I had to write this for European History. 803 words to be exact.

The French Religious Wars

France in the 1500s was on the brink of war all because of a few simple yet deadly political assumptions. Not only this, but, since the church and state primarily went hand in hand in that time, these tensions showed up in politics too. Any problem that there was on the level of the state, without fail became the Church’s problem as well, and vice versa. This made for a very complicated social system, because any rivalry, whether political or theological, was allowed to take over every aspect of society often allowing it to become deadly. Thus, when the Catholic and Protestant churches had their major disagreements, it became a political issue as well. The politicizing of the church’s issues would often lead to militant struggles. The use of theology as a political weapon, and the idea of a nation in which the church and state co-ruled were ultimately the seeds for the French religious wars.

The theological rivalries between the Catholic and Protestant churches caused much unrest at the level of the church. Since France had for so long been staunchly Catholic, the government strongly reinforced Catholicism. Despite these efforts however, the Huguenots grew in number. Under the threat of these anti-Catholic thoughts imported from Germany and Switzerland, the Catholic leaders led persecutions of the Protestant Huguenots. The Huguenots were still able to thrive despite these vehement attempts to get rid of them, and, despite their minority status, they still managed to acquire important social status. These circumstances resulted in a split among the French rulers, which ultimately complicated the political scene.

The French government had other problems of their own to deal with. These started with the accidental death of Henry II during a celebratory joust. He left the kingdom to his wife Catherine de Medici and his sickly son, who died soon thereafter. With limited influence, Catherine was at the mercy of the Guises, a very powerful family in France. Catherine had to choose sides between the Huguenots, and the Guises, neither of which she wanted in control of France. If she sided with the Huguenots, she could easily overthrow the Guises, but if she chose to join with the Guises, she could use their alliance to help her rid France of the Huguenots. Catherine, who had an invested interest in the preservation of the monarchy, did not want the Guises to take over the government, so since the Guises were anti-Huguenot, she looked to the Protestants as an ally, despite her Catholic beliefs. The Huguenots however, under the leadership of the prince of Conde, did not fully commit to this unofficial alliance, a very big mistake on their part. Later on, Catherine, under great pressure, decided to side with the Guises, a move that might have been avoided, if the Huguenots had decided to side with Catherine These political moves would play a major part in the French religious wars. With both the church and the state, under internal pressure, the combination of theology and politics created a bloodbath in France.

This deadly combination was the biggest mistake the French made. The French political leaders would claim to hold theological ideas, without evaluating the truth, simply for the political allies that it would create for them. Little did they know that it would cost them in the end. Catherine, whose unstable political situation made her decisions very desperate, is the best example of this. In her very tough decision between the Huguenots, and Guises, she originally chose to gain the favor of the Protestants, but later, she changed her mind. This indecision did nothing but fuel the tension between Protestants and Catholics, and had even bigger consequences. After she had made her final decision on an ally, surprisingly things did not get easier for Catherine. With the Huguenots gaining power, she was faced with the prospect of an international war with Spain. She responded to this by ordering what is today known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, in which thousands of Protestants were slaughtered. This maneuver, however, only stirred up the Protestants to retaliate; it was one of her biggest mistakes. All this came from the politicizing of the church.

The political motivation that swayed these wars was the integration of theological debates that belonged in the church into the federal level. Catherine’s indecision between the Huguenots and the Guises was based on this issue. The frustrating aspect of all these struggles and bloody conflicts is that that they could have been avoided so easily. If the issues of the church and state had been kept in their respective circles, they would not have been able turn into a war, but the ideal of a Christian nation blinded the French to the other options.