Holt, Mack P.

English

Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)

COMPTE RENDUS - BOOK REVIEWS 185Henry HelIer - Iron and Blood: Civil Wars in Sixteenth-Century France. Montrealand Kingston: McGiII-Queen's University Press, 1991. pp. xiv, 191.Henry HelIer's Iron and Blood is a natural sequel to his Conquest ofPoverty:The Calvinist Revoit in Sixteenth-Century France (Leiden, 1986). In his earlier book,he attempted to portray the rising tide of French Calvinism in the frrst half of thesixteenth century as being fomented by economic hardship and distress and suggestedthat the groundswelI of support for the new religion was composOO primarily ofartisans and the urban lower orders. In Iron and Blood, HelIer picks up where he leftoff, and moves on to discuss the French religious wars of the second half of thecentury. Neither a detailOO narrative histary of the civil wars nor a short survey forbeginners, the book is a briefpersonal interpretation ofwhy the wars were fought andwho benefittOO. Although many principal figures and key incidents are recountedwithin, this is not the book ta turn ta for factual information or a detailed account ofa particuiar campaign. It is above all else a 150-page sustained argument.The argument runs as follows. The rising level of social conflict and discontentin the first half of the sixteenth century, as represented by the numerous evangelicalcommunities establishOO throughout the kingdom, 100 directly to the political, social,and religious upheavals of the civil wars (1562-1598). As those most attractOO to thenew religion were from the lower orders, it was inevitable that the outbreak ofviolence in the early 1560s would display "certain characteristics of a class conflict"(12). Thus, aristocrats and notables from both church and state found themselvespittOO against an alliance of craftsmen, lesser merchants, and plebeians. As was thecase in the revolution of 1789, sixteenth-century society "was dividOO by classhostility, beset by growing poverty and economic crisis, and menaced by the spectreof royal bankruptcy.... Like the eighteenth century, the sixteenth century had createda elass of merchants and craftsmen who were preparOO ta challenge the religious aswell as the political and social foundations of the existing order" (47). With theoutbreak of war in the 1560s, the plebeian rank and fIle of the Huguenot movementgave way ta the leadership of the bourgeoisie. Calvinist notables, wealthy merchants,and professionals provided the organization and leadership that the earlier religiousrevolts of the 1520s and 1540s sorely lacked. This new alliance turned the revolutionof the commoners into a counter-revolution by the aristocracy, as the nobles reactedta secure and sustain their rightful place at the top of society. As a result, control ofbath the Calvinist movement and the catholic reaction were seizedby the aristocracyin order to guarantee the defeat of this plebeian-bourgeois alliance. Protestant andcatholic nobles workOO in tandem to ensure this end. Contemporaries were weIl awareof this aristocratic conspiracy against the lower orders, as "Catholic nobles step asidesa as to allow those of the new religion ta sack, pillage, and ransom the placesinhabitoo by Catholics. In like manner, the Protestant nobles allow the Catholics ta dothe same in areas inhabited by Protestants" (62). Clearly, "religion is beside the point",as "nobles were using the religious wars to serve their ends at the expense of the restof society" (60, 65). In short, the civil wars "were a feudal reaction masterminded bythe nobility" (70).The result of this class war was never in doubt. Unlike the revolution of 1789,the class war of the sixteenth century was a revolution manquée. Even thoughcommoners of both religious railOO against the ravages of troops and the unfairburdens of excessive taxes and subsidies, they were never to achieve their goal of a"society of equals" (101). As the radical democratic implications of the Huguenotrepublic in the Midi following the St. Bartholomews massacres were parallelIOO on186 mSTOIRE SOCIALE - SOCIAL mSTORYthe catholic side by the popular, democratic, and equally urban League in the 1580sand early 1590s, aristocrats of both religions ultimately managed to wear down anddefeat the urban popular movements. Indeed, the stmctural weakness of both theHuguenots and the League was the tension and contradiction between the radical,popular movements in the towns and their aristocratic leadership (119). Theconclusion of this socio-economic war occurred in the mid-1590s as popular move-ments all over France erupted into anti-seigneurial insurrection. The Croquants in thesouthwest were only the prototype as commoners everywhere abandoned all rhetoricof religion and revolted "against the continuation of the civil wars", viewing theiractions as "a repudiation of the nobility as weIl as the clergy" (120). The result wasrallying around the royalist cause of Henry of Navarre, who the commoners hopedwould end the aristocratic suppression and the nobles hoped would restore the socialorder. Il was a pyrrhic victory for the aristocracy, however. Even though they retainedtheir place at the top of society and managed to subdue forther talk: ofdemocracy andequality, they had lost ground in the process. "Il was the middle class - ranging fromofficers to merchants, well-to-do artisans, and rich peasants - that was the principalbeneficiary of the civil war...