Conclusion

Abstract

The Wars of Religion did not come to an end with Henri IV’s peace, they gradually faded away. But their roots were still in place, and, in the reigns of the first Bourbon and his son, would continue to push forth the shoots of noble rebellions, Huguenot risings, and plots and machinations by the dévots, the heirs of the League. But can one still speak of ‘Wars of Religion’? The term was hardly ever used by contemporaries, who spoke of civil troubles and conflicts, only adding the adjective religious as a cloak. It was in the nineteenth century that ‘Wars of Religion’ came into vogue, absolving at a stroke both the Catholics and the Protestants from the charge of political revolt against the monarchy of the last Valois and the first Bourbon.