My religion is better than your religion: French Wars of Religion.

The Wars of Religion in France were no more religious than they were political, as in many ways it was a form of political rebellion by powerful nobles and groups, such as guilds, who were eager to assert rights within the state. Though France had a history of cohesion under royal authority, France and the Holy Roman Empire did have some things in common.

France	HRE
hundreds of provinces	over 300 states
Powerful provinces included: Burgundy, Provence, and Brittany	Powerful states included: Saxony and Bavaria
Provinces had their own identity, court systems, laws and taxes	States were ruled by individual princes and had their own identity, court systems, laws and taxes
much of the nobility was Calvinist	much of the nobility was Lutheran
Catholicism in the state was not as attached to Rome	HRE is still the defender of Rome

Please watch the videos below. You can click here to download a list of notes associated with these videos (it is not an exact transcript, but does include the major information covered within the presentation.) This video is 23 minutes long, if you are unable to watch it in one sitting, a breakdown of the slides and their duration are below so that you may pick up where you left off. Please note, videos may take a moment to load.

Slide 1 - title (2 seconds)
Slide 2 - Intro to French Wars of Religion (duration - 2 minutes 12 seconds)
Slide 3 - The Valois family (starts at 2:14, duration - 2 minutes 23 seconds)
Slide 4 - Image of Catherine de Medici (starts at 5:37, duration - 2 seconds)
Slide 5 - French Civil War (starts at 5:40, duration - 7 minutes 22 seconds)
Slide 6 - Painting of St Barts day Massacre (duration - 1 second)

Video 2, Slide 1 - War heats up (duration - 3 minutes 37 seconds)
Video 2, Slide 2 - Painting of Henry IV (duration 7 seconds)
Video 2, Slide 3 - Henry IV (starts at 4:44, duration 3 minutes 23 seconds)
Video 2, Slide 4 - Edict of Nantes (starts at 7:16, duration 3 minutes 30 seconds)

Learn more - Click here to access Steven Kreis' Historyguide.org - Europe in the Age of Religious Wars, 1560-1715

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.