Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne (1555-1623), vicomte de Turenne, maréchal et duc de Bouillon, est l’un des principaux lieutenants d’Henri de Navarre pendant les guerres de religion. Jouissant d’une belle longévité, il est impliqué dans la plupart des événements politiques des années 1570, avec la formation du mouvement des Malcontents, à sa mort, en particulier sous la régence de Marie de Médicis et lors du déclenchement de la guerre de Trente ans. L’approche du personnage a longtemps été brouillée par les campagnes de libelles lancées contre lui à la fin de sa vie et par les critiques de Sully, Richelieu et Rohan dans leurs mémoires, qui font de lui un éternel trublion, ingrat à l’égard du roi et prompt à la révolte. Cette dégradation de son image s’explique par le contexte politique des années 1610 au cours desquelles il joue un rôle majeur. Elle constitue une réaction à la spectaculaire affirmation politique et sociale de la maison La Tour d’Auvergne depuis le milieu du XVe siècle, processus dans lequel il joue un rôle décisif. Elle s’explique par la tension dynamique qui apparaît, à partir de son avènement à Sedan en 1591, entre ses fonctions de sujet du roi de France, de chef de file du parti protestant et de prince souverain étranger. Henri de La Tour jouit d’une grande capacité d’action en raison de sa polyvalence – ambassadeur, chef de guerre, prince lettré, bâtisseur, législateur – et des puissants réseaux dans lesquels il s’intègre, et qu’il contrôle parfois, dans le royaume de France et dans l’Europe protestante. / Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne (1555-1623), viscount of Turenne and maréchal-duc de Bouillon, was one of Henri de Navarre’s principal lieutenants during the French Wars of Religion. Having lived a long life, he was involved in most of the political events during the 1570’s, from the creation of the Malcontents, to his death, particularily during the reign of Marie de Medicis and the Thirty years war. Towards the end of his life, satirical writings and criticism from Sully, Richelieu and Rohan, marred understanding of his actions, portraying him as a perpetual troublemaker, ungrateful to the king and quick to revolt. This negative portrait of his character is due to the political context of the 1610’s during which he was one of the main figures. Such a distortion is a reaction to the spectacular political and social ascent of the House of La Tour d’Auvergne from the middle of XVth century onwards in which he played a leading role. It is also due to a dynamic tension starting with his arrival in Sedan in 1591, in his duties as a subject of the King of France, as leader of the Huguenots and as a sovereign prince abroad. His great reactivity is explained by his varied functions – as ambassador, war leader, a well-read prince, builder, legislator – and his participation at the heart of powerful networks, which he sometimes controlled, throughout the Kingdom of France and Protestant Europe.

Dès le lendemain de la Saint-Barthélemy, chacun, selon sa foi et ses convictions, proposait une interprétation et enrichissait la légende. A chaque époque, le dossier était ré-ouvert donnant lieu à de nouvelles controverses. Les écrivains du XIXe siècle se sont principalement intéressés au XVe siècle et à la Saint-Barthélemy parce la nation était de nouveau en proie à des événements san­glants. En effet, ces deux siècles se caractérisent par une grande instabilité politique, des guerres intestines, des menaces venues de 1'étranger et des polémiques religieuses. Les auteurs ont inter­prété les événements et les situations de cette période en fonction de préoccupations politiques et sociales qui leur étaient contemporaines. Cette étude montre que le massacre, perpétré pour des motifs religieux et politiques, fut traité différemment selon les auteurs et les époques. / As soon as the day after the Saint-Barthélemy, everyone, according to his faith and political beliefs suggested an interpretation, and magnified the legend. In each epoch, the issue was reopened, giving rise to new controversies. The writers of the nineteenth century were primarily interested in the sixteenth century and the Saint-Barthélemy because the country was actually facing bloody confrontations again. Indeed, these two centuries are famous for great political turmoil, wars, threats from abroad and religions polemics. The authors interpreted the episodes and situations of this period by drawing parallels to political and social contemporary concerns. This dissertation shows that this massacre, perpetrated for religions and political reasons, was treated in different ways by miscellaneous authors in various eras.

