| Date |
Event |
| 1551 June 27 |
- Edict of Chateaubriand placed severe restrictions on Protestants, including loss of one-third of property to informers and confiscation of all property of those who left France. "Heretical" books were forbidden or censored.
|
| 1553 |
- Death of Edward VI; accession of Mary I of England. Dispersion of London Protestants; persecution of English Protestants begins.
|
| 1555 |
- French Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, Huguenot leader, envisions French Protestant colony in Brazil. King Henry II consented and colony was wiped out in 1557 by the Portuguese.
- First Huguenot consistory in Paris.
|
| 1555 Sept. |
- First Protestant Church in Paris, France, organized in a home. Date sometimes given as 1556.
|
| 1556 |
- Philip II succeeds to throne of Spain.
|
| 1558 |
- Death of Mary I of England; accession of Elizabeth I.
|
| 1559 |
- Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis.
- First national synod of the Reformed Churches of France in Paris at which 15 Protestant churches are represented.
- Death of Henry II; accession of Francis II of France.
|
| 1560 |
- Conspiracy of Amboise to kill the king of France fails.
- Edict of Romorantin lays interdict on Protestantism.
- Meeting of States General at Orleans.
- Death of Francis II; accession of Charles IX of France.
|
| 1561 July |
- Royal edict authorizes imprisonment and confiscation of property upon all who attend any "heretical" (non-Roman Catholic) public or private worship service.
- Beginning of new influx of refugees to Kent from Low Countries, Picardy, Artois and Flanders.
- Coiloque of Poissy attempts to bring about a modus vevendi between Catholics and Protestants in France.
|
| 1562 Jan. |
- Royal edict of Saint-Germain recognizes new religion as legal and offers some protection.
- Massacre of Vassy.
- First battle of civil war in France at Dreux.
- Siege of Rouen.
|
| 1562 Feb. 18 |
- French colonists, mostly Protestants, set sail to start colony in Florida.
|
| 1562 Mar. |
- Massacre of Protestants at Vassy starts first Civil War in France over religion.
- Forces of Duke of Guise attacked a Protestant assembly in one of the towns of Champagne and killed some 50 to 60 worshipers.
- First battle of civil war at Dreux.
|
| 1563 |
- Assassination of Francis, duke of Guise.
- Pacification of Amboise.
|
| 1564 |
|
| 1565 Sept. |
- Spanish forces captured Fort Caroline and slaughtered all inhabitants.
|
| 1567 |
- Siege of Saint-Denis.
- Death of Montmorency.
- The Michelade is the name given to the massacre of Catholics, including 24 Catholic priests and monks, by Protestant rioters in Nîmes on Michaelmas (29 September) 1567, following their failure to abduct the king and queen mother in the so-called Surprise of Meaux the previous day and in retaliation for the suppression of their Huguenot beliefs. With Meaux, it helped trigger the Second War of Religion.
— View Drawing of the Michelade
|
| 1567-1568 |
- Huguenot thread and lace makers established in Maidstone, England. Others escaped to Cranfield in Bedfordshire and others to the shires of Oxford, Northampton and Cambridge. Huguenots established glassworks in London during this period.
|
| 1568 |
- Treaty of Longjumeau.
- Fort Caroline recaptured by French.
|
| 1569 |
- Battle of Jarnac.
- Death of Conde.
- Battle of Montcontour.
- Peace of St. Germain.
|
| 1570 |
- Henry of Navarre affianced to Marguerite de Valois.
|
| 1572 |
- Anglo-French Treaty of Blois.
- Death of Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre.
- Marriage of Henry of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois.
- Aug. 24, 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris and elsewhere in France in which thousands of Huguenots were lulled into a sense of false safety by King Charles IX and Queen Mother Catherine and slaughtered.
- Duc de Guise (Henri I de Lorraine) personally killed Admiral Gaspard de Coligny.
- Slaughter continues until October.
- Civil War Begins.
— View Map of Huguenot Territory
— View Painting of St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
|
| 1573 |
- Duke of Anjou elected king of Poland.
- Edict of Boulonge.
|
| 1574 |
- Death of Charles IX; accession of Henry III of France.
- Huguenot settlement at Winchester, England, moved to Canterbury.
- Truce with Huguenots in France.
|
| 1575 |
- Confederation of Milhaud.
|
| Late 16th Century |
- Other evidence of the Walloons and Huguenots in Canterbury includes a block of houses in Turnagain Lane, where weavers' windows survive on the top floor, as many Huguenots worked as weavers. The Weavers, a half-timbered house by the river, was the site of a weaving school from the late 16th century to about 1830. (It has been adapted as a restaurant—see illustration above. The house derives its name from a weaving school which was moved there in the last years of the 19th century, reviving an earlier use.)
By the 17th century, Canterbury's population was 5,000; of whom 2,000 were French-speaking Protestant Huguenots, who had begun fleeing persecution and war in the Spanish Netherlands in the mid-16th century. The Huguenots introduced silk weaving into the city, which by 1676 had outstripped wool weaving.
— View Photo of Weaver's Houses in Canterbury
|
| 1576 |
- Formation of the Holy League.
- Peace of Monsieur and defeat of Henry III.
- War renewed.
|
| 1577 |
|
| 1579 |
- Peace of Fleix.
- Ordonnance of Blois.
|
| 1584 |
- Death of duke of Anjou; Henry of Navarre becomes heir to the throne of France.
- Duke of Guise proclaims Cardinal de Bourbon heir apparent.
- Treaty of Joinville.
|
| 1585 |
- Henry III forced to surrender to the League and the Guises.
- Treaty of Nemours.
- Outbreak of the War of the Three Henrys.
|
| 1586 |
|
| 1587 |
- Execution of Mary, queen of Scots.
- Battle of Coutras.
- Battle of Auneau.
|
| 1588 |
- Day of the Barricades.
- Spanish Armada.
- Edict of Union.
- Duke of Guise and cardinal of Guise assassinated at Blois.
|
| 1589 |
- Henry III assassinated; accession of Henry of Navarre as Henry IV of France.
- Death of Catherine de Medici.
- Battle of Arques.
- Death of Cardinal de Bourbon (Charles X).
|
| 1590 |
- Battle of Ivy.
- Siege of Paris.
|
| 1592 |
|
| 1593 |
- States General meet in Paris to elect king.
- Henry IV converted to Catholicism.
|
| 1594 |
- Henry IV crowned at Cartres.
- Henry IV enters Paris.
|
| 1595 |
- Defeat of Spanish at Fontaine-Francaise.
|
| 1596 |
- Conference of Notables at Rouen.
|
| 1597 |
- Spanish capture Amiens.
- French recapture Amiens.
|
| 1598 |
- Peace of Vervins.
- Death of Philip II of Spain.
- Apr. 13, 1598 Edict of Nantes proclaimed returning civil and religious freedom to Protestants. So strong were Protestants in LaRochelle that Roman Catholic mass had not been said in 40 years. Huguenots, for a time, became a strong political power in France.
- End of Franco-Spanish War.
- Sable Island colony of Nova Scotia founded.
|
| 1599 |
- Pierre Charivia was commissioned by King Henry IV to colonize North America and established trading posts on St. Lawrence River in Canada.
|
| 1600 |
|
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