Estates General of 1576

[2] Henri lacked money for troops (those he had were predominately mercenary in composition) and had only limited territory under his control (largely confined to the Île de France, Bourgogne and Champagne).

[3] Faced with an unfavourable war situation, Henri decided to seek peace with the Protestant and their allied politique (Catholics who felt persecution was counter-productive) forces.

[7] For the noble backers of the Protestant cause there were also great benefits, the baron de Damville was formally reinstated in his charge as governor of Languedoc (which he had never been extricated from despite being deposed during the civil war).

[12] The Catholic politiques who had backed the Protestant cause were promised by the king that within six months of the peace they would receive an Estates General at which the administration of the kingdom could be reconfigured to their desires.

[17][18] Henri was humiliated by the peace, with the consequence for violating his authority being reward, his treasury empty, and his brother enriched at the head of an alliance of Protestants and politique Catholics.

[20] The peace was however undertaken cynically, Catherine who was its prime architect boasted to Nevers in early 1577 that neither she nor Henri cared to see it enforced, and that the goal of the generous terms was to win over Alençon from the rebel cause.

In Paris the perfumer La Bruyère played an important role in the cities ligueur (leaguer) movement, passing around membership lists in an attempt to drive recruitment.

[32] Henri suspected that such a movement must be the doing of the great Catholic princes, the duc de Guise, Mayenne and Nemours and on 2 August had them swear to uphold the Edict of Beaulieu.

[33] For historians such as Thompson, the true purpose of the Catholic ligue once it was co-opted by great nobles such as Guise was to bring back the power of a feudal nobility to France.

[35] Conscious that this ligue represented a great threat to his authority Henri hoped to use the Estates General as a venue by which to combat its intrusions on his royal prerogatives.

[49] In the baillage of Chaumont, the local nobility complained in their cahiers that they had suffered as a result of the marauding both of domestic military forces and mercenaries introduced into the country.

[41] In Lyon the ligueur party was ascendant, and wrote up cahiers in which they demanded that Protestantism be outlawed - including the suppression of freedom of conscience - further they insisted the Tridentine Decrees be adopted in France.

There were calls to see the Catholic clergy improved in their standards, create new schools, restore the much declined university of Caen, and have a firmer hand in dealing with piracy.

[76] During November, Henri's government was leant a considerable sum of money (100,000 livres) by the duc de Nevers on the understanding that he would shortly be leading a new war against Protestantism.

As long as Protestants abided by the decisions undertaken in the coming Estates General, the ligue was to ensure that they enjoyed freedom of conscience and their lives and property were not interfered with.

This ambition received a cool reception from the duc de Nevers who argued nobles would not be keen to accept this new duty which lacked a concrete end date, preferring their traditional obligations of service.

[63] That same day, the speaker of the Second Estate, the baron de Sennecey approached the king and informed him that he thought a war to establish religious unity was a bad idea.

[99][60] The attempt to specifically specify that those 'gentle ways' precluded war failed however, and on 26 December the Third Estate concluded that Protestantism should be suppressed in both public and private worship.

Meanwhile, the Third Estate of Normandie, Picardie, Languedoc, Provence, Champagne, the Île de France, and the Orléannais supported the kings position and allowed for the possibility of war to be on the table.

Henri stated that the only reason he had established the edict of Beaulieu was to re-secure Anjou for the royal cause and see France relieved from the marauding mercenary soldiers that plagued the kingdom.

[118] On 31 December, Antoine de Nicolai, the premier président (first president) of the chambre des comptes (chamber of accounts) provided a summary on the crowns financial situation to the deputies.

[110] The deputies were to further inform the princes that Henri did not have the power to conclude the Edict of Beaulieu without the consent of the Estates, and with their decision to reject the peace, it was a dead letter.

Catherine wrote to her son in praise of the decision, but urged him to despatch a diplomatic effort to Navarre, Condé and Damville to see if they could be won over without the need for a new military campaign.

[110] On 20 February Henri recalled the Estates together and plead with them to permit him to alienate the royal domain to raise funds, proposing that he do so in such a way as to receive a perpetual annuity of 300,000 livres.

[152] Shortly before coming to the Estates General, Bodin had published his six livres de la république (six books of the republic) in which he argued that the king possessed a singular absolute power over the state.

[167] One of Nevers' (probable) clients, the Nivernais noble Pierre de Blanchefort had played a not insignificant role in sabotaging the Second Estates push to war.

[176][36] Instead of the grandiose ambitions he had harboured in December to see a unity of religion restored in the kingdom, it would be necessary to secure a renegotiation of the terms of the previous treaty he had concluded with the Protestants.

The representative of the former, Antoine di Negro complained that the ability to conduct business in France was impeded by the instability, and that the écu d'or (gold crown) should be adopted, superseding the livre, which they proposed doing away with.

The French merchants of Lyon were likewise concerned with stability, but violently disagreed with the suppression of the livre in favour of the écu d'or, they argued such a policy was designed to make it easier for the Italians to ship their bullion out of the kingdom.

[195] In the Péronne manifesto which established the goals of the new ligue, the failure of Henri to abide by the promises he had made at the Estates General of 1576 to extirpate heresy from France were cited as a justification for the rebellion.