[2] Joyeuse warned the young king that he was not sure he could rely on the obedience of his subordinates in the region in the towns of Beaucaire and Aigues-Mortes, he further complained that Huguenots were reaching out to indebted nobles, taking advantage of their financial position to secure protection for their services.

[5] With fear of Spanish intentions on the rise in 1561, Joyeuse was instructed by Catherine de'Medici to ensure as lieutenant-general of Languedoc that he was ready if troops crossed the frontier.

[6] As royal police became increasingly conciliatory towards the Huguenots, he wrote with exasperation to the crown in 1562 that the lack of clarity on the religious situation was making it impossible for him to enforce order in the province.

[7] In early 1562, royal commissioners were sent to Languedoc to try to bring the region back into full obedience to the king, the Catholics there complaining of the acts of the Huguenots.

Michel Quelain and Jean de la Guesle reported to the crown that with Crussol absent from the province, away in Provence there was great disorder with 'new offences every day'.

Joyeuse diverted his forces across the Rhône on 7 March and captured Loudun, Orsennes and Tresques before reuniting with the count of Tende for another attack on Pont St. Esprit.

[19] After the massacre, a faction of the Catholic nobility, known as the politiques began plotting a conspiracy to seize the king and queen mother and overturn the political settlement that ended the fourth civil war.

[21] As a liguer with the ascendency of Charles, Duke of Mayenne in the wake of the assassination of Henri III of France he was assigned as military leader of Languedoc.

He wanted a temporary truce with Navarre such that his troops could recover, he further desired the disbanding of the local Confraternity of the Holy Ghost, viewing the militant Catholic organisation as a threat to civil order.

The bishop responded by retreating to the island of Thunis on the Garonne from there he instructed his loyal followers to arm themselves, and several hundred of them stormed Joyeuse's residence in the city.

Now in command he was able to win the confidence of much of the Parlement of Toulouse, alongside the capitouls and bureau d'état and leverage them to negotiate his way into leadership of the local ligue.