Between 1562 and 1598 France went through eight civil wars fought along confessional lines, punctuated by urban massacres, sieges and the expulsion of minority communities from towns that changed hands. The best known episode began in Paris on 24 August 1572, when the killing of Protestant leaders gathered for a royal wedding spread to the city's Huguenot population and then to at least a dozen provincial cities over the following weeks; historians generally estimate about 2,000 killed in Paris and perhaps 10,000 in total, against older accounts that ranged from 5,000 to 30,000. The massacres produced conversions, abjurations and a wave of emigration to Geneva, the Rhineland, England and the Dutch provinces, and they hardened the Huguenot 'places of safety' in the south and west. The wars ended with the Edict of Nantes of April 1598, which granted the Huguenots limited worship rights and fortified towns; the settlement held until Louis XIV revoked it in 1685, producing the far larger exodus recorded separately in this atlas. Estimates of total mortality from all causes over the whole period range widely, from about two to four million, and include famine and epidemic deaths as well as killing.
The French crown, Catholic and Protestant nobles and urban militias killed, besieged and drove out confessional opponents across France
Estimates rest on the number of Reformed congregations, about 1,200-2,150 churches by 1562, and on regional consistory records; historians generally put the Huguenots at up to one in ten of a French population of some 18-20 million at the start of the wars, or roughly two million, falling to about 800,000 by the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Total war deaths across the eight wars are estimated at two to four million including famine and disease, and the great Huguenot emigration came later, after the 1685 revocation.
The range is for the St Bartholomew's Day massacre and its provincial sequels: roughly 2,000 killed in Paris on modern estimates, with perhaps 10,000 across France in the following weeks. Older accounts gave 5,000 to 30,000 nationally. Total mortality for the wars as a whole is separately estimated at two to four million from all causes, a figure dominated by famine and disease and not by direct killing.
Killings, iconoclasm and the sacking of churches and houses by both confessions are documented in contemporary chronicles, municipal records and martyrologies used by modern historians of the wars.
France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Netherlands