Jean Bodin had gone to the University of Toulouse to study civil law in 1551 and remained there as a student and later as a teacher until 1561, when he abandoned the teaching of law for its practice and returned to Paris as avocat du roi (French: “king's advocate”) just as the civil wars between Roman Catholics and Huguenots were beginning.

He had in 1571 entered the household of the king's brother, François, duc d'Alençon, as master of requests and councilor.

He appears only once on the public scene, as deputy of the third estate for Vermandois in 1576 at the Estates-General of Blois.

Henry III has resumed the war against the Huguenots, but the Estates-General is weary of Henry's extravagance and refuses to grant him the necessary subsidies.

Bodin opposes the projected resumption of war on the Huguenots in favor of negotiation, and he also opposes the suggested alienation, or sale, of royal domains by Henry III as damaging to the monarchy.

His uninterested conduct on this occasion loses him royal favor.

Bodin's principal writing, The Six Bookes of a Commonweale (1576), win him immediate fame and will remain influential in western Europe into the seventeenth century.

The bitter experience of civil war and its attendant anarchy in France have turned Bodin's attention to the problem of how to secure order and authority.

Bodin thinks that the secret lies in recognition of the sovereignty of the state and argues that the distinctive mark of the state is supreme power.

This power is unique; absolute, in that no limits of time or competence can be placed upon it; and self-subsisting, in that it does not depend for its validity on the consent of the subject.

Bodin assumes that governments command by divine right because government is instituted by providence for the well-being of humanity.

Government consists essentially of the power to command, as expressed in the making of laws.

In a well-ordered state, this power is exercised subject to the principles of divine and natural law; in other words, the Ten Commandments are enforced, and certain fundamental rights, chiefly liberty and property, are extended to those governed.

But should these conditions be violated, the sovereign still commands and may not be resisted by his subjects, whose whole duty is obedience to their ruler.

Bodin distinguishes only three types of political systems—monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy—according to whether sovereign power rests in one person, in a minority, or in a majority.

Bodin himself prefers a monarchy that is kept informed of the peoples' needs by a parliament or representative assembly.

Widely credited with introducing the concept of sovereignty into legal and political thought, his exposition of the principles of stable government is widely influential in Europe at a time when medieval systems are giving way to centralized states.

The outspoken Philippe de Mornay, seigneur du Plessis-Marly, had received a Protestant education, studying Hebrew, law, and German at the University of Heidelberg, and only narrowly escaped death while in Paris on August 24, 1572 during the massacre of Protestants on St. Bartholomew's Day.

He has written numerous political tracts during the past four years, including Discours au roi Charles (1572; “Discourse to King Charles”) and Remonstrances aux estats pour la paix (1576; “Remonstrances on the Conditions for Peace”).

Fighting for the Huguenots, Mornay had been captured in 1575, but by concealing his identity he had been able to secure release for only a small ransom.

He marries Charlotte Arbaleste In 1576; her memoirs will be a major source for the events of her husband's life.

The Holy League, La Sainte Ligue, an association of French Roman Catholics, is organized in 1576 under the leadership of Henri I de Lorraine, 3rd Duke of Guise, to oppose concessions granted to the Protestants (Huguenots) by King Henry III in the Edict of Beaulieu.

Although the basic reason behind the League's formation is the defense of the Catholic religion, political reasons, notably the desire to limit the king's power, are not absent.

Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc, a marshal of France from 1574, has become a powerful force within the league of Roman Catholic nobles in the southwest.

Huguenot propaganda has given him an undeserved reputation for barbarity.

In his Commentaires (1592; English translation, 1674), an autobiography that contains his reflections on the art of war, he records his successes with frankness, but he does not conceal his mistakes.

Militarily he stands for the use of mobile infantry (notably harquebusiers) against cavalry.

He dies at Condom at 77 on August 20, 1577.

Montluc’s successor is Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron, who, as a young page of Margaret, queen of Navarre, had attracted the attention of the Marshal de Brissac (Charles de Cossé), who took him to Piedmont.

There he commanded the artillery but was lamed by a wound.

He has brought back to the royal army in France the professional spirit of the Italian soldiers and, in the battles of 1568–69, had won the post of grand master of the artillery, held by Brissac before him.

He had taken La Rochelle in 1573 and commanded in Guienne; in 1577 he is made marshal of France, with command in the south against Henry of Navarre.

The Huguenots have fared badly in the Sixth War of Religion, and Henry of Navarre, evaluating the situation, is able to persuade his coreligionists to give up the struggle and accept the Treaty of Bergerac on September 17, 1577, despite the sacrifices it imposed on them.

The Huguenots lose some of their liberties by the Edict of Poitiers, and ...

...the Holy League is dissolved by the order of Henry III, who has failed at an attempt to place himself at the head of the Catholic party.