The Rhetoric of Resistance

After the St Bartholomew’s massacres, various Protestants published political treatises advocating resistance to a king who was a tyrant. François Hotman, Theodore Beza, and Philippe Duplessis-Mornay all published monarchomach tracts declaring that French Protestants could resist King Henry III. Jean Bodin, a Catholic politician and jurist, wrote The Six Boks of the Commonwealth, advocating for a stronger monarchy. In the meantime, the religious wars continued, with renewed warfare followed by peace edicts that attempted to keep the peace. The death of Henry III’s younger brother and last Valois heir, Francis, duke of Anjou, in June 1584, meant that the heir presumptive to the throne was Henry, king of Navarre, a Protestant. This restarted Catholic opposition and a renewal of civil war.