The Duke of Anjou and the Politique Struggle during the Wars of Religion

by Mack P. Holt

Overview

From the beginning of the French Wars of Religion a small minority of toleration-minded Protestants and Catholics sought out a via media to end the civil wars which were destroying France. Later called politiques by their more zealous Catholic opponents, this group turned to François de Valois, duke of Alençon and Anjou in the 1570s, to champion their cause. Youngest son of Henry II and Catherine de Medici and heir to the throne himself after 1574, Anjou was also sought out by William of Orange and a similar group of politiques in the rebel provinces of the Netherlands, where the Dutch Revolt had virtually become a civil war. Anjou never became the saviour that either group had looked for, however. This book analyses why he nevertheless became the focus of such attention, and tries to explain why he never joined the politique struggle of the later sixteenth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521892780
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/02/2002
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

List of maps; Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Prologue: civil war and the early years of François de Valois, 1555–72; 2. From St Bartholomew's Day to the death of Charles IX, August 1572–May 1574; 3. War and peace, May 1574–May 1576; 4. The Estates-General and the renewal of civil war, May 1576–September 1577; 5. Overtures from the Netherlands, September 1577–January 1579; 6. Civil war, marriage, and more overtures from the Netherlands, January 1579–December 1580; 7. Ménage à trois: Elizabeth, Anjou, and the Deutch Revolt, January 1581–February 1582; 8. Turmoil in the Netherlands, February 1582–January 1583; 9. 'The ruin of France', January 1583–June 1584; Appendices; Selected bibliography; Index.