The rise of Tilly and the French War of Religion
Johan Count of Tilly was born in French Flandres in 1559, the eldest son of one of the oldest aristocratic families still in the province of Hainaut. As a youth he was taught by Jesuits, learning Latin, the Classics (he was particularly interested in Roman warfare), and theology. This education molded him into a fiercely pious man—he considered, throughout his adolescence, becoming a missionary and traveling to Quebec or the Orient. However, the pressure of being an eldest son made such a dream impossible, so he was sent to the Orleans Army Academy, where he proved a mediocre strategist. When he turned 20 (just as France was entering the Netherlands and leaving Switzerland), he became the garrison commander of the city of Bruges.
The city of Bruges, with the Jewish Ghetto and Calvinist District highlighted It should be noted that although there was a ‘Calvinist District’, there were no laws prohibiting where Calvinists could live and in fact Protestants tended to live all over the city, making Tilly’s job very difficult. But despite occasional unrest, by 1579 Bruges was, temporarily, France’s largest city with a total population of 250,000.
Over this period, Flandres had changed massively. Bruges had grown to become the second largest city in France, and the Flemish Huguenots had grown from a small minority to the dominant political force in north-eastern France. As Tilly entered the city barracks*, he was met with Bruges’ first Calvinist councilman, who explained to Tilly that the Calvinist and Jewish communities of Bruges had a history of governing and defending themselves, and that no patrols would be needed through the Ghetto and the Huguenot district.
This rubbed Tilly the wrong way, but he was unable to do anything about it until Louis XII declared martial law in French Flandres following the beginning of the War of Brabant. Refugees, mostly Huguenot, poured into Bruges, and new, radical sects of Protestantism were taking hold in the north-east. These sects were varied, but most of them traced their roots to the Grand-Duchy of Thuringia & Saxony, and most of them involved a refutation of all forms of Catholic political control. Soon enough, a group which called themselves “Christ’s Militia” was roaming the streets of Bruges, making trouble for Catholic-owned businesses and Tilly’s garrison.
France’s religious denominations at the start of the 40 Years War. Note that Protestant and Radical denominations grew exponentially during the early 40 Years War, a product of increased dislike with the Catholic administration, rumors of the King’s Protestantism, and a number of foreign backers.
Beyond this, French morale was at an all-time low during the 1580s. This was especially true of French Catholic institutions, which saw France on the wrong side of an existential conflict, and the French military, which had lost nearly 45,000 soldiers fighting a pair of wars which ended with little affect.
Rumors of Louis XII’s heresy led to multiple conspiracies among southern officers supporting Nicolas de Neufville, the Marshal of France and a possible regent. Many more noblemen and officers asked themselves if the rivalry with the Hapsburgs was worth a France bordered by heretics and a Germany dominated by the Protestant Prussia and the Re]p765 formist Thuringia. Meanwhile the increasingly large Huguenot noble population had a pretender movement of its own, involving the assassination of Louis XII and his replacement with the Duc de Lorraine.
Nicolas de Neufville-Vileroy was the Marshal of France and a zealous Catholic.
Louis XII, for his part, had little to say about this. He was unaware of these conspiratorial movements when he was on horseback fighting in the Lowlands. During the Siege of Limburg he was maimed by a mortar blast, and in 1588 he was still recovering from extensive burns on his body. The extent to which he was wounded was not widespread knowledge—Louis XII would never walk again after the War of Brabant, and he could only perform oration with a great amount of pain. French politics, until Louis XII’s death, would involve control of the royal advisors, which is where Tilly came in.
Tilly sent a letter to the Marshal de Neufville, asking for a full military governorship over all of Flandres and arguing for nation-wide martial law. He wrote to a greater sense of Catholic fear over a Protestant-dominated France, reportedly saying “It is time that we took off our gloves and fought back against the Huguenot threat, because without a doubt, they are planning on striking us. I say, strike first.”**
Tilly was a hero after the war, the man who ended the French policy of pseudo-tolerance and, with his brutality, ended the war with a huge amount of spoils. Recent histiography has changed this image.
De Neufville accepted Tilly’s proposition and, given the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ in France, reorganized France’s provincial governance structures, creating 7 military districts—Bourgogne, Brittany, Gascogne, Lyon et Marseilles, Nord-Est, Occita, and Paris. Adding to this, and with the help of Bosquet, De Neufville created the Act de Milites, putting all militia under the authority of the Crown and the Crown alone.
Using his new legal power as the military governor of the Nord-Est district, and using the excuse given by the Act de Milites, Tilly declared all non-Catholic militias null, as they were acting ‘against the interests of the French crown’. This led to unrest in the provinces of Artois, Hainaut, and Flandres, which Tilly mercilessly put down with the provincial garrisons now fully under his command.