In 1655 and again in 1686-1689, the Waldensians of Piedmont were massacred by the Duke of Savoy after he issued edicts forbidding the practice of their religion. The Waldensians were later followers of the medieval religious movement of the Poor of Lyons, declared heretical in 1215. The Waldensians associated with the Reformation in 1532, and thus formed a link with diverse groups of Protestants across Europe. In the periods immediately surrounding both massacres, an outpouring of publications dedicated to their plight, their history, and their religious identity appeared, a large number of which emerged in London. On both occasions, the propaganda gave rise to international sympathy and encouraged international intervention, eventually provoking the Duke to rescind the edicts that had instigated the massacres. While most contemporary scholars consider the Waldensians to have been fully absorbed into Protestantism after 1532, it is clear from the writings of both the Waldensians and their sympathizers that they considered themselves a separate entity: the inheritors of a long tradition of dissent from the Catholic Church based on their own belief in the purity of the Gospel. The Waldensian identity was based on a history of exclusion and persecution, and also on a belief that they had transmitted the true embodiment of Christianity through the centuries. The documents that were published surrounding the massacres address the legitimacy of the Waldensian identity based on centuries of practice. English and continental Protestants identified with the Waldensians, who provided ancient ties and legitimacy to their ‘new’ religion, and the Waldensians adopted that identity proudly, all the while claiming continuity. Protestants also used the Waldensians in propagandist documents, most often to justify political or religious actions and ideologies. The continuity of Waldensianism through the Reformation became crucially important for the wider umbrella of Protestantism as a legitimizing factor for the movement. This thesis investigates the claims of continuity and finds that while the Waldensians underwent a dramatic change in religious doctrine to conform to the Reformation, their belief in the continuity of their religious identity can be validated by examining religion from a socio-cultural perspective that takes aspects other than theology into consideration.

François de Lorraine, duc de Guise, fut l’un des principaux acteurs politiques du royaume de France de 1547 à sa mort en 1563. Célèbre, il n’a pourtant pas fait l’objet d’une étude historique approfondie alors que les matériaux sont nombreux pour retracer son parcours. Plus qu’une biographie traditionnelle, le doctorat a eu pour visée d’articuler la problématique de l’identité aristocratique et la question de l’engagement d’un homme qui se pensait entre Dieu et le Roi. Prince de la Renaissance, François de Lorraine construisit son rôle en se fondant d’une part sur l’intégration d’un riche capital identitaire en grande partie constitué de la geste de son lignage lorrain, et d’autre part sur la force qu’il tirait de la maison de Guise, en particulier grâce à l’association étroite de son frère Charles, cardinal de Lorraine. Le duc poursuivit sa quête de salut divin et de reconnaissance sociale dans deux contextes très différents qui déterminèrent des oscillations dans son jeu d’acteur. Le premier est celui du règne d’Henri II (1547-1559), durant lequel il s’imagina être le bras armé du Roi Très-Chrétien en vue d’établir une monarchie universelle. Le second (1559-1563) fut marqué par la crise profonde et multiforme du royaume de France : le duc aspira à être alors le défenseur des catholiques face au calvinisme qu’il associa à une hérésie et contre lequel il assuma d’être tel un nouvel envoyé de Dieu aux côtés des jeunes rois François II puis Charles IX. / François de Lorraine, duc de Guise, was one of France’s most influential politicians from 1547 to 1563, at the time of his death. Although a potent figure, he hasn’t been the subject of any serious historical study. Yet, historical sources are numerous. This thesis is much more than a traditional biography : it aims at questioning the identity of De Guise as an aristocrat and his commitment as a man who figured himself as standing between God and his king.Prince of the Renaissance, François de Lorraine built up his influence by relying on both his heritage and identity as a member of the Lorraine family and his power derived from the de Guise family and his close association with his brother Charles, the Bishop of Lorraine. The duke undertook his quest for divine salvation and political recognition in two different historical contexts which determined and influenced his actions. First, under the reign of Henry II (1547-1559), he acted as the Christian king’s executioner with the view to establishing a universal monarchy.Then, between 1559 and 1563, when the kingdom of France suffered from crises which were deep and manifold, the duke posed as the protector of the Catholics against Calvinism which he considered as heresy. He resisted it by assuming the role of a protector sent by God to assist the two young kings, François II and Charles IX.

