TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: —Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected. —Whereas adequate character is unavalaible, superscripts are rendered as word^[sup]. The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576 [Illustration: VIEW OF PARIS From a sketch by Jacques Callot (1592-1635).] The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576 The Huguenots Catherine de Medici and Philip II BY JAMES WESTFALL THOMPSON, PH.D. _Associate Professor of European History in the University of Chicago_ [Illustration: LOGO ARMS DE LA ROCHELLE] CHICAGO: THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, 1 ADELPHI TERRACE 1909 COPYRIGHT 1909 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Published May 1909 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A. TO MARY HAWES WILMARTH THE LARGESS OF WHOSE SPIRIT HAS MADE THE WORLD RICHER AND LIFE NOBLER PREFACE No one acquainted with the history of historical writing can have failed to observe how transitory are its achievements. Mark Pattison’s aphorism that “history is one of the most ephemeral forms of literature” has much of truth in it. The reasons of this are not far to seek. In the first place, the most laborious historian is doomed to be superseded in course of time by the accumulation of new material. In the second place, the point of view and the interpretation of one generation varies from that which preceded it, so that each generation requires a rewriting of history in terms of its own interest.