Tilly leading his men against the Reformists. The Reformist Revolt, which involved a massive application of violence against French Reformists—foreshadowed both the French War of Religion and the last stage of the 40 Years War
It was during the Reformist Revolt of 1585 that Tilly developed his idea of ‘Roman Tactics’—that is, Total Warfare. He believed that the Huguenots were attacking France not only in a military sense—their mere presence was a threat to Royal authority. Therefore, one had to attack both the military aspect of Huguenotism—the revolters—but also the presence of Huguenots everywhere. Tilly started a settlement policy in Brugge, bringing in Catholic Bretons to counteract the massive growth of the Dutch Reformist population. He made it a strategy to attack Huguenot churches, and when dealing with rebellious towns burned them to the ground.
The Reformist Revolt ended with total victory for Tilly, and with that victory Tilly continued onwards on his policy of religious purity. He began a strategy of mass reconversion, bringing the Jesuits into the region and forcing a number of economic disadvantages on the Non-Catholic population, including extra taxes and forced Ghetto-ization of Protestants. Furthermore, in 1590 Tilly engaged in a Frenchification program in Flandres and Hainaut, banning non-French newspapers and closing shops owned by Dutchmen.
All of this led to a huge amount of dissent in Tilly’s district. But Louis XII, now fearful of coup attempts by Catholic and Protestant partisans, announced full support for Tilly’s policies, and traveled to Bruges to publically announce his support. Alongside him was Marshal de Neufville, the Royal Engineers (who were to build a series of forts along the French-Brabant border), and Chancellor du Bosquet. On the road to Borges, they were met by a group of Protestant noblemen (including D’Ancon). The aristocrat’s intention was to find a way to bring peace to France—an Edict which would proclaim full religious rights to each Frenchman.
The death of D’Ancon. Note that this is certainly one of the several ‘mythical’ paintings of Louis XII done for propaganda purposes, as each of the ‘mythical’ paintings depict Louis XII as a youth and he was an old man by this point.
Each member of Louis’ retinue denied this. They all thought that France’s instability came from her religious heterogeneity, not from a lack of tolerance (and many felt that Louis had, perhaps, been too tolerant in his policies). Louis himself stayed silent, thinking that perhaps it would be best if he were to not weight in on such matters, especially when surrounded by armed men who would be very angry regardless of his answer. D’Ancon interpreted this silence as an agreement with his proposition, an agreement he could not voice while surrounded by radical Catholics. As such, he drew his firearm and fired on de Neufville. The ensuing combat killed three members of the Royal Architects, and only ended when Louis covertly drew his gun and shot D’Ancon through the throat, stepping over him and using the fullest of his royal charisma.
He was reported to have said “There is no equality in France. In France, there is One, and there are Many, and it is not to the Many to decide the policy of the One”***.
When he arrived at Bruges, Tilly agreed with Louis’ advisers that the Huguenot faction had grown far too strong, and that this strength was exacerbated by their positions in government. With the reasoning that the Protestants had made an attempt on the King’s life, and had successfully killed the Marshal of French armies, Tilly declared that all non-Catholics were to abandon their governmental posts, and that a new position would be created with the responsibility of the safety of the King, a position which had tremendous power and would be held by Johann de Vigny.
The declaration of Bruges. Also, Hah! I'd had the Edict of Nantes all along and hadn't told you!
With the Declaration of Bruges, the Huguenots realized that they were under siege by the government, and that allowing the government to have its way would end in the destruction of the Huguenot faith. Furthermore, it soon became obvious that Protestant counts and dukes would also be targeted, losing their noble privileges. Beyond this it was also clear (from Tilly’s actions) that this also applied to Jews, and he removed them from the Guild structure of Bruges and Hainaut. With all this in consideration it should be no surprise that within them month the Duke of Lorraine declared himself King of the Huguenots, and thus the French War of Religion was started.
The beginning of the French War of Religion
*It is quite astonishing that a relatively minor nobleman with little military experience who graduated without any marks of excellence from the Army Academy would become the garrison commander of the second more important city in France. It is quite likely that Tilly’s regional connections and the fact that he was a Walloon himself played a large part in his appointment.
**This is a false quotation, especially considering the parallels between Tilly’s quote and the sayings of Mussolini. After the Second World War and with the explosion in the Historian population, a new histiography of French history emerged that was highly critical of France’s participation in 40 Years War, the negative aspects of which were mostly forgotten by French textbooks. Drawing on German sources, the new histiography (of which this work is a part of) described the war as “The beginning of the transformation of France, not only into a modern state, but also into a murderous empire”.
***This was almost certainly attributed to him post-mortem, as his government was run by advisers at this point. However, the image of Louis XII as an Ideal Autocrat spurred many a monarchist ideologue after his death, and both the image of his efficient rule and the real inefficiency of the rule of his advisers were used against rule-by-minister later on.
