The French Wars of Religion (1562-1598) were a series of eight conflicts between Protestant and Catholic factions in France lasting 36 years, The fighting ended in 1598 when Henry of Navarre, who had converted to Catholicism in 1593, was proclaimed Henry IV of France and issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights and freedoms to the Huguenots. However, Catholics continued to have a hostile opinion of Protestants in general and of Henry, and his assassination in 1610 triggered a fresh round of Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s.
Tensions had been rising between Protestants and Catholics since 1534 but the religious and political situation worsened after Henry II (r. 1547-1559) died from an injury. His son, Francois II (Francis II, r. 1559-1560), crowned king at the age of 15, had been married to Mary, Queen of Scots (l. 1542-1587) who was the niece of Francis, Duke of Guise (l. 1519-1563) and his brother Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (l. 1524-1574). Although Francis II was of age to rule on his own, his mother, Catherine de ‘Medici (l. 1519-1589) encouraged the Guise brothers to assume control as Francis II was inexperienced and sickly.
The House of Guise, devoutly Catholic, then exercised the power behind the throne and were hostile to the efforts of the Huguenots (French Protestants) who were advancing their vision in France. In March 1560, a group of Huguenots tried to kidnap Francis II to remove him from the influence of the Guise brothers. The plot, known as the Amboise Conspiracy, was discovered and anyone thought to be involved, as well as over 1,000 other Huguenots, were executed. In retaliation, Huguenots began vandalizing Catholic churches and rising tensions led to the Massacre of Vassy in March of 1562, in which Catholics killed more Protestants, starting the first war.
Conflict continued, with periods of armed peace between hostilities, until 1598 when King Henry IV, recognizing that France would never accept a Protestant king, converted to Catholicism (allegedly, with the famous line, “Paris is well worth a Mass”). His Edict of Nantes (1598), granting rights to Protestants in France while maintaining Catholic sovereignty, ended the French Wars of Religion (which had cost approximately 4 million lives) but did not address the underlying tensions which continued to erupt throughout the next century.
French Wars of Religion - World History Encyclopedia :france-cool:
French Wars of Religion - Comprehensive Documentary - Pike & Shot Channel :macron:
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I'm reading all the Dune books again (just finished 5). The thing that strikes me this time around is that Frank Herbert should have read some communist theory and some queer theory. A far-future society where fucking everyone is cis and straight? I don't buy it. And feudalism is the economic/social system that makes the most sense? I don't buy that either. But I don't know what I expect, the guy (Frank Herbert) clearly believes wholeheartedly that history is driven by a select few people and the mass of humanity don't matter. He's also pretty into eugenics. It's really annoying, actually. It just doesn't strike me as very good or interesting sci-fi. I'd sum up the premise of the Dune books as "What if hundreds of thousands of years from now humans had done eugenics enough that some people can literally see the future?" And like, ok, the literally seeing the future stuff is interesting, and I think the role of prophecy in these books is pretty cool, but once Leto II dies, prophecy and prescience just go out the window as plot devices, and we're left with Miles Teg turning into The Flash (because of his Atreides genes, it's so fucking full of eugenics I hate it) and the Honored Matres who use sex as a ridiculously potent weapon, but they're bad for doing so, at least according to the Bene Gesserit. And what's up with that? It really feels like the Bene Gesserit use sex as a weapon too, but I guess it's more correct to say they use sex as a tool in order to do eugenics better. They're into it for breeding reasons, whereas the Honored Matres are into it for controlling men reasons. Oh, and the Tleilaxu are another power player, but you know what? I'm not even going to get into their whole deal (extremely misogynist, unless I've seriously misread something).
It's all silly and annoying and I don't think Frank Herbert is as deep as he thinks he is and I wish he had thought about politics and sexuality from a few more perspectives (specifically, a communist one and a queer one, respectively). I think this series would be better with more emphasis on the mass of common people who have to live in this deeply fucked up universe and any recognition that non-procreative sex (especially gay sex) exists and is cool and good.
I'm probably not going to read these stupid books again once I finish them this time. Well, maybe I'll read the first three again at some point, because that's where the questions I find interesting are explored. (Mostly the seeing the future stuff. How do you live a life if you can see the future? What if the future you see is horrific? Should you fight against it? Can you even do so?)