Original subtitles

For the kingdom of France!

And for God!

The wars of religion paved the Europe we live in today.

I have the heart and the stomach of a king!

In the 16th century, religion and power were inextricably linked.

Majesty, the Catholics disobey you. I will never marry that heretic, do you

me? Never!

What have you done, Henry? What have you done to this kingdom? Promise me that

it will remain Catholic.

At the time of the Renaissance, the rulers of Europe's most important

fought each other violently in the name of God.

Kill them!

Kill them all!

May God punish the heretics!

There must be another solution.

She will take the throne of England.

Plus, your prince.

Offers the Netherlands for an army.

Betrayal. It can't be true.

Jealousy and passions rock the most influential families.

We cannot allow this. I admire your audacity.

A merciless game of power and faith.

Have faith in me.

This is the true history of Europe.

With the rise of Protestantism, Europe was plunged into bloody war.

Among the Catholics, France was weakened by a regency.

Spain was faced with a revolt.

In Scotland, the Queen risked losing her throne for love.

While Protestant England dangerously fanned the flames, Europe's monarchs had

never had so much trouble keeping their throne.

Majesty.

For peace in the kingdom, I beseech you, Antoine de Bourbon,

officially renounce all thoughts of becoming regent.

In France, on the death of Francis II, His mother, Catherine de' Medici,

the regency of the kingdom by keeping her cousin Antoine of Navarre and the

ultra -Catholic Guise brothers away from the throne.

Catherine de' Medici's First Political Act was to grant the Protestants an

of tolerance.

The so -called Edict of January authorized them to freely practice their

religion, but only outside the city.

Despite

this new

tolerance, the Huguenots were being watched by spies.

The spies were in the pay of Francis, Duke of Guise, and his brother, Charles,

the Cardinal of Lorraine.

The Guise brothers were once advisors to King Henry II, but Catherine de' Medici

had sent them packing.

They refused to accept the freedom of worship accorded to people they

heretics.

Tolerance towards the Huguenots.

Only a woman would consider that.

Damn foreigner.

We'll need to find a way.

To do this, we will have to... The woman the Guise brothers called the foreigner

was none other than Queen Catherine de' Medici, Regent of France.

She would rule the kingdom until her son came of age.

The Guise brothers harbored a grudge against Catherine for keeping them away

from power.

Their hatred was so great, they planned to restart the war between Protestants

and Catholics, proving that Catherine was incapable of running the country.

One event gave them a golden opportunity to strike.

It's a good idea.

In Champagne, the Guises stronghold.

Protestants met for prayers in a barn located inside the city of Bassey.

This was against the terms laid out in the Edict of January.

On March 1st, 1562, the Duke of Guise surprised them in the middle of mass.

How dare you gather here?

Hypocrites!

Protestants! In my own lands!

43 years old, Francis of Guise, known as Scarface, was a renowned soldier and

leader of the armed branch of the Catholic Church.

As leader of the Catholic Party, he was hated by the Protestants.

Get out!

Within minutes, the fight turned into a massacre.

With over a hundred dead, the carnage at Vassy became the first bloody chapter

in the wars of religion.

A war that would engulf France and shake Europe for the next 30 years.

The day after the massacre of Vassy.

The reaction from the leader of the French Protestants, Louis of Bourbon,

of Condé, was swift.

Louis was freed by Catherine de' Medici in the first days of her regency. He

ordered an armed response against the Catholics.

On April 2nd, 1562, the Prince of Condé entered the city of Tours with 2 ,000

cavaliers.

Rouen was next to fall on April 15th.

It was followed by Lyon, Bourg, Grenoble, Le Mans, and then

Toulouse.

In six months, the Kingdom of France plunged into the first war of religion,

dragging Europe behind it in a fight for faith.

Your Majesty, I bring you good news from France. Across the Channel, the

Protestant Queen of England, Elizabeth I, was delighted to discover that,

following the massacre of Vassy, the French Huguenots had taken up arms

the Catholics.

Filthy papists.

After four years on the throne... Elizabeth had shown herself to be a

monarch and knew how to outmaneuver her enemies.

Among them, the Guise brothers, the leaders of the ultra -Catholic France.

In September 1562, a messenger arrived in the name of the Prince of Condé.