Pierre de L'Estoile (1546-1611) kept an extraordinary diary and collection in Paris during the Wars of Religion, recording everything from high-political scandals to low-life criminality during this crucial turning point in early modern history. The first extensive study of L'Estoile in any language, this thesis demonstrates how he negotiated and commemorated the conflicts that divided France as he engaged creatively with the rumours, ephemeral prints, poems, pictures, and books that he assembled in his diary and cabinet. It argues that the story of his life and times is the history of the civil wars in the making. While historians and literary scholars depend on L’Estoile’s diaries as an essential source of information, citing him as a mere passive observer, this thesis instead explores his subjectivity and interprets a wide range of hitherto unseen or neglected manuscript evidence that situates him in the Parisian society of royal office-holders and demonstrates his significance in the republic of letters. It follows a microhistorical approach to L'Estoile and his world in order to challenge established interpretations of his sources as evidence of a widespread mentality of eschatological anxiety in sixteenth-century France, instead focusing on L’Estoile’s personal responses to pieces in his collection. In this way, it critiques a common trend in cultural history to roam freely among ‘collective representations’ and argues for the importance of a precise analysis of social context, materiality, and individual subjectivity in reception studies.

Although historians have written extensively on both the early modern era and the development of an absolute monarchy, the history of Jewish communities in France and the role they played has been largely ignored. Beginning with the French Wars of Religion, this study analyzes to what extent France’s religious situation affected the growth of absolutism and how this in turn affected the Jews. Taking advantage of the fractured nature of the early French monarchy, Jews began settling in provinces along the border of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Affected by economic jealousies and cultural perceptions of Jews, the treatment of these communities by local officials led to requests by Jews for royal intervention in these regions. Perceptions of Jews evolved through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the French Enlightenment influenced the way Jewish characters were presented. This study then ties these perceptions of Jews to the political and economic reality of these communities in an attempt to create a unified history of France’s early modern Jewish population.

À partir d’un corpus composé d’une quarantaine de tragédies parues en Normandie entre 1566 et 1640, mettant presque toutes en scène des actes de cruauté exercés par des représentants d’altérités exacerbées, ce mémoire de doctorat étudie les particularités scénographiques qui transparaissent dans ces textes, en mettant en évidence la similitude des éléments décrits dans les didascalies internes et dans les rares indications scéniques des œuvres avec les pratiques de l’Hôtel de Bourgogne telles qu’elles sont définies par le Mémoire de Mahelot. Après un rappel des formes et des événements dramatiques joués dans la province, la thèse poursuit par une étude des pratiques éditoriales rouennaises. Une fois établie l’historiographie des guerres de religion et des règnes d’Henri IV et Louis XIII, la thèse observe la manière dont le théâtre normand est contaminé par la production parisienne en voie de normalisation classique, puis disparaît progressivement, ainsi que les scénographies signifiantes qui le caractérisent ou comment leur sens est dévoyé pour célébrer une unité politique, pour laisser place au palais à volonté des drames parisiens. / Based on a corpus composed of about forty tragedies published between 1566 and 1640 in Normandy, most of which staging acts of cruelty carried out by strongly antagonistic protagonists, this doctorate thesis studies the specific stage designs shown out through those texts. Thus throwing into prominence the existing similarities between the components described in the internal stage directions, the few stage indications of the works, and the practices at the hotel de Bourgogne such as defined in the Mémoire de Mahelot. After recalling the shapes and the dramatic events performed in the province, the thesis goes on studying the editorial practices in Rouen. Historiography of wars of religion and Henri IVth and Louis XIIIth reigns once established, it observes how the Norman theatre is being corrupted by the Parisian production on its move to classical normalization, and then gradually vanishes as well as the meaningful stage designs, demonstrating then how their meaning is being perverted in order to celebrate a political unity, to make way for “palais à volonté” in the Parisian dramas.

