CATHOLIC LEAGUE. - An association of Catholics, established in France in 1576 to resist Protestantism and to give the policy of the State a fully Catholic direction.
The Protestant heresy opened a wide breach in sixteenth-century France, taking away from the Church of Rome about a sixth of the faithful. A peaceful phase, when the pseudo-reformation was confined to a few artisans devoted to work and not to arms, was followed by a period of turmoil, after many nobles, furnished with weapons and a warlike spirit, gave it their consent. After the night of St. Bartholomew, the Calvinists, decimated but not destroyed, formed an armed league, the Calvinist Union, which in Languedoc alone could field 20,000 soldiers. It divided France into various military districts, with their local leaders tending toward dictatorial and tyrannical forms of rule. Its supreme commander was Henry of Navarre. The Union also sought foreign aid: in 1560 it had offered Le Havre to Elizabeth; in 1575 it marched on Paris with a German vanguard of 20,000 men. This was the fifth war of religion, which wrested from Henry III the paix de Monsieur (May 1575), which granted freedom of worship to the Calvinists, outside Paris, eight strongholds and special tribunals.
In this troubled atmosphere, to restore to France its political and religious unity, to save the monarchy from foreign servitude, there arose, in 1576, the great C. L., modeled militarily and economically on the Calvinist Union. It opened the second period of the wars of religion, from 1576 to 1580, during the reign of Henry III. The head of the Catholic forces was the duke Henry of Guise, an aspirant to the crown.
The C. L. began among the population of Péronne, deeply devoted to Rome: it spread to the other cities of Picardy, and in a short time drew into its orbit all the Catholics of France. The local societies were federatively welded together with a mutual commitment to provide for the maintenance of the troops and the expenses of war. The C. L. was recognized by Henry III, who became its head (Jan. 1577), placing himself ahead of the duke of Guise.
The C. L. soon also acquired political and social aims, proposing to « restore to the provinces of the Kingdom the rights, the franchises, and the ancient liberties as they were in the time of King Clovis »: an affirmation of an aristocratic parliamentary regime, against the monarchical absolutism of the Valois. But the religious motive remained predominant, as the soul of the great struggle. And this is how it took shape in the Estates General that Henry III had to convene for the paix de Monsieur: they resolved that only one religion should be tolerated and that the Protestant pastors should be expelled from the kingdom. The Calvinists took up arms again. The C. L. sustained the sixth and seventh wars with favorable outcome: the dissidents, defeated, consented to a policy of renunciation. After 4 years of calm, the situation again became grave because of the death of the Duke of Anjou, the king's brother. The presumptive heir to the crown became a Calvinist, Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre. The Catholic League was reorganized on firmer foundations: Henry of Guise won for Catholic France the support of Philip II, who was opposed to the idea of a reformed monarchy beyond the Pyrenees. And with him he negotiated the alliance of Joinville (Dec. 31, 1584): struggle against the reformed in France and in the Low Countries, exclusion of heretical princes from the French throne, cession to Spain of Cambrai and of Navarre. Accordingly, to the Calvinist heir Guise opposed a Catholic heir, the uncle of Henry of Navarre, Cardinal Charles of Bourbon. The work of the Catholic League generated grave discontent. Another league arose in Paris, also of Catholics, but with elements supplied by the bourgeoisie and the common people. Following its model, others formed outside Paris. Then the Guises and the old Leaguers, with the manifesto of Péronne (March 30, 1585), acknowledged the needs of the third estate, demanding the reduction of taxes, which weighed in large part upon it, and the convocation of the Estates General in regular form. In reality a republican spirit was spreading that favored religious schism. The king, after hesitating between the Huguenots and the Leaguers, decided in favor of the latter and by the Treaty of Nemours (July 7, 1585) undertook to extirpate heresy and granted the Leaguers nine strongholds. Thus the conditions of the paix de Monsieur fell away; whence the eighth and last war of religion from 1585 to 1593. The conflict widened: France became a battlefield among the greatest armies of Europe: Philip II was with the Leaguers, Elizabeth, the King of Denmark, and the Elector Palatine with Henry of Navarre. Henry of Guise, favored by military events, took up positions threatening to the crown: the king himself had to recognize him as lieutenant general of the kingdom. The religious struggles took on the aspect of a dynastic contest, among the three Henrys. The king, ever more suspicious, had Guise slaughtered (Dec. 30, 1588). This was the rupture between the Catholic League and the monarchy. Paris rose up and offered the Catholics the aid of the masses. The Catholic League was transformed into a popular association: it constituted the Council of the Sixteen, a true revolutionary committee that declared Henry III simoniacal, heresiarch, assassin, enemy of the fatherland (Jan. 7, 1589) and therefore fallen from the throne; it proclaimed Cardinal Charles of Bourbon king and accepted the Spanish reinforcements led by Alexander Farnese. Henry III threw himself into the arms of the Huguenots and of Henry of Navarre. Then the Calvinist Union took up the defense of the monarchy; facing it stood the Catholic League, for the rights of the people. The two Henrys, having joined their armies, besieged Paris; a Dominican friar stabbed Henry III: thus died the last of the Valois (Aug. 1, 1589). There remained on the field of the dynastic struggle Henry of Navarre, whom Henry III, before expiring, had recognized as legitimate heir; he took the name Henry IV (v.). His followers proclaimed him King of France. He fought 4 years to conquer Paris. In March 1590 he routed the Catholic League at Ivry and blockaded the capital. Good allies to him were dearth, hunger, the desire for peace, and together his declaration of wanting to preserve the Catholic Church, made as early as Aug. 4, 1589. The abjuration of his old Calvinism (July 25, 1593) caused the accusation of heresy to fall and increased his popularity. On March 22, 1594, he entered Paris. The Catholic League had fulfilled its task.