Elizabeth could barely hide her curiosity.

Very well.

Speak.

How can I help our Protestant ally?

The emissary from Condé had come to ask Elizabeth for support in the war against

the Guises and the Catholics.

Give him men and gold.

Elizabeth saw immediately the advantages in backing the French Protestants. It

would weaken the power of the Guises and could help England regain Calais.

Port City had been in English hands since 1347, but it had been captured by

French army under the command of the Duke of Guise four years earlier.

A loss that the Queen of England never got over.

In exchange for 6 ,000 men and 100 ,000 gold crown, the Prince of Condé promised

to give England a channel port in northern France.

Before marching on Calais, Condé first took the port of Le Havre and opened it

up to 3 ,000 of the Queen's soldiers.

In Paris, Catherine de' Medici was furious to learn that English troops had

landed in Le Havre with the help of the leader of the French Protestants.

The traitor!

The very idea that English soldiers had once again set foot on French soil was

unbearable for the region.

She decided to retake Le Havre by force, driving the English out of France.

Despite having no military experience, Catherine de' Medici kept a close watch

over the battle.

At 43 years old, the widow of King Henry II of France was an ambitious woman who

loved power and was intent on safeguarding the crown for her 12 -year

Charles IX.

Faced with an increasingly bloody battle, She begrudgingly handed the

her armies to the man she once ousted from power, Francis the Duke of Guise.

Ah, Guise.

A wise decision, because at Troyes, Guise managed to capture the queen's

greatest enemy, the Prince of Condé, Louis of Bourbon.

This was a huge victory for Catherine de' Medici.

She could now start to do what she liked best.

Condé.

Negotiate peace in the name of the king.

My son has charged me to restore justice, as well as bringing peace and

his subjects.

At your order, Majesty.

Negotiations lasted several weeks.

They finally resulted in a new peace treaty signed at Amboise on March 19,

Through the Treaty of Amboise, Catherine de' Medici and the Prince of Condé

joined forces and recaptured Le Havre from the English.

Together, Catholics and Protestants laid siege to the English -held port.

They benefited from an unexpected twist of fate.

The bubonic plague.

Trapped inside Le Havre, the English garrison was gradually decimated by the

disease.

After a siege lasting several weeks, the surviving English surrendered and

returned to England.

They also took the plague back home with them, causing a further 21 ,000 deaths.

Calais was forever lost to them.

1563 was an annus horribilus for Queen Elizabeth, because in Scotland, her

cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, was also claiming the throne of England.

Since her return to Scotland, Mary Stuart was having trouble earning her

countrymen's respect.

The Scottish Protestants opposed the Catholic Queen wearing the crown.

Many of her enemies supported her Protestant half -brother, James Stuart.

regent in her absence.

But since childhood, Mary had been a fighter.

Mary was only nine months old when she was crowned Queen of Scotland.

At six she was threatened with abduction by the King of England and forced to

flee her kingdom.

It saved her life.

Mary was taken in by the King of France, Henry II.

At sixteen years old she married the Dauphin Francis and was crowned as his

queen.

But after only one year of rule her husband died without leaving an heir.

Mary was a widow at twenty -two.

the young Queen of France was forced to leave her adoptive country and return to

Scotland to take up her throne there, a country which she was now having trouble

ruling.

In a letter, Mary, Queen of Scots, put pressure on Elizabeth, Queen of England.

Dearest Cousin,

It has been several months since I regained the throne of Scotland.

Mary asked Elizabeth to officially recognize her as her successor, should

Queen of England die without leaving an heir.

Mary Stuart had a strong claim to Elizabeth's throne, since the two queens

shared the same ancestor, Henry VII of England, the first of the Tudor kings.

But there was a problem.

Mary was Catholic.

If Elizabeth wanted England to remain Protestant, she must produce an heir.

At 30 years old, the thorny question of marriage raised its head once again.

Until now, Queen Elizabeth had always refused to share her throne or power

a man.

And yet, rumors abound that she was in love with her childhood friend, Robert

Dudley.

Dudley grew up alongside Elizabeth and followed her to her court after her

coronation.

He was handsome and intelligent, and only one year older than the Queen.

Dudley was born into the English nobility, but he was not of royal blood.