La notion d’engagement se retrouve aujourd’hui au coeur de la grande majorité des recherches consacrées à la construction de l’État moderne en France, à la noblesse protestante ou encore aux guerres de Religion. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans ce courant dynamique de la recherche en histoire – et plus généralement en sciences humaines – mais c’est sur un temps long de presque deux siècles qu’elle propose d’analyser les mécanismes, les formes, les moyens et les conséquences des engagements politiques et religieux des membres d’une maison bien connue, mais paradoxalement peu étudiée, les Coligny-Châtillon. Au milieu du XVe siècle, Jean III de Coligny abandonne les clientèlesdu duc de Bourgogne ou du duc de Savoie et s’installe dans sa seigneurie de Châtillon-sur-Loing pour se consacrer au seul service du roi de France. Cet engagement fondamental est ensuite poursuivi par ses descendants, qui, en deux générations seulement, parviennent à se hisser au plus près du pouvoir royal.Cette position privilégiée est néanmoins remise en cause lorsque François d’Andelot, Gaspard de Coligny puis Odet de Châtillon s’engagent publiquement en faveur de la Cause huguenote.Aussi, à la rapide dégradation de la paix dans le royaume de France, répond l’inexorable chute de ces frères Châtillon dansl’estime des souverains. Une estime que leurs descendants s’efforcent à reconquérir totalement pendant près de quatre-vingts ans. Autant d’engagements qui propulsent donc les Coligny des montagnes de la Bresse et du Revermont jusqu’auConseil du roi ; qui les font progressivement glisser du statut de favoris à celui de criminels de lèse-majesté ; et qui les conduit enfin du gibet de Montfaucon jusqu’à la nécropole royale de Saint-Denis. / Nowadays the notion of commitment is at the heart of the great majority of researches devoted to the construction of themodern State in France, the protestant nobility and the wars of religion. This thesis is part of this dynamic current of research in history – and more generally in the human sciences – but it is on a time spanning almost two centuries that it offers to analyse the mechanisms, forms, means and consequences of the political and religious commitments of a well-known house’s members, but paradoxically little studied, the Coligny-Châtillon. In the middle of the 15th century, Jean III de Coligny abandoned the clientele of the duke of Burgundy or the duke of Savoy and settled in his domain of Châtillon-sur-Loing to devote himself entirely to the French king’s service. Pursuing this crucial commitment, his descendants’ succeeded in getting closer to the royal power in only two generations. This privileged position was nevertheless called into question when François d’Andelot, Gaspard de Coligny and then Odet de Châtillon publicly pledged their support for the Huguenot Cause. Thus, the fast degradation of peace in the French Kingdom echoes the inexorable fall of the Châtillon brothers in the sovereigns’ favour ; which favour their descendants’ would strive to recover completely for nearly eighty years. So many commitments that propelled the Coligny from mountains of Bresse and Revermont to the King’s Council ; which gradually shifted them from the status of favourites to that of “criminels de lèse-majesté” ; and which finally led them from the gibbet of Montfaucon to the royal necropolis of Saint-Denis.

