AP Euro Unit 2b Vocab (Religious Wars)

regent

a person appointed to govern a state temporarily because the actual monarch is a minor (too young), absent, incapacitated, or if the throne is vacant

Catherine de Medici

Italian-born queen consort and regent of France who effectively ruled behind the scenes for three of her young sons during the French Wars of Religion. Disliked for her merchant'-class background and approval of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Governed as queen regent during turbulent times, trying to preserve Valois royal authority against powerful rival noble factions (such as the Catholic Guises and Protestant Bourbons)

Guise Family

a powerful, militant Catholic noble family in 16th-century France that led the ultra-Catholic faction during the French Wars of Religion

Huguenots

French Calvinist Protestants who made up a significant religious minority in overwhelmingly Catholic France during the 16th and 17th centurie

Edict of Beaulieu

a royal decree by King Henry III that granted French Huguenots near-total freedom of public worship, the right to hold public office, and control over eight cautionary walled towns (fortresses) for their protection.

Catholic League

A radical ultra-Catholic coalition formed during the French Wars of Religion by Henry, Duke of Guise, with the goal of completely eradicating Calvinism (Huguenots) in France and placing a Catholic champion on the French throne

St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

The targeted assassination and coordinated mass slaughter of thousands of French Calvinist Protestants, known as Huguenots, during the French Wars of Religion. Began in Paris just days after the marriage of the Protestant Henry of Navarre to Margaret (the Catholic sister of King Charles IX), a wedding meant to reconcile religious factions

Edict of Nantes

Allowed Huguenots to worship publicly in designated areas (excluding Paris), hold public office, attend state universities, and maintain fortified towns for military protection by Henry IV (Navarre)

politique

believed that civil order and a strong central government mattered more than enforcing a single religious faith (Catholicism or Protestantism). They viewed religious compromise as necessary to prevent national destruction

War of the Three Henrys

The final major conflict of the French Wars of Religion, fought between three rival leaders named Henry over control of the French crown and the nation's religious future. fueled by succession crises following the death of Henry III's brother,

Henry IV (France)

The king of Navarre (as Henry III, 1572–89) and the first Bourbon king of France (1589–1610), who, at the end of the Wars of Religion, abjured Protestantism and converted to Roman Catholicism(1593) in order to win Paris and reunify France

Phillip II

Habsburg King of Spain who built a powerful centralized state, used American silver to fund Catholic causes, and led the Counter-Reformation. Responsible for the Spanish Armada and attempts to capture the Low Countries.

Dutch Revolts

a successful uprising of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands against the political and religious tyranny of Habsburg Spain. Resulted from the heavy taxes, imposing of the Counter Reformation, and infringement on local towns’ idependance.

Spanish Fury

a series of violent, bloody city sackings in the Low Countries by unpaid, mutinous Spanish royal troops during the Dutch Revolt. The result of underpaid Spanish armies.

William “The Silent”

the main leader of the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Habsburg ruler, Philip II, during the Wars of Religion. A Catholic, politique figure amongst the Calvinist Dutch.

Antwerp (The fall of) 1585

The Spanish capture of the leading commercial and financial hub of the Low Countries during the Dutch Revolt, marking the end of the city's Golden Age and the shift of European economic dominance northward

Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary)

the daughter of Henry the VIII and Catherine of Aragon. The Catholic Queen of England and Ireland from 1553 to 1558 who unsuccessfully tried to restore Roman Catholicism by executing hundreds of Protestants

Oxford Martyrs

Protestants tried for heresy in 1555 and burnt at the stake in Oxford, England, for their religious beliefs and teachings under the orders of Mary Tudor

Mary, Queen of Scots

a devout Catholic monarch of Scotland whose claim to the English throne and frequent Catholic plots against her cousin Elizabeth I led to her imprisonment and execution

Spanish Armada

a massive naval fleet sent by King Philip II of Spain in 1588 to invade England, overthrow the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, and restore Roman Catholic rule.The English navy used faster, more maneuverable ships with long-range cannons and fire ships to break the Spanish crescent formation at the Battle of Gravelines. Severe storms (the "Protestant wind") later wrecked many of the retreating Spanish ships around Scotland and Ireland

Elizabeth I

Established a "middle way" for the Church of England (Anglican Church) via the Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity. Protestant and eventually excommunicated from the Catholic Church, leading to assassination attempts by Catholics. She required outward conformity to moderate Protestantism while tolerating private beliefs. Daughter of Henry VIII

Charles V

he product of a strategic marriage alliance between the Habsburgs and the Spanish royal family, which positioned him to inherit a vast and diverse empire. His tenure was marked by both political and religious challenges, the rise of Protestantism prompted by Martin Luther's reformative actions. A New Monarch, tried to consolidate the power of the Habsburg Empire and attempted to impose Catholicism throughout it

Peace of Augsburg

a 1555 treaty that ended religious warfare between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Lutheran princes, establishing the legal basis for Lutheranism within the Holy Roman Empire- cuius regio, eius religio

cuius regio, eius religio

“whose realm, his religion," which established the legal principle that the ruler of a territory determined the official religion of their subjects. 

Thirty Years War

European history, a series of wars fought by various nations for various reasons, including religious, dynastic, territorial, and commercial rivalries. Its destructive campaigns and battles occurred over most of Europe, and, when it ended with the Treaty of Westphalia

Cardinal Richelieu

the chief minister (regent) to French King Louis XIII from 1624 to 1642 who laid the administrative and political foundations for French absolutism. A politique

Defenestration of Prague

an incident where Protestant Bohemian nobles threw two Catholic Habsburg officials and their secretary out of a castle window, triggering the Bohemian Revolt and igniting the Thirty Years' War

The International (or French) Phase

stage of the Wars of Religion when Catholic France openly entered the conflict on the side of the Protestant powers (Sweden and the German states) to directly fight the Catholic Habsburg rulers of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.

Peace of Westphalia

granted territories to Sweden, France, and their allies, confirming the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Swiss Confederation. The peace also extended religious tolerance to Lutherans and the Reformed (Calvinist) church. The treaty recognized the sovereignty of the empire's member states, empowering them to form treaties, which weakened the Holy Roman Emperor and the Diet.