Elizabeth was apparently so madly in love with Dudley that she was prepared

bestow a host of titles on him.

To save her crown from the Scottish threat, the Virgin Queen, as she was

throughout her realm, needed to make a decision.

My lords.

I shall marry no one.

But if one day, my cousin Mary Stuart should sit on the throne of England,

then her child must be one of ours.

That is why, Lord Robert, I appoint you Earl of Leicester.

You will wed my cousin, Queen Mary.

Three years later, in Scotland, Mary Stuart was about to give her kingdom in

air.

I can already see the head.

Breathe, Your Majesty.

It's all right.

Take a deep breath.

It's coming.

Very good.

On June 19, 1566, She gave birth to a boy, the future James VI of

Scotland.

Here, Your Majesty, a bonny boy. Congratulations.

The child's father was not the

man Elizabeth wanted the Scottish Queen to marry. He was Henry Stuart, Mary

Stuart's Catholic cousin.

A seductive young man with a temperament as fiery as that of his new wife.

It was not a happy marriage.

The new king consort of Scotland turned out to be a drunken, selfish, jealous

womanizer. It was believed he also harbored plans to kill his wife and

throne for himself.

Deeply unhappy, Mary Stuart consoled herself in the arms of the Lord High

Admiral James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, a Protestant noble.

Eight months later, one winter's night at two o 'clock in the morning, a

explosion shook the city of Edinburgh.

Majesty, Majesty, your husband has been murdered.

Inform the Earl of Bothwell.

On hearing that her husband, the King Consort, had been assassinated, Mary

Stewart remained strangely calm.

But the finger of suspicion immediately pointed at Mary's lover, the Earl of

Bothwell.

After an investigation and a fake trial, Bothwell was declared innocent of the

assassination.

On May 15, 1567, two months after Henry Stuart's mysterious death,

Lord Bothwell and Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, married.

The marriage shocked all of Europe, especially the Protestant Scottish

They were convinced that Mary was an accomplice in her husband's murder.

Mary Stuart was in serious danger. A month after her wedding, she escaped

Edinburgh and met up with her husband, Bothwell.

One week earlier, fearing for his life, Bothwell fled to the south of Scotland.

Despite being found not guilty, all Scottish Protestants had no doubt that

was responsible for the murder of the King Consort.

My love, we shall gather our friends together and prove our innocence. I

promise.

We will.

We will prevail, my love.

In an attempt to regain her legitimacy in the eyes of her subjects, The 25

-old queen gathered together an army made up of poorly armed commoner and

marched on Edinburgh.

Mary was also dressed as a commoner. She wore a kilt, red blouse, and a black

velvet pamoshatter.

On June 15, 1567, Mary found herself facing her enemies at Tarbury Hill, a

few miles west of Edinburgh.

After hours of talks, Mary Stewart finally accepted the Scottish noble's

proposals. She surrendered in return for Bothwell's freedom.

She had just enough time to give her husband one last kiss before following

enemies to prison.

Mary Stuart would never again see the man for whom she gave up her throne.

Over 600 miles from Scotland, the Protestants of Flanders also wanted to

overthrow their ruler.

For a year now, Flemish Protestants had been executed en masse by the Catholic

authorities in the name of King Philip II of Spain.

Eleven years earlier, Philip had inherited a vast empire comprised of

the New World.

Spain, the majority of Italy, Flanders, and the Spanish Netherlands, which

included Belgium, Luxembourg, and present -day Holland.

It was Philip's second wealthiest stronghold, but it was also the most

rebellious.

Across Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges, the King of Spain was burning those he

heretics at the stake.

Will you shut her up?

In the face of this violent cruelty, one Sunday

afternoon in 1566,

Catholics and Protestants united and began to revolt.

Part of the Dutch

nobility presented a petition to Margaret of Parma, the governor of the

Netherlands.

She was the half -sister of the King of Spain.

To reassure her, her counselors uttered a phrase that would ignite the powder

keg of Flanders.

They are nothing but beggars, milady.

When the insult reached the ears of the Flemish noble, they quickly organized

the Beggars' Revolt. The King of Spain struggled to contain the uprising, but

Philip refused to lose this territory. It was totally out of the question.