[and] that seized the lion's share of land taken from theChurch or from the impoverished peasants." Thus, the civil wars "were at one and thesame time a seigneurial reaction and an important phase of bourgeois 'primitiveaccumulation'" (138). In this sense, "the defeatofthe middle class ought not to blindus to the fact of its relative ascension throughout the sixteenth century" (149). Thebourgeoisie survived to fight another day in 1789.To say the least, this is a novel view of the Wars of Religion, indeed a Wars ofReligion without religion at all. The old corpse of "the rise of the middle class", slainby J.H. Hexter more than four decades ago, was long thought to be dead and buried.Professor Heller has not only attempted to breathe sorne life back into il, but he hasgot it twitehing and trying to sit boIt upright To he sure, my encapsulation of hisargument above, though 1 think fairly representative of his views, is not as nuancedor as subtle as he might wish. Nevertheless, 1 think il fair to say that early modemistshave abandoned the unreconstmcted marxist approach to history about as thoroughlyas scholars of the French Revolution. So, Heller's explanation of the Wars ofReligionraises a number of questions in light of both the evidence and much recent research.If religious discontent in the frrst half of the century was tmly built upon economichardship, why did an overwhelming majority ofartisans, craftsmen, and plebeians allover France choose to remain loyal to the traditional church? If class rather thanreligion divided Frenchmen in the civil wars, why did noble slay noble, merchant slaymerchant, and artisan kill artisan by the score? Was it just coincidence that Philip IIand the pope supported one side while Elizabeth and William of Orange aided theother? Rather than trying to snuff out the popular movement of the Huguenots aroundmid-century, did not the conversion of scores of nobles to the new religion provide ita lifeline, without which il would have succumbed to royal suppression? Is aU theviolence of the civil wars(or even most of it?) best explained by class war? 1 wouldventure that most historians find Natalie Davis's "rites of violence" a far moreplausible explanation. And it is really fair to argue that the civil wars were finallybrought to an end in the 15908 because of"concerted popular protest" (149)? Did theabjuration of Henry ofNavarre and his settlement with the towns and aristocrats reallyplay only a minor role? These are all questions that are raised by the book'sconclusions but left unanswered. The recent books by Denis Crouzet and BarbaraDiefendorf, for just two examples (and they appeared too late for Professor Heller toconsult), both argue very persuasively in slightly different ways that religion was atCOMPTE RENDUS - BOOK REVIEWS 187the heart of the violence of the civil wars. And this does not even take account ofsimilar views of many of the authors that Heller does cite.The book is not without merit, however, and it would he a pity if readersdismissed Professor HelIer out of hand because of his unorthodox views. It is usefulto he reminded from time to time that social tension was a permanent feature of theAncien Régime, and that whatever vertical bonds existed to bridge the social gulf -and religion was one such bond in the sixteenth century - that class tension was astructural component of this hierarchical society. This tension often erupted intoviolence during times of economic hardship, as the many examples Professor HelIercites from the fifteenth century to the end of the Ancien Régime attest. Moreover, 1would agree with him that the most extreme interpretations of Roland Mousnier's"society of orders" tend to underplay or even eliminate the tension altogether. Thus,in my view, chapter 6 on the Croquants and other revolts of the mid-1590s is thestrongest of the book. Here, the evidence does support his view that there were manyFrenchmen (and even a few women) al1 over France who were tired of war,disillusioned by the League, and ready to use force to protect their families andproperty from all armies. AlI the anecdotal evidence compiled by Professor HelIer,however, is still not enough to persuade me that "from start to finish, the warsrepresented a kind of class war from above" (136).MackP.HoltGeorge Mason University***Bruce W. Hodgins et Jamie Benidickson - The Temagami Experience: Recreation,Resources, and Aboriginal Rights in the Northern Ontario Wilderness. Toronto:University of Toronto Press, 1989, 370 p.Au Canada, comme à l'étranger, les problèmes des Amérindiens ne laissent plusles historiennes et les historiens indifférents. Les abus des gouvernements fédéralet provinciaux ont abouti dans de nombreux cas à leur conférer une attituderenonciatrice en ce qui concerne le respect des droits des Autochtones ainsi que deleur environnement. C'est dans ce contexte que s'inscrit le livre de Bruce W. Hodginset de Jamie Benidickson, The Temagami Experience.Cet ouvrage est bourré d'informations qui permettent de comprendrel'évolution du territoire des Temeaugama Anishnabai, situé aa-nord-est de l'Ontario.Le « peuple de l'eau profonde» était installé dans la région de Temagami, sur uneétendue d'environ 9 840 km2, depuis au moins 5 000 ans. Les contacts avec lesFrançais d'abord, puis avec les Anglais, bouleversèrent leur vie paisible, occupéejusque-là par la chasse et la pêche, et les entraînèrent dans l'impitoyable compétitionde la traite des fourrures. La « Proclamation» du roi George III en 1763 et le traitéRobinson-Huron en 1850 furent les deux premières tentatives gouvernementales dedélimitation du territoire des Temeaugama. La signature du traité est à la source de ladispute qui s'est développée entre les Autochtones et le gouvernement. En effet, lesTemeaugama partent du principe que n'ayant pas signé le traité Robinson-Huron, ilsont le droit de reprendre leurs terres. Selon les auteurs, il n'existe aucune preuve queles Autochtones aient participé aux réunions préliminaires ou même à la signature du

Henry Heller - Iron and Blood: Civil Wars in Sixteenth-Century
France

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Henry Heller - Iron and Blood: Civil Wars in Sixteenth-Century France

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Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)