French Wars of Religion

hey there you rope today we're going to chat for just a little bit about the French Wars of Religion now keep in mind this is sort of a mine or topic we're not going to go into every single little detail if you're looking for a comprehensive treatment of the French Wars of Religion you better swerve because that's not what this is now the first thing you need to know about are the Huguenots now John Calvin in a spacesuit is what I think about imagine an astronaut but not actually there on earth so it's kind of the opposite of an astronaut but it sounds ok but the Huguenots these are French Protestants French Calvinists uh that subscribe to the doctrines of John Calvin which I'll address in another lecture these people went around and they're plain clothing and they're plain churches and believed that the Pope was the Antichrist and they were scattered throughout France a lot of them in commercial centers and in other places as well but France had a substantial Protestant minority keep in mind that France was very much a Catholic country and today still the vast majority of religious people in France are Catholic but the Protestant minority was substantial and this is an age before we figured out how to get along with each other so there are lots of conflicts between the Catholics and the Protestants and at the center of these conflicts was catherine de medici the queen of france who was from the medici family in italy and married into the french royal family her husband crota when she was still pretty young and had a lot of time to live and she had three sons these three sons were the last of the volu dynasty did I say that right Dennis guess I did it's a written test this is the end of the boy dynasty will be Catherine's three sons now Catherine was acting as Queen Regent during their reigns and pretty much manipulated all three of these sons kind of like somebody would do with puppets or something like that so keep in mind that Katherine's sons are on the throne but Katherine is pulling the strings the most noteworthy event of the French Wars of Religion it's the st. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and about 20,000 Protestants are killed during this massacre yes that is waldo over there 20,000 Protestants are killed so really st. Bartholomew's Day Massacre you just have to remember a bunch of Catholics killed a bunch of Protestants in France during the French Wars of Religion check you got your exam question correct enter Henry the 4th uh or Henry of Navarre as he was known before he became King but Henry was the Protestant ruler of Navarre was a Huguenot and he defeated the Catholic League in the last of these Wars of Religion and became King now the thing is he's Protestant and he's becoming king of an overwhelmingly Catholic country which is also even more overwhelmingly Protestant the capital of Paris so what does he do he converts to Catholicism his quote is often Paris is worth a mass and so he says look if I can be king I can become Catholic now of course in the time of the Reformation a lot of people would have equated that with making a deal with the Antichrist but that's not how Henry saw it Henry represents a new faction in European politics known as well as some of my students have said before Politico now no that's yet Denis I knew it's not that fact that is a mispronunciation but keep in mind again it's a written test so if you mispronounce some of these French words not that big of a deal but the right way to pronounce this is politique and these are people who believe that political concerns should be placed above religious concerns that we should think about France being united as a country before we start obsessing over what branch of Christianity were part of or anything like that so Henry represents this faction of politics another politic is Cardinal Richelieu which we'll talk about Cardinal Richelieu when we talk about the 30 Years War in another lecture Cardinal Richelieu is going to side with the Protestants in the 30 Years War although he is a Catholic now Henry's going to take off a lot of his Protestant brethren by converting to Catholicism but he does intend to throw them a bone we'll never know whether Henry's conversion was sincere or not given the circumstances probably not so in 1598 Henry issues the Edict of Nantes are not however not it's a written test so that's how I'm going to say it the Edict of Nantes said that Protestants French Calvinists we're going to be tolerated under certain circumstances as long as they lived in certain cities this is not full-scale religious toleration but toleration for Huguenots in various towns and cities in France where they tended to predominate there could not be a Huguenot Church in Paris and Huguenots were not permitted to assemble publicly in Paris but the point here was that France was going to continue to be a Catholic country but at the same time Huguenots under certain circumstances and in certain places were able to practice their religion so the Edict of Notts was a landmark decision in the progress of religious toleration but keep in mind we're not going to full-blown religious toleration yet and Henry establishes a new dynasty the House of Bourbon which would continue to rule France all the way to the time of the French Revolution so out with the void honesty in with the Bourbon dynasty so a quick review first of all you need to know who the Huguenots are these are French Protestants specifically Calvinists you also need to know catherine de medici the queen of France who ruled France through her sons and Catherine was the chief architect or one of the chief architects behind the st. Bartholomew's Day Massacre which was Catholics killing Protestants then we need to know about Henry the fourth or Henry of Navarre first of all that he was a politique that he converted to Catholicism because it was worth amass he issued the Edict of Nantes which gave French Protestants limited toleration to practice their own religion and he was also the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon and that about sums up the French Wars of Religion tells you everything you need to know about the exam keep in mind that you're free to subscribe to my channel if this was helpful to you and you want to see more historical goodness and prepare for your AP euro exam so go ahead and subscribe if you like and stay tuned for a few more videos that may be relevant until next time my friends you

Channel: Tom Richey

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Keywords: Catherine De' Medici (Noble Person), Henry of Navarre, Henry IV Of France (Monarch), St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (Event), politique, edict of nantes, French Wars of Religion, Tom Richey, Tom Richey AP Euro, Tom Richey AP Euro Review, huguenots, french wars of religion crash course, AP European History, AP Euro Review

Id: BMmNKYrp-4U

Length: 8min 32sec (512 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 29 2013