Sixth War of Religion

The French Wars of Religion were a series of conflicts in the later sixteenth century between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, complicated by the ambitions of great noble houses and the weakness of the crown. By the 1570s, several rounds of fighting had already devastated France, punctuated by fragile truces and by atrocities such as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572.

The Sixth War of Religion broke out in 1577 during the reign of King Henry III. It followed the generous concessions to the Huguenots in the Edict of Beaulieu of 1576, which had provoked the formation of the militant Catholic League. The renewed fighting was relatively short, with royal forces achieving some successes against Protestant strongholds before the king sought a settlement.

The war was concluded later in 1577 by the Peace of Bergerac and the accompanying Edict of Poitiers, which granted the Huguenots more limited toleration than the earlier edict. Like the truces before it, this settlement proved temporary, and further wars followed. The cycle of religious conflict persisted until Henry IV's Edict of Nantes in 1598 finally brought a more durable peace.