In the summer of 1566, as an aside to the beggars' revolt, a group of ultra

-radical Protestants vandalized Catholic places of worship.

Religious paintings, carvings, relics, and statues were destroyed.

400 churches and monasteries were ravaged.

Protestant church services were held in places that had been so -called

purified.

The revolt soon spread across all Flanders.

To quash it, King Philip of Spain sent 20 ,000 men to crush the reformists,

consolidating his power in the region.

Philip wanted the King of France to come to his aid, but Charles IX was also in

trouble.

King Charles was now 17 years old.

He had been ruling France for four years, but the young man was mentally

and easily manipulated by his ambitious mother, Catherine de' Medici.

Despite losing the regency when her son came of age, Catherine remained a key

decision -maker in the affairs of the kingdom, and in 1567, France was hit by

the knock -on effect of the troubles flaring up in the Spanish Netherlands.

The revolt in Flanders had rekindled the Protestants' enthusiasm, especially

that of the Prince of Condé.

Despite the Treaty of Amboise, which he had signed four years earlier with

Catherine de' Medici, Condé now wanted to take up arms against the Catholics in

support of the Flemish beggars.

My friends, the Catholics continue to humiliate us.

The Pope condemns us.

And the king has doubled his guard, such is his fear of us.

It's high time to unify the kingdom ourselves.

The Prince of Condé was a member of the House of Bourbon, rivals of the Valois,

but with an equally legitimate claim to the French throne, because the Prince of

Condé was cousin to the King of France, Charles IX, and both were descendants of

Louis IX.

As such, Condé hoped to be appointed commander of the king's army and use it

support the Protestants of Flanders.

But Catherine de' Medici wasn't fooled.

She anticipated Condé's intentions and refused him the privileged position.

Condé was furious.

The king and the merchant woman are staying here, at Chateau de

That's where we'll attack.

To get rid of Catherine de' Medici, whom Condé called the Italian merchant

woman, he and the other Protestant leaders decided to kidnap the king and

entire royal family.

The plot became known as the Surprise of Meaux, but it would ultimately fail as

Catherine de' Medici had been forewarned This was a disaster for the

Protestants. Charles, wake up.

Come on, dress yourself.

Quickly. In the middle of the night, Catherine and the young king fled the

castle of Montsolemo to the east of Paris and rode to the Louvre in the

Hurry now, hurry.

From that moment on, the Queen Mother and King Charles considered Condé guilty

of treason and swore he would never be pardoned.

Throughout the kingdom, Condé's men took up arms.

On September 30, 1567, his men murdered 80 Catholics in Nîmes.

In Orléans, they caused the collapse of part of the cathedral.

In Picardy, the Huguenots lay waste to the region of Soissons, while at the

gates of Paris, Condé had laid siege.

Earlier in the fall, Catherine de' Medici learned that the Prince of Condé

moved in 4 ,000 men at Saint -Denis to destroy the windmill and starve the

capital into surrender.

Charles, your heretic cousin will never cease to torment us.

He's now at the gates of Paris.

Mother,

please let me lead our army.

I'll bleed those Huguenot dogs to death.

On guard.

Catherine de' Medici refused to expose her son, the king, to danger. But her

intense hatred for the Prince of Condé affected her common sense.

She decided to send an army to destroy Condé and his men at the gates of Paris.

On November 10th, 1567, despite having only 5 ,000 men,

Conde decided to attack the immense royal army.

The Battle of Saint -Denis marked the start of the second war of religion of

Renaissance.

The Protestants initially broke through the ranks of the royal soldiers before

losing their advantage.

After two savage hours of combat, in which Conde fought like a lion, the

Protestants managed to outwit the king's troops.

They escaped in order to build up their reinforcements.

The battle left the town of Saint -Denis littered with the corpses of over a

thousand men, including that of the Duke of Montmorency, the commander of the

Catholic Royal Army.

The king's army may have won the Battle of Saint -Denis, but civil war continued

to rage, most notably in the south of the kingdom.

Two months after the Battle of Saint -Denis, the Prince of Condé brought in

,000 German soldiers to bolster his troops.

Their leader was the 24 -year -old Prince John Casimir.

Casimir was a die -hard Calvinist. He was keen to show solidarity with all the

Protestants of Europe, but he had little experience of war.

