The difficulties of disarmament during the French Wars of Religion: the role of Antoine, comte de Crussol

Abstract Reconciliation following conflict is difficult, and the peace edicts that ended the civil wars in sixteenth-century France took time to be enforced. Disarmament following civil war was a lengthy process. This article provides an original insight into the drawn-out disarmament processes following the First War of Religion (1562–63), through the figure of Antoine, comte de Crussol (later duc d’Uzès). The article outlines Crussol’s important role in disarmament across the regions of Languedoc, Dauphiné and Comtat-Venaissin. It argues that Crussol played a critical yet paradoxical part in disarmament, illustrating the ways in which he both delayed and enforced the peace, while emphasizing his loyalty to the crown throughout. This study also demonstrates the crown’s critical role in bringing peace, the capacity of the provincial nobles for peacemaking and the difficult position nobles who had fought against the crown found themselves in at the end of the war.