Day of the Barricades

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 In the French Wars of Religion, the Day of the Barricades (in French: Journée des barricades), 12 May 1588, was an outwardly spontaneous public uprising in staunchly Catholic Paris against the moderate, hesitant, temporizing policies of Henry III.

[2][page needed] Despite a royal interdict, the duc de Guise had returned to Paris in the wake of a betrayed conspiracy that had been set for 24 April, for he could not afford to be seen to desert his followers.

[4] The barricades of wagons, timbers and hogsheads (barriques)[a] blocked access at major points in the city, beginning early in the day in the university quarter, where a certain Crucé, leader of the Seize, coordinated efforts.

By day's end some sixty soldiers had been killed in sporadic violence, the Bastille had capitulated[7] and the duc de Guise was in undisputed possession of Paris, where he was offered the crown but refused it.

By its terms the King promised never to conclude a truce or peace with the "hérétiques", to forbid public office to any who would not take a public oath of their Catholicité and never to leave the throne to a prince who was not Catholic; secret clauses extended amnesty to all deeds of the Catholic League, accorded support to its troops and made over to the League additional fortified places de sécurité.

The Duke of Guise during the Day of the Barricades, by Paul Lehugeur, 19th century