Also, Condé and Casimir didn't get along.

The German prince demanded money and food for his men.

But money was something that Condé seriously lacked.

All I can pay you right now is this.

Desperate not to lose the German support, Condé gave permission for

his men to pillage every village they entered on the way to Paris.

Meanwhile, within the walls of the Louvre, Catherine de' Medici had made an

important decision.

With the commander of the Royal Army dead at Saint -Denis, she appointed her

youngest son, Henry, Duke of Anjou, to the position of Lieutenant General of

Kingdom.

These wars of religion cannot continue, Condé. It's just not possible.

But Catherine de' Medici knew that the treasury was empty and that her son was

not ready to fight.

Once again, the Queen Mother set off in person for peace talks with her

archenemy, Louis of Bourbon, Prince of Condé.

On my conditions?

No, our conditions will establish them together.

Who's to say mine will be respected?

On March 23rd, 1568, the Peace of Longjumeau was signed.

Today, the treaty is conserved in the National Archives in Paris.

The treaty authorized the practice of Protestant worship in cities where it

already practiced, but it would remain prohibited in Paris and its

The treaty brought an end to the Second War of Religion.

But Catherine de' Medici wrote that it merely puts a little ash on a huge

brazier.

A brazier that Catherine would rekindle when she heard of the violence being

metered out by the Catholic King of Spain.

In Flanders, Philip II, King of Spain, was stepping up the pressure on his

enemies in an attempt to establish the one true faith, Catholicism.

Stop!

No, please, no.

No, no.

An example of this was seen in Brussels on June 5th, 1568, when Philip had two

of his own state councillors, the Counts of Edgemont and Horns, beheaded. He

judged them too weak in face of the heritage.

No.

Please.

No.

The Civil War would cost the lives of more than 1 ,000 people, both

and Catholics.

Philip II intended to impose this policy of repression on his French neighbors.

Farrier, what message from our dear cousin in Spain?

The Spanish ambassador sent by Philip demanded that Catherine de' Medici and

King Charles follow the right path by ridding France of heretics. They must

cease to tolerate Protestants.

What will you have us do?

Unlike King Charles,

Catherine de' Medici feared the threats from Spain.

She therefore agreed to toughen her position regarding the Huguenots.

We will act accordingly.

She forced the king to annul the peace of Longuemont and henceforth prohibit

practice of the Protestant faith across the entire kingdom.

With the annulment of the Edicts of Tolerance, and through fear of being

assassinated himself,

the Prince of Condé, the leader of the French Protestants, took refuge at La

Rochelle, the new capital of the Huguenots.

Flanders and England had sent troops and weapons to Condé to support a third

war.

And many of the German troops were yet to return home.

The peace of Longimaux had lasted only five months.

Time enough for both sides to reinforce their army.

A third war of religion was inevitable.

To the west, the Prince of Condé and his men protected La Rochelle while waiting

for reinforcements, notably soldiers sent by William of Orange and Wolfgang

Bavaria. who had left Holland and Germany respectively to join up with 1

men.

King Charles and his mother were at the head of an army in the east, trying to

stop the Dutch and Germans from entering France to support the Protestants.

Henry of Anjou headed west, intent on taking his revenge on the Huguenots.

The battle would finally take place at Jarnac.

Henri of Anjou, whom everyone called Monsieur, was now a deeply respected and

trusted military leader.

At Jarnac, he had 28 ,000 men, twice as many as the Protestants. He prepared to

attack. My brothers!

For the kingdom of God and his church!

On March 13th, 1569, at 10 o 'clock in the morning, the two armies finally

clapped.

For two hours, the soldiers fought in the name of God.

At noon, the Prince of Conde saw his troops in difficulty and rode into the

of battle.

But Conde was thrown from his horse.

He had no option but to surrender.

Just when everyone thought the battle was over, a musketeer from the Catholic

Royal Army shot the Prince of Condé.

He died on the spot.

Henry of Anjou's victory over the leader of the Protestants was acclaimed by all

the Catholics in the kingdom.

Catherine de' Medici could not hide her pride.

Her favorite son was now an important figure on Europe's political chessboard.

From now on, she wanted all to know that the Kingdom of France could count on

Henri of Anjou. Little did she know what fate lay in store for her young son.