La Ligue

Ligue, La. The Catholic League created in December 1584 had a crucial role to play in the closing years of the Wars of Religion. It had many predecessors, notably the League of 1576, formed in Picardy under the leadership of the Guise family in order to oppose the Peace of Monsieur, which had granted favourable terms to the Protestants. Henri III was able to bring this movement to a swift end by declaring himself its head. The League of 1584, on the other hand, was created in very different circumstances and had much more catastrophic consequences. Its immediate cause was the death of the king's brother, which left the Protestant Henri de Navarre (the future Henri IV) as heir presumptive. Extremist Catholics had no intention of tolerating the possibility of a heretic king or of allowing Henri III to persuade Henri de Navarre to convert. Their intention was to take power for themselves either by removing Henri III or by reducing him to a mere figurehead, and then to exterminate the Protestants.

Many historians have failed to take the Ligue seriously. This was partly because of its close connection with the king of Spain, which led 19th-c. French historians to regard it as unpatriotic, and partly because it was ill served by Politique historians like L'Estoile and de Thou. More recent experience should make us aware of the power—and sincerity—of religious fanaticism. This said, it is true that, in many cases, religious motivation served as a mask to disguise personal ambition (notably in the case of Henri de Guise) or as a means of reclaiming lost independence. Ultimately, it was these factors which led to the movement's destruction. The demagogic, semi-republican nature of the movement in Paris alienated its aristocratic leaders, who were themselves suspect to many of their contemporaries because of the blatantly self-interested way in which they pursued their objectives. Once the future Henri IV had converted to Catholicism the Ligue's support was bound to ebb very quickly, especially when he began to buy off its more aristocratic supporters. The involvement of Spain made it particularly hateful in the eyes of Protestants, Politiques, and other moderate Catholics. The extent to which it had lost the hearts and minds of more moderate Frenchmen is amply demonstrated by the Satire Ménippée. In the early 18th c. it was excoriated in Voltaire's La Henriade.

[James Supple]

Bibliography

• E. Barnavi, Le Parti de Dieu (1980)
• F. J. Baumgartner, Radical Reactionaries: The Political Thought of the French Catholic League (1976)