In the middle of the XVI century. it seemed to many Europeans that the split between reformers and Catholics could still be bridged. All that is needed is for both sides to meet each other halfway and seek reconciliation. Such sentiments were strong not only…

The following years in Germany passed in fruitless attempts to reconcile the warring states, to search for a formula of religion acceptable to all. Luther insisted on his own version (Schmal-Kaden articles), the emperor convened again the congress of princes…

“Let,” the treaty proclaimed, “neither his imperial majesty, nor the electors, princes, etc. do not inflict any violence or evil on any rank of the empire on the Augsburg creed, but will leave them in the world to adhere to their religious convictions ...…

In 1562, Francois Guise exterminated several dozen Huguenots during a divine service. In response, the Protestants began armed resistance. The hired killer dealt with Giza. Years of open clashes followed in various parts of France (in just 30 years - 10 wars).…

In 1589 Henry TV of Bourbon became king. To reconcile the warring parties, he had to convert to Catholicism. Only then did the gates of Paris open to him. “Paris is worth a mass” (a mass is a Catholic church service), according to legend, the king said as…

These lines contained a formidable prophecy: twenty years later, on May 14, 1610, the dagger of the Jesuit monk Francois Ravaillac inflicted a mortal wound on Henry IV of Bourbon. But over the past 20 years, a lot has changed, and Henry IV went into another…

The truce between the Catholics and the Huguenots, concluded in 1570, Catherine de Medici and her son Charles IX decided to seal the marriage of Henry of Navarre to the king's sister Margaret of Valois. According to their plan, the marriage was supposed to…

Heinrich's prudent mind again suggested that one should wait until his opponents weaken each other by internecine struggle. And so it happened: in Paris, clashes broke out between fanatical Catholics and the last of the Guise survivors, the Duke of Mayenne.…

D'Artagnan stood looking at the man. At first it seemed to him that before him was a judge examining a certain case, but he soon noticed that the man sitting at the table was writing, or rather, correcting lines of unequal length, counting syllables on his…

Initially, Richelieu prepared himself for a military career. But family circumstances forced him to change his sword and put on the cassock of a priest. He received a chair in Luzon. The inquisitive and arrogant young Bishop of Luson, having appeared at the…

The young monarch, weak-willed and melancholic, was burdened by the arrogance of the End and the lust for power of his mother. Deciding to rule on his own, he planned to eliminate the hated favorite. On his orders, Concini, who had already become Marshal…

Numerous attempts on the life of Richelieu made it necessary to organize his personal protection. This is how the cardinal's musketeers appeared, whom Dumas mistakenly called the guards. Unlike the king's musketeers, who wore blue cloaks, Richelieu's guards…

When it came to the interests of the state, questions of religion seemed to fade into the background for him. The cardinal said: “Both the Huguenots and the Catholics were in my eyes equally French- So again the minister introduced the word “Frenchman”, long…

The "Spanish Party" did not forgive Richelieu for the change in the country's political course. The most influential people of the kingdom - Marie de Medici, Anna of Austria, Gaston of Orleans - persistently plotted and plotted against the "Mr. Chief Minister…

The general hatred of Richelieu was also caused by the law banning duels. The nobles wanted to see in the king only the first among equals. The cardinal sought to instill in them the idea of ​​the sacredness of royal power. According to Richelieu, the blood…

Seeing before him the only goal - the good of the country, Richelieu stubbornly walked towards it, overcoming the fierce resistance of opponents and despite the almost universal misunderstanding. The cardinal can rightly be considered one of the founding…

Under Louis XIV, absolutism in France reached its zenith. Saint-Simon wrote about the king: “Louis, absolutely without objection, destroyed and eradicated every other force or authority in France, except for those that came from him: references to the law…

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