History of Paris - Early Modern Era

Early Modern Era

With the recapture of the city in 1436, the Valois monarchs and French nobility sought to impose their authority on the city through the construction of various grandiose ecclesiastical and secular monuments, including churches and mansions. However, the later Valois dynasty largely abandoned Paris as a place of residence. Over the following century the city's population more than tripled. King Francis I had probably the greatest impact of any Valois monarch, transforming the Louvre and establishing a glittering court including such notables as Leonardo da Vinci and Benvenuto Cellini.

Paris was, however, not spared from the religious violence affecting the rest of the country as Protestantism gained ground in defiance of an increasingly harsh Catholic backlash. Paris was a predominantly Catholic city — so much so that Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus there in 1534 — but it also had a growing Protestant population. The rival religious factions pursued an increasingly bloodthirsty feud, with religiously-inspired assassinations and burnings at the stake.

Matters came to a head on 23 August 1572 with the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, when Catholic mobs killed about 3,000 Protestants on the instructions of King Charles IX.

His successor, King Henry III, attempted to find a peaceful solution but the city's population turned against him and forced him to flee on 12 May 1588, the so-called Day of the Barricades (as this was the first time in Paris's history that a revolt had utilised barricades as opposed to simple chains in defence of the city). Paris was from this point ruled by a group known as the Seize (so called because each member represented one of the sixteen quartiers of the city). This group had formed in secret several years earlier, and was motivated to revolt primarily by frustration with the existing system of civic government which prevented the advancement of their careers, and by the desire to defend the traditional privileges of the city, which the Valois kings, and Henry III in particular) had eroded. Nevertheless, the nobility, and particularly the duke of Guise, played a crucial role in the revolt which drove out the king, as did the Parisian crowd manning the barricades.

On 23 December 1588, Henry III had the Duke of Guise and his brother the Cardinal of Guise assassinated at the Estates of Blois, which further enraged his opponents in Paris. At this time, the printing presses of Paris produced huge numbers of libels against the king and his policies. The first of August 1589, Henry III was assassinated by a fanatical Dominican monk, Jacques Clément, bringing the Valois line to an end.

However, Paris, along with the other towns of the Holy Union (or Catholic League) held out against Henry IV until 1594. After his victory over the Holy Union at the battle of Ivry on 14 March 1590, Henry IV proceeded to lay siege to Paris, greatly to the distress of the population. Immense poverty was experienced, prices rose dramatically as wages stagnated, huge numbers of religious processions were led by the clergy and confraternities to pray for Paris's salvation. These devotions might be said to form an early stage of the Catholic Reformation in Paris. The siege was eventually lifted on 30 August 1590, but economic conditions remained difficult in Paris throughout the 1590s. This situation led to popular protests such as that of the 'Pain ou Paix' where protesters demanded either cheap bread or that the civic government made peace with Henry IV.

Gradually, the power of the Seize was diminished as the nobility of the Holy Union, principally the duke of Mayenne and the duke of Nemours, governor of Paris, took power in the city. They called the Estates General in 1593 to attempt to find an alternative solution to the succession and prevent Henry IV from becoming king (he had not yet proceeded to his coronation). However, the attempt stumbled over the lack of a viable heir, despite the attempts by Spanish ambassadors to have the Infanta crowned (arguing that the constitutional law that the monarch must be Catholic was more important than that declaring the monarch must be male). The year 1593 saw the decline of the League across France, and in Paris two important literary works were published - the Satire Ménippée and the Dialogue d'entre le Maheustre et le Manant ("Dialog between the courtier and the labourer") - which satirised and analysed the events of the time.

On 14 March 1594 Henry IV entered Paris with the complicity of the civic government, and he was soon crowned King of France.