French Wars of Religion (1562–80) - events

1 March 1562	France	A congregation of 1,200 Huguenots (French Protestants) is massacred by the Guise army marching on Paris at Vassy, provoking the First War of Religion in France.
24 February 1563	France	Francis, Duke of Guise and Aumale, Prince of Joinville, Lieutenant General of the Kingdom and leader of the Catholic forces in France, is assassinated by a Huguenot (French Protestant) while besieging the Huguenot stronghold of Orléans, France.
19 March 1563	France, England	The captive Louis I de Bourbon, Protestant Prince of Condé, agrees to the Pacification of Amboise ending the First War of Religion in France; the Huguenots (French Protestants) are permitted to exercise their religion in one town in each Baillage or Sénéchaussée, excepting Paris, and in noble households. Anne, Duke of Montmorency, is released by the Pacification and leads the forces that expel English troops from Le Havre.
29 September 1567	France	Huguenot (French Protestant) forces under Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, fail in their attempt to seize the young French king Charles IX and his mother Catherine de' Medici at Meaux, France; the royal family, guarded by Swiss mercenaries, flees to Paris, France, which the Huguenots besiege. Many provincial towns are once again under Protestant control.
September 1568	France	After Catherine de' Medici and the Guise faction have the religious toleration (granted by the treaties of Amboise and Longjumeau) rescinded, the Huguenots (French Protestants) mobilize in the Midi, as far as Beaujolais; the Third War of Religion in France breaks out in Périgord, Quercy, and Guyenne.
May 1569	France	Following the death at Jarnac of Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, the Huguenot (French Protestant) estates meet in Cognac, France, electing Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, son of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, as their leader, and Admiral Gaspard de Coligny as their commander in chief.
December 1572–June 1573	France	In the Fourth War of Religion in France, which follows the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Huguenots (French Protestants), a royal and Catholic army led (after February) by Henry, Duke of Anjou, fails in a siege of and numerous assaults on the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle on the west coast of France.
23 February 1574	France	The Fifth War of Religion breaks out in France; Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, governor of Picardy, renounces his Catholicism and flees to Alsace to raise a German Protestant army.
15–17 August 1575	France	Francis, Duke of Alençon, the brother and heir to King Henry III of France, escapes from court to declare himself, at Dreux on 17 August, in league with Henri I de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, the Huguenot (French Protestant) leader, and the Palatine Calvinist army under Johann Casimir, invading from Germany.
8 November 1575	France	Francis, Duke of Alençon, Politique (moderate Catholic) heir to the French throne, negotiates a truce with his brother King Henry III through their mother Catherine de' Medici at Marigny. He is granted the duchy of Anjou and garrisons in Berry, Poitou, and Saintogne; his Huguenot (French Protestant) allies are to retain the concessions of the 1573 Peace of Boulogne and are allowed to keep their army, under Henri I de Bourbon, at Mézières.
3 February 1576	France	King Henry III of Navarre escapes from Paris, and returns to Béarn in southwest France and command of the Pyrenean Huguenots (French Protestants), having formally abjured Catholicism at Tours on 5 January in favour of his former Huguenot faith.
6 May 1576	France	The Fifth War of Religion in France ends in the Peace of Monsieur, promulgated by the Edict of Beaulieu; the Huguenots (French Protestants) are granted freedom of worship in all places except Paris and are to garrison eight strongholds in Languedoc, Guyenne, Provence, and Dauphiné; a general (and tax) amnesty is proclaimed. Francis, Duke of Alençon, is confirmed as Duke of Anjou, and Johann Casimir, leader of the Palatine Calvinist army, is rewarded with a pension by King Henry III.
December 1576	France	The Sixth War of Religion breaks out in France, even as the Estates General is sitting; operations are mainly in the west.
17 September 1577	France	By the Edict of Poitiers, King Henry III of France proclaims the Peace of Bergerac, ending the Sixth War of Religion. The Huguenots (French Protestants), negotiating from a position of weakness, are required to relinquish some concessions granted in the Peace of Monsieur of 6 May 1576: most importantly, their freedom of worship is now restricted to towns legitimately held heretofore.
April 1580	France	Widespread confused and localized fighting flares into the Seventh War of Religion in France. The Huguenot (French Protestant) leader King Henry of Navarre takes the town of Cahors after four days of heavy street fighting.
March–July 1596	France	Jean Louis de Nogaret de la Valette, Duke of Epernon and former favourite of the late king Henry III of France, submits to King Henry IV; with the death of Jacques de Savoie, Duke of Nemours, in July, the Rhône Valley is secured for Henry, though Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, remains hostile in the Alps.