phan) is the title of the Crown Prince of France, just as the English Crown Prince is the Prince of Wales. Marie de Guise remained in Scotland as her daughter’s regent. France and Scotland were now closely allied, and France sent a army to assist Scotland in its on-going war with England. (Once the English started losing to the French, the war sort of faded away...)
1558	Marie, Reine d’Ecosse (ren daycoss), as she is now called, marries François le Dauphin. England having joined the war between France and Spain in 1557, on the side of Spain, the Duc de Guise attacks and captures the last English property on the Continent, the city of Calais. Mary I of England dies, and is succeeded by her sister Elizabeth.	England had been Catholic again during the reign of Mary I (‘Bloody Mary’), who had married Philip II, King of Spain. Elizabeth was herself a Protestant, although not a devout or evangelical one; the marriage of her parents was considered invalid by Catholics, and she to be illegitimate. In Catholic eyes, therefore, Marie d’Ecosse (granddaughter of Henry VII, and second cousin to Elizabeth) was the legal queen of England, and she and her husband assumed the title of ‘King and Queen of England and Ireland’, and the royal arms of England, at Henri II’s insistence.
1559	The Peace of Cateau-Cambresis ends the war between France and England and Spain for now. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis, is married to Philip II of Spain. At the joust in honor of the wedding, Henri II receives splinters of a broken lance in the eye and throat. He dies of the resulting infection 10 days later. François II and Marie d’Ecosse are crowned King and Queen of France.	Diane de Poitiers (Henri II’s long-time mistress) and the Montmorency family, with Protestant - called Huguenot (Hoogwayno) in France - alliances, had succeeded in making themselves the most powerful faction in France. These Huguenot connections were beginning to be shared by another powerful family, the Bourbons, chief of whom were the King of Navarre (Nahvahr), Antoine (Ahntwan), and his eight-year old son, Henri. However, with the death of Henri II, the Guises (the new Queen’s family) again became the most powerful influence on French policy. They succeeded in obtaining the regency for François, over the nearest adult heir, King Antoine of Navarre. There were calls for the execution (by burning) of Nostradamus, whose 1555 prophecies included one which was taken to apply to the death of Henri II. During this period, France was suffering with a crushing war debt, rampant inflation, and religious discord. Jean Calvin (Zahn Kahlvihn), a French Protestant cleric, had made himself de facto ruler of the Swiss city of Geneva, and his beliefs were having great influence in both France and England.
1560	The King is besieged at Amboise by Huguenot rebels, led (indirectly) by the Prince of Conde’ (Conday) who is related to the King of Navarre, intending to remove the Guises from the regency. When they are defeated and captured, the leaders are tortured in the presence of Catherine de Medicis, and then publicly hung. Although Admiral Coligny (Coleenee), another relative of the King of Navarre, and others call for meetings to reconcile the religious factions, the Prince of Conde’ is arrested and condemned to death. In late November, King François II returns from hunting complaining of an ear ache. By December, he is dead of the infection. He is succeeded by his younger brother, Charles (Sharl).	The death of François II saved Conde’, as the King of Navarre, whose wife was Protestant, should have become regent for the new King Charles IX, who was only eleven. Calvin and other Huguenots exulted (prematurely) that France would now become Protestant. However, Catherine de Medicis (now allied with the Guises) succeeded in having herself named as regent for her son, with the acceptance of the King of Navarre. In return, she named him captain-general of France, and pardoned Conde’. This satisfied the Bourbons, but later led to terrible consequences for the Huguenots.
1562	Civil wars (ostensibly over religion) begin in France, and continue until 1598. There will be nine ‘Wars of Religion’ over the next thirty-six years. Antoine de Bourbon is killed at the siege of Rouen (roo-on)	Catherine de Medicis was the actual ruler of France as long as she was regent, and even thereafter, as none of her sons were really effective Kings. Her Catholicism and her devotion to her family’s interests made her resented by large segments of both the nobility and the people.
1567	Elements of the Netherlands revolt against Spain, setting off forty-two years of war over their independence.	The revolt of the Netherlands against Spain expanded to involve both England and France. In the process, Elizabeth lost the control she had until then been able to exert over her national debt, the Duc d’Anjou (the youngest of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis’s sons) and Sir Philip Sidney were killed, the Earl of Leicester was offered the crown of the Low Countries (but Elizabeth wouldn’t let him accept it), and William of Orange (whose family rules there to this day) became king of the northern Netherlands, only to be assassinated.
1572	Catherine de Medicis, Charles IX, and the Guises authorize the assassination of Admiral Coligny, the military leader of the Huguenots, and a murderous attack on Protestants by the people of Paris. This is called the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Henri de Bourbon, now himself King of Navarre, marries Marguerite de Valois, the youngest daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Medicis; the Massacre is made possible by the presence of Huguenot leaders in Paris for the wedding. To save his life, Henri de Navarre pretends to convert to Catholicism, and is kept as a virtual prisoner at Court.	There were moderates in France and the rest of Europe; they were shocked and horrified. Both Catholics and Protestants in France and other countries, however, used the Massacre as propaganda; the Pope issued a commemorative medal. The Massacre spread to the provinces over the next several months; its occurrence and severity in any given place depended greatly on local conditions and the actions and attitudes of the local government.
