Warfare and Violence

Warfare

Why could the wars of religion not be won on the battlefield?

'Urban warfare was more characteristic of the wars than pitched battles'. Discuss.

General reading

Robert J. Knecht, The French Civil Wars, 1562-1598 (2000), esp. chaps. 5, 7, 9-12

James B. Wood, The King's Army: warfare, soldiers and society during the Wars of Religion in France, 1562-1576 (1996)

'The Royal Army during the Early Wars of Religion, 1559-1576', in Mack P. Holt (ed.), Society and Institutions in Early Modern France (1991), pp. 1-35

J.A. Lynn, 'Tactical Evolution in the French Army, 1560-1660', French Historical Studies, 14 (1985), 176-91

Further reading

Mark Greengrass, 'Financing the Cause: Protestant Mobilization and Accountability in France (1562-1598)', in P. Benedict et al (eds), Reformation, Revolt and Civil War in France and the Netherlands, 1555-1585 (1999), pp. 233-54

Alan James, 'Between "Huguenot" and "Royal": Defining French Naval Authority during the Wars of Religion', in K. Cameron et al (eds), The Adventure of Religious Pluralism in Early Modern France (2000)

I. Roy (ed.), Blaise de Monluc: The Habsburg-Valois Wars and the French Wars of Religion (1971)

R.J. Knecht, 'The Sword and the Pen: Blaise de Monluc and his Commentaries', Renaissance Studies, 9 (1995), 104-18

'Military Autobiographies in Sixteenth-Century France', in R. Mulryne & M. Shewring (eds), War, Literature and the Arts in Sixteenth-Century Europe (1989), pp. 3-21

Howell A. Lloyd, The Rouen Campaign, 1590-92: Politics, Warfare and the Early Modern state ( 1973)

Ronald S. Love, '"All the King's Horsemen": The Equestrian Army of Henri IV, 1585-1598', Sixteenth Century Journal, 22 (1991), 345-53

Mark Greengrass, 'The Anatomy of a Religious Riot in Toulouse in May 1562', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 34 (1983), 367-91

Barbara Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth-Century Paris (1991), chaps. 4, 5 & 10

Philip Benedict, Rouen during the Wars of Religion (1981), chaps. 4 & 9

Penny Roberts, A City in Conflict (1996), chaps. 5 & 8

Kristen Neuschel, 'Noblewomen and War in Sixteenth-Century France', in Michael Wolfe (ed.), Changing Identities in Early Modern France (1996), pp. 124-44

Documents: Potter, Chap. 2, docs. 24-26; Chap. 3, docs. 1-12; Chap. 4, docs. 4-5, 12-16, 18
Documents: 32,
36 - Montaigne, 'On the Battle of Dreux', 'Observations on Julius Caesar's Methods of Waging War', 'On Practice'
37 - Bodin, 'Whether it is Expedient to Arm Subjects…'
Plan - Siege of La Rochelle, 1573

 

Religious Violence

How do you account for the brutality of the violence witnessed during the wars of religion?

What can depictions of confessional violence (in pictures and written accounts) tell us about the religious wars?

 

General reading

Graeme Murdock, Penny Roberts and Andrew Spicer (eds), Ritual and Violence: Natalie Zemon Davis and Early Modern France (2012)

David Nicholls, 'The Theatre of Martyrdom in the French Reformation', Past and Present, 121 (1988), 49-73

Natalie Z. Davis, 'The Rites of Violence', in her Society and Culture in Early Modern France (1975), chap. 6; also in Past and Present, 59 (1973)

& J. Garrisson-Estèbe, 'Debate: The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-Century France', Past and Present, 67 (1975), 127-35

Mark Greengrass, 'The Psychology of Religious Violence', French History, 5 (1991), 467-74

Philip Benedict, Lawrence M. Bryant, and Kristen B. Neuschel, 'Graphic History: What Readers Knew and Were Taught in the Quarante Tableaux of Perrissin and Tortorel', French Historical Studies, 28 (2005), 175-229

Philip Benedict, Graphic History: the "Wars, massacres and troubles" of Tortorel and Perrissin (2007)

Further reading

Susan Broomhall, 'Reasons and Identities to Remember: Composing Personal Accounts of Religious Violence in Sixteenth-Century France', French History, 27 (2013), 1-20

Mark Greengrass, 'The Anatomy of a Religious Riot in Toulouse in May 1562', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 34 (1983), 367-91

'Hidden Transcripts: Secret Histories and Personal Testimonies of Religious Violence in the French Wars of Religion', in Mark Levene and Penny Roberts (eds), The Massacre in History (1999)

Allan A. Tulchin, 'The Michelade in Nimes, 1567', French Historical Studies, 29 (2006), 1-35

Stuart Carroll, Blood and Violence in Early Modern France (2006)

'Vengeance and Conspiracy during the French Wars of Religion', in B. Coward and J. Swann (eds, Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe (2004), pp. 71-86

Penny Roberts, 'Martyrologies and Martyrs in the French Reformation: Heretics to Subversives in Troyes', in D. Wood (ed.), Studies in Church History, 30 (1993), 221-9

Denis Richet, 'Sociocultural Aspects of Religious Conflicts in Paris during the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century', in R. Forster & O. Ranum (eds), Ritual, Religion and the Sacred: Selection from the Annales (1982), pp. 182-212

Judith Pollmann, 'Countering the Reformation in France and the Netherlands: Clerical Leadership and Catholic Violence', Past and Present, 190 (2006), 83-120

Denis Crouzet, Les Guerriers de Dieu: la violence au temps des troubles de religion (vers 1525-vers 1610) (1990), chaps. 4, 7 & 8

Olivier Christin, Une révolution symbolique: l'iconoclasme huguenot et la reconstruction catholique (1991)

Documents: Potter: Chap. 2
Figures: 2, 3, 7