NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... and the Duc de Lorraine controlled vast amounts of land that were claimed for the League. In addition to this noble base, the League had a growing urban following among the bourgeoisie, especially in Paris where the government was eventually in the hands of the League Committee of Sixteen. Henri the Third tried to trick the League as he had done a decade ago, by putting himself at its head.
The treaty of Namours, signed in 1585, revoked all the edicts of pacification; banning the practice of the reformed religion throughout the kingdom, declaring Protestants unable to hold royal office, ordering all garrisoned towns to be evacuated, and requiring all Protestants to change their faith within six months. The League under the leadership of the Guise, managed to dominate the north and east. Navarre and Conde entrenched in the south and went looking for foreign aid from the German princes and Queen Elizabeth. In 1587, an army of German mercenaries entered France.
Guise took a League army to deal with them, and Henri the Third sent the Duc de Joyeuse to cut Navarre off in the southwest. Navarre won the first spectacular victory at the battle of Country, killing Joyeuse. Guise in turn sent the Germans home battered. Meanwhile the people of Paris, under the influence of inflammatory League preachers and the Committee of Sixteen, were becoming more dissatisfied with Henri the Third and his failure to put down the Protestants. To be a moderate Catholic was almost as bad as being heretic to the Leaguers.
In May of 1588, a popular uprising where barricades went up in the streets of Paris for the first time caused Henri the Third to flee the city. The Committee of Sixteen took complete control of the government and welcomed the Duc de Guise to the city. The League asked for a meeting of the Estates- General, which was held in Blois in the fall. Their proposed heir to the crown was the Cardinal de Bourbon, Navarre's uncle. He was an old man and would have been a puppet figure for the Guises. There was even a fear that Henri the Third would be forced to resign and that the people might proclaim Guise king.
On Christmas Eve 1588, when the Guise was at Blois for the meetings, Henri the Third invited him to his quarters. Guise should have been suspicious from the row of archers lining the stairwell to the king's apartments, and of the forty gentlemen waiting in the anteroom. When he entered, the doors were bolted and although he struggled heroically, he was cut to pieces, his body burnt, and the ashes scattered to the wind. The same happened to his brother the Cardinal de Guise. This removed the two preeminent leaders from the House of the Guise, but it left the younger brother, the Duc de Mayenne, who now became leader of the League.
Henri's triumph over the House of Guise was short-lived. The League took over printing revolutionary tracts, exceeding by far in vitriol the earlier anti-royalist tracts of the Huguenots. The Sorbonne proclaimed that it was just and necessary to depose Henri the Third, and that any private citizen was morally free to commit regicide. And in fact, one of them eventually did. The League sent an army against Henri the Third, and Henri the Third asked Navarre for an alliance.
The two kings joined forces to reclaim Paris. In July 1589, in the royal camp at St. Cloud, a monk named Jacques Clement begged an audience with the king and put a long knife into his spleen. At first it looked as though he would recover, but the wound worsened.
On his deathbed, Henri the Third called for Navarre and named him his heir. The Wars of the League (1589 - 1598) Henri the fourth's position was delicate. Some of the late Henri the Third's followers gave their loyalties to their new leader, and others just melted away. The League staged coups in many of the principal cities of France.
In a reign of terror, they kept a watch on the political correctness of the citizens, hanging moderates, Protestants, and suspicious persons. Well financed with Spanish money, Mayenne took to the field; Henri the Fourth brought the war out of the south and into the north, which was critical if he wanted to be king of France and not just king of Gascony. In September of 1589, Henri met Mayenne and dealt him a serious defeat at Argues. His army swept through Normandy, taking town after town that winter, and then he inflicted an even more crushing defeat to the League in the March of 1590 at Ivy. The League pretender, the Cardinal de Bourbon, died, weakening the League position even further. Henri laid siege to Paris in the spring and summer of 1590.
Although he reduced it to severe hunger, he made humanitarian gestures such as letting women and children leave. This is not militarily wise by a besieger, as it allows the remaining food in the city to be consumed solely by combatants. The situation alarmed Phillip the Second of Spain, who ordered the Duc of Parma to divert from suppressing the Dutch to relieving the siege. Parma was able to get supplies into the city. Soon after Henri the Fourth was obliged to withdraw. In 1593, the League held an Estates-General in Paris, to name a candidate for the throne of France.
The Spanish proposed the Infanta, the daughter of Phillip the Second by Elizabeth de Valois, the late Henri the third's sister, who would be married to a French noble like the Duc de Guise. This was a departure from the Salic Law, and Parliament passed a law that the throne can't go to any foreigner, At this point Henri the Fourth changed his faith, reputedly with the famous witticism that "Paris is worth a mass. " This was a blow to the League, as it removed the chief objection of many of the more moderate Catholics to Henri the Fourth. A coronation was set up at Chartres, rather than at the traditional Reims, which was in the hands of the League. Many people did not trust the conversion, including some Protestants. Still, some of Henri's hardcore Protestant followers withdrew from him. In the end, he won over enough moderate Catholics to strengthen his position.
In the spring of 1594, Henri the Fourth entered Paris without firing a shot, and the Spanish garrison walked out. It wasn't over yet but Henri was in possession of his capital. He began a vigorous campaign of winning over support of moderate Catholics with a combination of charm, money, and promises. A great amount of money was spent guaranteeing nobles pensions and positions in exchange for the support, and a great deal of money was given to the towns in exchange for their support. In the end Henri considered it a bargain compared to the costs of war.
Meanwhile the king of Spain continued his offensive in the northern territories, hoping to unite with the rebellious League lords. Cambrai, Doullens and Calais were all taken in 1595 and 1596. Henri the Fourth besieged La Fere, a Spanish outpost in French territory. In 1597, the Spanish took Amiens. The king fought back quite vigorously. Finally, in 1598, faced with financial problems of their own, the Spanish signed the treaty of Versions, which restored the captured towns of France.
Of the League leaders, Mayenne capitulated in ' 96, the young Guise in ' 95, and Mercoeur at last in ' 98. 1598 saw the publication of the Edict of Nantes, which granted Huguenots freedom of worship and civil rights for nearly a century, until Henri the Fourth's descendant Louis the Fourteenth revoked it in 1685.
Free research essays on topics related to: estates general, henri, de guise, duc de, league
Research essay sample on Duc De De Guise
