1562 Riots of Toulouse
Second; 1567–1568Saint-Denis; Chartres Third; 1568–1570Jarnac; La Roche-l'Abeille; Poitiers; Orthez; Moncontour; Saint-Jean d'Angély; Arney-le-Duc Fourth; 1572–1573Mons; Sommières; Sancerre; La Rochelle Fifth; 1574–1576Dormans Sixth; 1577La Charité-sur-Loire; Issoire; Brouage Seventh; 1580La Fère War of the Three Henrys (1585–1589)Coutras; Vimory; Auneau; Day of the Barricades Succession of Henry IV of France (1589–1594)Arques; Ivry; Paris; Château-Laudran; Rouen; Caudebec; Craon; 1st Luxembourg; Blaye; Morlaix; Fort Crozon Franco-Spanish War (1595–1598)2nd Luxembourg; Fontaine-Française; Ham; Le Catelet; Doullens; Cambrai; Calais; La Fère; Ardres; Amiens The 1562 Riots of Toulouse are a series of events (occurring largely in the span of a week) that pitted members of the Reformed Church of France (often called Huguenots) against members of the Roman Catholic Church in violent clashes that ended with the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 citizens of the French city of Toulouse.
These two cultural factors competing in the region (questioning authority and an intense focus on doctrine) may explain how the larger part of the population (including the Parlement) was staunchly Roman Catholic, but the Reformed Church members were able to make quick inroads there.
[4] Any major decisions for Toulouse (such as justice, economy, and police powers) were debated and decided by a general council of the capitouls (called a consulat), and they were normally free of interference from the Crown's judges.
[4] In 1548, as the Reformed Church continued to make converts, King Henry II charged the Parlement with forming a chambre ardente made of a president and twelve councillors in order to prosecute heretics.
[2] Groups from every segment of society would be represented in the parades "from the varied officialdom and ecclesiastical orders to artisan guilds and even a delegation of the poor, took to the streets in an elaborate ceremony that in Toulouse could involve the participation of more than five thousand people".
Seeing preaching on Palm Sunday followed by evening prayers in its law school and then people moving about at night to have secret discussions about religion – the outraged Catholic leadership sent some of their notables to act as advisors to the capitouls.
This resulted in bitter contests for the posts with a large number of these jobs going to Reformed Church members (such as clerks, some sergeants, the town crier, the treasurer, the city's syndic, and the archivist).
The vacillating position of King Antoine of Navarre between Protestant and Catholic sympathies continued to play a large role in the uncertainty surrounding France's religion in events leading up to the riots of Toulouse.
In accord with the discussions at the meeting of Estates, on January 28, 1561, the royal Ordinance of Orléans was issued ordering every parlement to stop all prosecutions for religion and to release anyone held in prison on account of religious opinions.
[13] In addition to having to face the extension of toleration to Protestants by the Ordinance of Orléans, the Catholic Church's position also seemed shaken by the abolishment of the arrangement made between the papacy and the French crown, the Concordat of Bologna (though this outcome was motivated by the Third Estate's fiscal concerns).
On the one hand, claiming economic concerns, the king's council (ignoring the complaints of Gaspard II de Coligny) dismissed the Scotch guard because they were almost all Protestants including Hamilton, Earl of Arran.
[20] An example of such incidents occurred on May 18, 1561, when "marauding Protestant bands attacked and pillaged the satellite parish churches of St Pardoux, Monsaguel, Montaut, and Monmarvés, breaking and burning altars, images and relics, books and habits.
"[20] Historian Mark Greengrass notes that this kind of activity happened in small towns around Toulouse "where there had been innumerable incidents involving image-breaking, ridiculing priests, profaning altars and mocking at Catholic services.
[3] It reiterated all the previous injunctions against disturbing the peace, using religious based insults, slandering or making false charges, and commanded all preachers to abstain from inciting violent passions in their congregations, - declaring death by hanging for breaking any of these laws.
When the lettres de cachet announcing the Edict of Orléans (with its toleration of Protestants) arrived in Toulouse, the Parlement registered it tardily and interpreted it harshly only releasing prisoners suspected of heresy if they abjured their faith first.
[4] Not only men but women openly expressed their faith, a contemporary account notes "They had laid aside their prayer-books and beads which they had worn at their girdles, their ample robes, and dissolute garments, dance, and worldly songs, as if they had been guided by the Holy Ghost".
[13] The Spanish ambassador told Catherine de Medici in the name of his King that she must banish the Protestants Jeanne d'Albret, Coligny, and D'Andelot from the royal court, and must command Antoine's wife to raise their son within Catholicism.
In this position, Condé hoped to force the Guises to make a settlement or failing that be able control the Loire and divide France in half (Guyenne, Poitou, and most of Languedoc at his back, where Protestants held increasing political power).
Returning to the law court these troops found its windows boarded up and, from there, they made a sortie outside the city walls to assail the inhabitants of the suburbs who showed that they lacked nothing in courage, even though they were no match for them in armor.
[4] Ignoring the terms of the truce, the Catholic-dominated Parlement interfered, pardoning all the condemned Catholics, so the only people executed for the riot were four Reformed members hung on April 11 at the four corners of the Place Saint-Georges.
Certain that neither justice for their dead nor safety for themselves would be possible under the current political situation, in April Pierre Hunault, sieur de Lanta (one of the Protestant capitouls) veered off his civic trip to Paris and went to Orléans to contact Louis, Prince of Condé.
[2] Whether Lanta was ever able to coordinate with Reformed Church members within Toulouse remains unknown, but he did begin to levy troops throughout the villages around his country estate (including Blagnac, Colomiers, and Seilh).
There, Catholics instituted a campaign of terror, sectarian murder, pillage and imprisonment which remind the historian of some of the events [during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre] in the Quartier Latin in Paris ten years later.
On Friday, May 15, frustrated by the standoff, the Catholic leadership attempted to both dislodge the Reformed Church members, remove cover for any escape route, and end street fighting in that area by setting fire to all Protestant homes in the Saint-Georges quarter (where the Hôtel de Ville was located).
Many left the city or moved to quieter areas within it (occasionally sending out attempts to see if Reformed friends or family members and their homes were safe), other notables stayed within their properties protected by a heavy guard.
[4] The viguier (a type of judge) named Jean Portal attempted to remain neutral on his garrisoned property near the Palais de Justice, but his doors where torn down and he was seized by a Catholic mob who suspected him of Protestantism.
[4] As that Sunday was Pentecost, the Reformed Church members within the Hôtel de Ville held a Lord's Supper service and with prayers and tears began leaving its safety defiantly singing Psalms in French.
[4] In addition to the swarming mobs chasing them through the town, the unarmed Reformed Church members were also met outside the walls by Catholics who had forced a violation of the truce by ordering city guards at gunpoint to open another gate so they could intercept the fleeing Protestants.
"[23]) Such a situation caused abuses, one of the more outrageous included the hanging of a twelve-year-old boy who had arrived from Montauban, the Parlement had declared him a heretic for being unable to recite the Ave Maria, despite his protest that he hadn't been taught it yet.
[2] In 1572, in reaction to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris, Toulouse officials ordered all suspected Reformed Church members to be placed in confinement (some held within Catholic convents, others in the municipal prison).
