The wars of religion
For nearly a century Protestants and Catholics fight across France, the Netherlands, Germany and the British Isles, until exhaustion brings the Peace of Westphalia.
- The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629 — Mack P. Holt, Cambridge University Press (1995)
- Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War — Peter H. Wilson, Allen Lane (2009)
- Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700 — Diarmaid MacCulloch, Allen Lane (2003)
- Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World — Alec Ryrie, Viking (2017)
In France, a growing Calvinist minority, the Huguenots, fought eight wars against the Catholic crown and the Catholic League from 1562. On St Bartholomew’s Day, 24 August 1572, Catholic mobs and soldiers killed thousands of Protestants in Paris and thousands more in the provinces. The Protestant-born Henry IV became Catholic to win the throne and granted the Huguenots toleration in the Edict of Nantes (1598); when Louis XIV revoked it in 1685, perhaps 150,000–200,000 fled to England, the Netherlands, Prussia and South Africa.
- The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629 — Mack P. Holt, Cambridge University Press (1995)
- Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700 — Diarmaid MacCulloch, Allen Lane (2003)
The Dutch revolt against Catholic Spain, from 1568, created a Protestant republic. In the Holy Roman Empire, the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) devastated Germany, and the British Isles were torn by civil wars from 1639 to 1651 in which religion was central. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 recognised Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed churches in the Empire and, in practice, ended the age of wars fought to restore a single Western church.
- Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War — Peter H. Wilson, Allen Lane (2009)
- Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490–1700 — Diarmaid MacCulloch, Allen Lane (2003)
- Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World — Alec Ryrie, Viking (2017)
Protestants remember a persecuted minority defending its faith: the St Bartholomew's Day massacre, the Spanish Inquisition in the Netherlands and the Huguenots driven into exile.
- The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629 — Mack P. Holt, Cambridge University Press (1995)
- Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World — Alec Ryrie, Viking (2017)
These were never purely religious wars. Dynastic ambition, noble factions, taxes and the rivalry of great powers drove them as much as faith, and both sides committed atrocities and both produced martyrs.
- The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629 — Mack P. Holt, Cambridge University Press (1995)
- Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War — Peter H. Wilson, Allen Lane (2009)
Why it matters today
Huguenot, Dutch and Scottish memories of massacre and resistance shaped Protestant ideas about conscience, the right to resist tyrants and, eventually, religious toleration. The wars also left Europe's religious map largely as it is today, and their memory is one reason many Protestants instinctively defend the separation of church and state.