Noble Power during the French Wars of Religion The Guise Affinity and the Catholic Cause in Normandy

A study of the political affinities of the Guise family in France during the sixtreenth century.

Noble affinities were the essence of power in sixteenth-century France. This is the first book to analyse the development of a noble following during the whole course of the Wars of Religion and the first substantial study of the Guise - the most powerful family of the period - to appear for over a century. The Guise, champions of the catholic cause, were the largest landowners in the province and used Normandy as a base for their support of catholicism in the British Isles. The family exploited religious dissension to build a formidable ultra-catholic party in Normandy which ultimately challenged the monarchy. This study breaks new ground by illuminating the relationship between high politics and popular confessional solidarities, especially the rise of radical catholicism. It exploits new archival sources to consider all groups in political society, reinterpreting court politics and discussing groups usually excluded from the traditional political narrative, such as the peasantry.

Acknowledgments; Introduction: the rise of the house of Lorraine in Normandy; 2. Servants and clients; 3. Faction, religious schism and dynastic strategy, 1558–62; 4. Civil war and blood feud, 1562–1574; 5. Malcontents and defenders of the faith: the building of a power base; 6. The triumph of the Guise affinity in Normandy; 7. The Catholic League in Normandy: hegemony and decline; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography.

Noble affinities were the essence of power in sixteenth-century France. This is the first book to analyse the development of a noble following during the whole course of the Wars of Religion and the first substantial study of the Guise-the most powerful family of the period-to appear for over a century.