Death

The struggle for the reins of command was again led by the great lords. Upon the death of Francois II, in December 1560, and inheriting his brother Charles IX, even younger than him (he was only eleven years old!), The tension reached its peak. Catherine de Medicis, then takes the death of his son to remove the Guise and ensure that it exercised the regency opting for a vacillating policy and, given little support, seeking support in the Huguenots. With the writing of Michel de l'Hospital, the mayor issued the Edict of Saint-Germain in January 1562, intended to ease tensions enabling environment for the first time Protestant worship. The reaction of Francois de Lorraine, who believed with strong popular support, was crystallized in the famous slaughter of Vassy that lights the first flash of religious wars. Then in Sens, Tours in Maine and Anjou hang themselves Protestants.

The spread hatred and blood began to run in torrents through the countryside gala. Of the eight religious wars which are commonly referred to (1562-62, 1567-68, 1569-70, 1572-73, 1574-76, 1576-77, 1579-80, 1585-98), the latter becomes, from 1595 in international war against Philip II. Certainly the most memorable episode is the infamous St. Bartholomew's day (in the sense of the historian Michelet, is not a day if not an entire season!), Which occurred on August 24, 1572 in Paris. The slaughter of hundred Protestant nobles who were in the city since July 18, the day attended the marriage of King of Navarre the sister of Charles IX, Marguerite de Valois, and unknowns about three thousand more in the same day, triggers the season's most brutal conflict: 27,000 victims across the country! Subsequently, the death of Charles IX in 1574, his brother Henri III, go to the French throne.