Through a wide-ranging and close analysis of archival sources, this book re-evaluates both the role of royal authority and of local agency in the French religious wars in the lead up to the Edict of Nantes of 1598. Drawing on extensive research, it provides a new perspective on the political, religious, social and cultural history of the conflict.

Penny Roberts is Associate Professor (Reader) in History at the University of Warwick, UK. She has written extensively on the social, cultural, religious and political history of sixteenth-century France, especially the period of its religious wars (c.1560-1600).