The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576: The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip IIThompson, James Westfall
History
The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576: The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II
Thompson, James Westfall
France -- History -- Wars of the Huguenots, 1562-1598; Sainte Ligue (1576-1593)
The King granted to the Huguenots public exercise of the Calvinist
religion throughout France except within two leagues of the court and
four leagues of Paris. The Huguenots were declared eligible to all
offices and dignities without discrimination on account of religion.
As a security for the King’s justice against possible abuse of these
rights, the crown engaged to establish mixed parlements, half Catholic,
half Protestant, at Poitiers, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier,
Grenoble, Aix, Dijon, Rheims, and Rouen, and a new chamber in the
Parlement of Paris with two presidents and eighteen councilors,
nine of them Catholic, nine Protestant. Protestant advocates,
_procureurs-généraux_ and _greffiers_ civil and criminal were to be
connected with each of these mixed parlements.
For further protection of the Huguenots, eight cautionary towns were
to be ceded to them, to wit: Aigues-Mortes and Beaucaire in Languedoc;
Périgueux and Le Mas de Verdun in Guyenne; La Rochelle in Poitou;
Yssoire in Auvergne; Nions and Serres (château included) in Dauphiné;
Cennes “la grande tour et le circuit” in Provence. Additional demands
were for general oblivion for all conduct and action by persons of
either side; revocation of all decrees, judgments, and proclamations
hitherto made; rehabilitation of the memory of Admiral Coligny and
restoration of their livings and honors to his children as well as
in the cases of Montgomery, Montbrun, Bricquemault, and Cavagnies.
No prosecution was to be made with regard to the actions done at St.
Germain-en-Laye and Bois de Vincennes.
Two of these provisions were received with great dissatisfaction by
the Huguenot deputies and when published were decried by many of the
Protestants. The first of them was the prohibition of Protestant
worship within the faubourgs of Paris, the act specifically declaring
that St. Denis, St. Maur-des-Fosses, Pont-de-Charenton, Bourg-la-Reine
and Port de Neuilly were within the prohibited confines. The other
one which met with great objection was that touching the security
towns.[1738] The deputies demanded two towns in every government (there
were fourteen governments). But the King would yield only eight, these
to be chosen from the towns already in possession of the Huguenots, a
proviso which eliminated such important points as Niort, Angoulême, and
Cognac. In the case of La Charité and Saumur, over which the longest
discussion arose, a compromise was reached by giving them to Alençon
in appanage. Long and acrimonious debate was made over this article,
and at one stage the negotiations were so nearly broken off that Paris
was notified to be prepared for a renewal of the war. The crown’s
demands in this matter were really not unreasonable, for these eight
towns were not included in the number given to Henry of Navarre or the
prince of Condé, or in the appanage of the duke of Alençon.[1739]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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