The Malcontents were a faction of gentlemen in the
"fifth" French War of Religion (1574–1576). They opposed the policy of Henry of Valois, duc d'Anjou, who had become king under the name
Henry III on 30 May 1574, and allied themselves with the
Huguenots
The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
. The leader was the King's brother
Francis, Duke of Alençon (made Duke of Anjou in 1576).
The main goal of the Malcontents was to oppose the
absolutist ambitions of the King.
Established in 1574, they were unhappy (''malcontent'') with the way the King treated the old French nobility.
[Hillman, R., & Ruberry-Blanc, P. (2013)]
Marie-Hélène Besnault,«The Political Folly of Malcontents in Early Jacobean Drama
�,«Theta X, Théâtre Tudor», 2013, pp. 117–138.
The Malcontent movement has been compared to the
Fronde, 70 years later.
Members
The Malcontents had both Catholic and Huguenot members.
The leaders were:
*
The Duke of Alençon, Catholic and the King's younger brother
*
Henri I de Montmorency, Catholic
*
Guillaume de Montmorency-Thoré, Catholic
*
Henri, Prince of Condé, Protestant
*
Henri de Navarre, Protestant and future King Henry IV of France
*
John Casimir of the Palatinate-Simmern, German Protestant supporter of the Huguenots in France
References
Political history of the Ancien Régime
French Wars of Religion
{{France-hist-stub