1574	Charles IX dies; he is succeeded by his brother, Henri III.	Henri III was a dandy, a showy fencer, and an occasional cross-dresser, and kept a retinue of male favorites (called his ‘mignons’ minyons - or ‘darlings’), noted both for their beauty and their short tempers. He was also a devout Catholic, whose faith led him into penitential, not to say masochistic, excesses, and a military hero who won crucial battles over the Huguenots. He was intelligent and practical when he needed to be. Henri was also the first and only of Catherine de Medicis’s sons to be able to control any portion of his own destiny.
1576	Henri, King of Navarre, escapes from the French Court, and resumes his Protestantism. With the Prince of Conde’, he establishes himself as ruler of his ancestral territory, and is militarily successful enough to force a treaty favorable to Huguenot interests. The Holy League is formed in Picardy, where Conde’ is now governor, to resist his rule. Philip II supports them, and King Henri III is forced to declare himself head of the League and to forbid the exercise of Protestant religion in the regions he controls.	The Duc d’Alençon (actually d’Anjou by this time; French princes moved up a title when an elder brother died or became king; d’Alençon had courted Elizabeth and visited England before his last brother died, so he is usually referred to as Alençon by English speakers) allied himself briefly with the Huguenots, offering to support the rights of the people (and, of course, to reduce taxes) if they would make him King. The League was sponsored and largely controlled by the Guises. The League advocated placing the Duc de Guise on the throne.
1584	The Duc d’Anjou dies in the war in the Low Countries, leaving the King of Navarre as the heir presumptive to the throne of France. This is the signal for a three-way civil war between the royal forces, the Holy League, and the Huguenots.
1585	The Guises, with the financial and military support of King Philip II of Spain, revive the Holy League. Henri III tries again to coopt the League, and signs the Treaty of Nemours, revoking all Protestant rights in France.
1588	Henri III is forced to flee Paris by a Catholic uprising, and the League takes control. Claiming to wish to discuss the situation, Henri III invites the Duc de Guise to his quarters on Christmas Eve. Here, the Duc and his brother, the Cardinal de Guise, are assassinated.	The Sorbonne declared, after the assassination, that Henri III should be deposed, and authorized any citizen to return the favor and assassinate him. (A similar papal bull, Regnans in Excelcis, had been issued against Elizabeth I of England in 1570.)
1589	The League, now led by the Duc de Mayenne, youngest of the Guise brothers, attacks Henri III. He allies himself with the King of Navarre in opposition to the League. In July, a monk assassinates Henri III. On his deathbed, Henri III names Navarre his heir, Henri IV. The League fights back, but Henri IV wins several crucial battles.
1590	Henri IV besieges Paris, and nearly captures it. Philip II sends the Duque (dookay, Spanish, duke) de Parma to relieve the city, and Henri IV is forced to withdraw.
1593	The Spanish propose the Infanta, Philip II’s daughter by his second marriage (to Elizabeth de Valois, eldest daughter of Henri II) as queen, to be married to the young Duc de Guise. Saying “Paris is worth a Mass”, Henri IV converts to Catholicism and is crowned.	The accession of the Infanta would have violated the Salic Law, which prohibits a woman from inheriting the throne of France. Actually, of course, Henri IV was speaking French and said ‘Paris vaut une Messe.’ (Paree voh oon mess)
1594	Henri IV enters Paris, and the Spanish garrison departs.	Henri IV wooed, won, and flat-out bought the loyalty of nobles and towns throughout France. He made no bones that such loyalty was ‘sold, not given’ (‘vendu, pas rendu’ - vondoo, pah rondoo). He would continue to fight with Spain for several years, losing Cambrai, Doullens, Calais, and Amiens. But French support for the League waned after his conversion, leaving the Spaniards to bear the costs of war alone. The noble leaders of the League, seeing the handwriting on the wall, made peace with Henri IV during these years, the last of them in 1598.
1598	The Treaty of Vervins is signed between France and Spain, bringing an end to their wars for the time being. The French cities under Spanish rule are returned to France. Henri IV, trying to solve the religious controversies within his country, signs the Edict of Nantes, promising limited tolerance of Huguenot worship in certain areas (not including Paris).	The Edict of Nantes would remain in force for roughly 100 years. For the time being, the religious question was settled (unless you happened to be a Catholic in an area the Edict declared to be Protestant, or vice versa). The French economy began to recover, and both cultural and infrastucture advances were made under King Henri and his chief minister, the Duc du Sully. The Bourbons would remain the royal family of France until the Revolution.

Some of the above information was obtained from the website of Le Poulet Gauche, an SCA-related reinactment group on the East Coast who portray the denizens of an inn (Le Poulet Gauche or ‘the left-hand chicken’ - as in ‘not the right-hand one’) in Calais, ca 1599. By all means stop by there; there is much more detail than I could fit into this timeline, and many other useful bits of information, including French words and phrases and a pronunciation guide:www.lepg.com.

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