Francois de Lorraine, second duc de Guise, Duc D'aumale, and Prince De Joinville, who had become the head of the ultra-Catholic faction in France after the death of King Heny II, had also become the sole commander of the royal army after the capture of Montmorency at Dreux in December, 1562.

As lieutenant general of the kingdom, Guise moves to besiege Orléans, where, mortally wounded by a Huguenot assassin, he dies on February 24, 1563.

A third party of moderate Catholics, known as the Politiques, emerges under the family of Montmorency at the end of 1572, following the deaths of several thousand French Huguenots in what has become known as the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

Both Philip II of Spain and Pope Gregory XIII declare themselves pleased with the outcome, which is naturally viewed with horror by their religious opponents throughout Europe.

In France, it solidifies Huguenot opposition to the crown.

Condé, whose forced conversion, together with that of his cousin, Henri of Navarre, had saved him from death in the Massacre, has spent the past few years raising money, troops, and support from the German princes, particularly Jan Casimir, the son of Friedrich III of the Palatine.

A relative of the Coligny brothers, Henri de Montmorency, Sieur de Damville, governs the heavily Protestant Languedoc region as an "uncrowned king of the south," and, though himself Roman Catholic, brings another substantial army to the Protestant side.

The Catholic League, led by the ultra-Roman Catholic Henri I de Lorraine, third duc de Guise, forces the moderate but devious King Henry III to ban Protestantism and attempts to exclude from the succession his brother-in-law, the Huguenot leader Henry of Bourbon, king of Navarre and heir presumptive to the French throne.

The result is the War of the Three Henrys.

Anne, the eldest son of Guillaume, Viscount de Joyeuse, when very young had been admitted to the royal court, where he had carried the title of Marquis d'Arques (after one of his father's lands).

King Henry III, having just lost his former favorites, had taken a great liking to Anne and in 1581 had created him Duke de Joyeuse with precedence over all other peers of the realm except for princes of the blood and certain sovereign families.

Henry had also made Anne admiral of France in 1582 and governor of Normandy in 1586 and married him to Marguerite de Lorraine-Vaudémont, younger sister of the queen.

A champion of Roman Catholic reaction against Henri I de Montmorency's tolerant policy toward the Huguenots in Languedoc, Anne leads an army against the Huguenots in Guyenne and ...

...massacres some of them at Mont-Saint-Éloi.

Duke Anne is recalled to court at this inopportune moment because of the intrigues of jealous rivals, and, when he marches a second time against Henry of Navarre, he is captured and killed on October 20 at the Battle of Coutras, which Henry, with English financial aid, wins.