FRANCOBRIT · The Outbreak of the Wars of Religion: a Franco-British History (1547-1572)

The Outbreak of the Wars of Religion: a Franco-British History (1547-1572)

This project began with the hypothesis that the origins of the French Wars of Religion (1560-98) must be traced to events in Scotland between 1557 and 1560 when Scottish Calvinists (Lords of the Congregation), with the support of their allies in England, overthrew the French Catholic regency of Mary of Guise. The Outbreak of the Wars of Religion: a Franco-British History (1547-72) analysed the interactions between Scotland, France and England as Calvinist militancy reached a peak and civil war broke out, first in Scotland and then France. i) Using under-explored and under-utilized French sources, it examined Henri II, King of France's, ideal of and potential for an Anglo-French empire. It analysed the nature of the French regency in Scotland (1547-60) in order to explain why, despite the fact that the regime tolerance of Protestantism, it was so unpopular. The attitude of the French ruling elites to Protestantism in both France and Scotland in the 1550s was compared and contrasted. ii) It was the first study to take full account of the impact on France of the Calvinist revolution in Scotland. In 1559 Henri II died and was succeeded by his weak-minded son, François II, who was controlled by his wife Mary Stuart and his Guise uncles. In many respects policy in France was dominated by the civil war in Scotland, which drained the treasury and inspired conspirators hostile to the Guise. Crucial to this project was the attempt to identify the role of both the Scots and English in anti-Guise propaganda and to explore how opposition to the Guise operated across the channel. iii) This project also considered the solutions that were available to French policy makers in 1561-2 in attempts to deal with the spread of Protestantism and the division of the kingdom. The policy of toleration that was adopted by Catherine de Medici in 1562 is well known. Less well known is the alternative possibility of some form of liberty of conscience, which had first been offered by the French in Scotland in 1560. The project is important for society by highlighting the transnational and European dimensions of politico-religious crisis into a historical perspective.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union