Cette thèse de doctorat aspire à percevoir jusqu’à quel point la dynamique agonale du XVIe siècle déclenchée par la Réforme protestante provoqua des différences irréconciliables parmi les humanistes français. L’analyse prend comme point de départ la querelle sotériologique entre Érasme et Luther de 1524, considérée comme l’exemple le plus paradigmatique de l’impossibilité de trouver une compatibilité bien entendue entre les diverses manifestations de l’enthousiasme philologique, stylistique, éthique, religieux et épistémologique des humanistes. Ses oppositions fondamentales en ce qui concerne la liberté du chrétien démontrèrent que les humanistes étaient contraints d’envisager l’élan de réforme avec prudence afin d’éviter de mettre en danger leurs propres fondements épistémologiques. Par ailleurs, l’affrontement entre ces deux hommes tellement représentatifs de la Renaissance tardive peut bien inaugurer l’étude du cas français à cause de l’influence d’Érasme sur les humanistes vassaux du Roi Très-Chrétien, mais aussi à cause de l’échec de la collatio érasmienne. Le centre de gravité historique est l’événement le plus révoltant de la France du XVIe siècle, i.e., le massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy. Le choc provoqué par la tuerie fut si définitif qu’on peut, faisant attention aux participations directes des humanistes dans la polémique confessionnelle avant et après août 1572, reconstruire le socle commun de discours dont beaucoup d’eux partageaient. Nonobstant, ces dénominateurs communs encouragèrent paradoxalement des dynamiques agonales autant qu’ils permirent la survivance d’une courante irénique marquée par la tradition sceptique qui finira par être une des marques d’identification historiographique du discours humaniste. / This Ph.D. dissertation tries to measure how the violent dynamic of the 16th century, encouraged by the Reformation provoked dissention in between French Humanists. The analysis takes the debate between Erasmus and Luther of 1524 as a point of departure, considered as the paradigmatic example of the impossibility of finding some compatibility between the different versions of the philological, stylistic, ethic, religious and epistemological enthusiasm of the Humanists. Their fundamental oppositions concerning the free will showed that the Humanists were forced to take the will of reformation with caution to avoid the harm of their own epistemological fundaments. On the other hand, the clash between these men had a very large impact in France because Erasmus was one of the main influences of the French Humanism but also because of the failure of his collatio. The center of gravity of the research is the Saint-Bartholomew Night’s Massacre because it left an impression over the humanists’ consciences that the analysis of the discourses before and after the killing may allow to recover the common basis of their discourses. This common basis encouraged violent dynamics but let paradoxically survive an irenic trend marked by the skeptic tradition, which would be one of the most characteristic signs of the historiographical readings of the humanist discourse.

As French Protestantism emerged in the 1550s, the young community needed charismatic leaders. The main impetus came from native pastors with strong links to Geneva. Antoine de Chandieu was a key figure amongst these men. His writings promoted the values of French Protestantism over three decades and provide insight into how this vulnerable community faced the challenges of the civil war years. This study uses Chandieu’s prose and verse writings to examine how French Protestants defined themselves from the 1550s to the 1590s. Chapter one looks at Chandieu’s life and career, placing his works in the context of the Wars of Religion. Chapter two examines the early structural development of the French Church and the attempt to establish a system independent of that in Geneva. Chapter three concentrates on the Conspiracy of Amboise, and the tension that developed between the political and religious concerns of the movement. Chapters four and five explore the ways in which Chandieu engaged with perceived threats from internal and external sources. Chapter six focuses on the shift towards meditative writing provoked by the Protestants’ losses during the later wars, whilst chapter seven highlights the continuing preoccupation with theological issues throughout Chandieu’s later years of exile. Chandieu’s career provides a personal experience of the French religious wars which underlines how French Protestantism tried to retain its independence. This became increasingly difficult as the wars progressed, and the movement consistently returned to the refuge of Genevan influence. Although his faith was never shaken, the sustained losses suffered by the Protestants caused Chandieu to abandon his hopes of a fully independent French Church, and to reflect deeply on the emotional torment that resulted from years of interconfessional strife. In his works we see the French church’s struggle to find a workable group identity in the face of civil war.