ABSTRACT
Montauban stood at the heart of a local association of Protestants in Upper Languedoc and Guyenne. In particular the town was well placed to offer refuge to religious dissidents, and to use her resources to mobilize armies, liaise with Protestant nobles and neighbouring towns, and coordinate an effective response to the Catholic opposition. But Montauban did not stand alone in splendid isolation. Montauban was also aware of her fellow brethren, who were being persecuted elsewhere and had tried to develop similar strategies for survival. In the south-west corner of France, attempts had also been made to create a Huguenot homeland under the patronage of Jeanne d' Albret. It too foundered upon its failure to overcome local Catholic opposition, particularly in the most important urban centre of the region, Bordeaux. I Nevertheless, links did begin to develop between these different Protestant centres and these links became formalized across southern France with the political assemblies. These assemblies, we now know, were seized upon by historians as irrefutable evidence of Huguenot designs to create a separate state. But in light of the discussion of the previous chapter it is time to subject the established picture to critical scrutiny and ponder whether Huguenot association in the Midi was such a radical novelty. This chapter will show that political association or 'leaguing' was far from being an exceptional feature of European political culture; indeed during the period of the Wars of Religion the Catholics could make as good a claim as the Huguenots in recognizing its political potential. It will then seek to challenge the somewhat static conception of Huguenot association that predominates by demonstrating the complexities of the phenomenon.
