ABSTRACT
King Charles IX lamented in March 1563 that “our kingdom has been afflicted and worried by many troubles, seditions, and tumults between our subjects, provoked and aroused by the diversity of opinions concerning religion and the doubts of their consciences.” A strong scholarly consensus has emerged that the French Wars of Religion were indeed primarily about religion. The rapid spread of the Calvinist Reformation into France in the 1550s attracted many converts, including a significant proportion of the French nobles, who acted as protectors for Reformed commoners in their regions. To consider the religious dimensions of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century warfare, let us examine the contemporary language employed by participants in the conflicts. The precise phrases of “wars of religion” or “religious war” occasionally appear in documents of the period, but seem to have been relatively rare.
