The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil and religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, known as Huguenots, that devastated France in the second half of the sixteenth century. They began after a massacre of Huguenots at Wassy in 1562 and were driven by religious differences and by rivalry between powerful noble families such as the Guise and the Bourbons. The worst single episode was the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, in which thousands of Protestants were killed in Paris and elsewhere. The wars ended when Henry IV, a former Huguenot who converted to Catholicism, issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted the Protestants limited toleration.
Before and after
- from 1560 to 1621Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna kingdom
- 1560Construction of Humayun's Tomb
- from 9 May 1560 to 14 May 1560Battle of Djerba
- 22 January 1561Birth of Francis Bacon
- from 2 April 1562 to 30 April 1598French Wars of Religion
- 25 November 1562Birth of Lope de Vega
- from 1563 to 1570Northern Seven Years' War
- 1563Construction of Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial
- from 1564 to 1883Construction of Tuileries Palace
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 23 May 1568 to 30 January 1648Eighty Years' War
- from 25 April 1588 to 1 August 1588Spanish Armada
- 13 April 1598Edict of Nantes
- from 22 February 1700 to 10 September 1721Great Northern War
- from March 1701 to September 1714War of the Spanish Succession
- from 16 December 1740 to 18 October 1748War of the Austrian Succession
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 16th century.