WI: France becomes a Protestant nation?

What if Henry IV refuses to convert back to Catholicism after the French Wars of Religion, making France a Protestant nation? How does the 30 years' war change? How do the religious demographics of the world change? Does the French Revolution still happen? Does France become weaker or stronger being Protestant? Are all of the countries France colonized IOTL still colonized in this timeline, but are now Protestant (I.E. Protestant Indochina)?
 

Gian

Banned
What if Henry IV refuses to convert back to Catholicism after the French Wars of Religion, making France a Protestant nation? How does the 30 years' war change? How do the religious demographics of the world change? Does the French Revolution still happen? Does France become weaker or stronger being Protestant? Are all of the countries France colonized IOTL still colonized in this timeline, but are now Protestant (I.E. Protestant Indochina)?

I actually posited the same question some time ago.

Unfortunately, in this case, Henry IV refusing to convert simply means that the war continues with the Habsburgs, Guises, and their allies all rallying around a Habsburg as monarch (this time, with a full blown French Inquisition to boot)
 
I actually posited the same question some time ago.

Unfortunately, in this case, Henry IV refusing to convert simply means that the war continues with the Habsburgs, Guises, and their allies all rallying around a Habsburg as monarch (this time, with a full blown French Inquisition to boot)
Let's say then that ITTL, the war continues for longer, and ends with a Protestant victory (through massive English help), though it leaves France completely devastated and far less powerful than IOTL. How does the world change?
 
I think a better POD is to get John Calvin on the throne of France. OTL, he had an intense longing for his homeland, and worked to spread Protestantism in France, but perhaps ATL there is a coup and Calvin ends up ruling France. Perhaps this early you could get an alt 30 Year's War to happen with France more or less being established as a Reformed area. Or, ya know, you could have Calvin go absolutely ham and do a whole early Napoleon dealio, but that's improbable at best.
 
I think a better POD is to get John Calvin on the throne of France. OTL, he had an intense longing for his homeland, and worked to spread Protestantism in France, but perhaps ATL there is a coup and Calvin ends up ruling France. Perhaps this early you could get an alt 30 Year's War to happen with France more or less being established as a Reformed area. Or, ya know, you could have Calvin go absolutely ham and do a whole early Napoleon dealio, but that's improbable at best.
That's pratically ASB there is no way he could ascend to the throne.
 
Popular revolt, with dutch and maybe even english help if England goes radically reformed.
I don't see it. In thoses time you just don't put a nobodies on thrones it would open bad precedent. The only way I could see France turn protestant is if the King himself break with the catholic church.
 
If Henri IV refuses to convert to Catholicism then the invading forces will most likely rally around Isabela Clara Eugenia as the Queen Regnant of France (since she's got the bloodline and support from said invading army), and damn the consequences of throwing out Salic Law... Namely that the English can drag the Plantagenet claim to France out of mothballs on the basis that their female line claim is superior and fight a bunch of wars over that, plus portray themselves as the defenders of French Protestantism against the dreaded tyranny of the inbred House of Habsburg and their VILE Papal Torture-masters in the Inquisition.
 
I wonder what would become of France's anticlerical streak now that (presumably) church lands would be reappropriated by the state and the power of the First Estate reduced. Even if France goes revolutionary, they're not going to be spreading anticlericalism to Spain, as religion has suddenly become an ethnic issue and any attempts to suppress the Catholic Church would ally them to nationalists.
 

PhilippeO

Banned
I think POD should be earlier than Henry IV, by that time even Henry realizes that to be King of France, one need to be Catholic. for Protestant France, Protestantism must be a lot more successful.
 
Well, a possibility is trying the approach I used in my Lithuania TL to get a Protestant France.

Basically, England won the Hundred Years' War, but English rule was not very well liked by the French population, and the TTL version of Protestantism basically became a rallying force for the French, so much more of them converted, especially since the Catholic Church was in favor of the Anglo-French Union. Thus, when France finally broke away from England, it became Protestant from the beginning.
 
If you want a protestant Frace, you need a much earlier PoD.

No 'affaire des Placards' is a good start but not sufficient, IMO.

If Poissy succeeds, that should be good. ESp if ultra catholics try a coup because of it, causing the protestant, royalist and moderate catholics faction to unite against them.
 
What if Henry IV refuses to convert back to Catholicism after the French Wars of Religion, making France a Protestant nation?

We should clarify: he converted while the war was going on and Paris refused to submit to his authority. That was what allowed him to become acceptable to most of the population. If he doesn't convert, the war may not end in his lifetime. By 1593, the two sides have been at war three decades and the possibility of the Protestants (probably no more than 10% of the population) converting the other 90% is quite slim.

The POD for a Protestant French state has to be a lot earlier. If Francis I and Pope Leo X never agree to the Concordat of Bologna in 1516, that could open the door; that agreement gave him enough authority over the church in France that he saw no practical benefit to converting after the Reformation started.
 
Another way to get a Protestant (or at least 'Protestant') France is to have the Spanish control the Papacy at some critical point, leading to the Gallican church splitting off (à la the Anglican church). iOTL, that didn't happen, 'cause the French church was powerful enough that the Pope let them have their own way often, but if the Spanish get a stranglehold on the Papacy, and a Franco-Spanish war breaks out, say, with the Papacy lining up behind Spain....

This hypothetical Gallican church probably stays more 'catholic' than the Anglican church did, but remember that Henry VIII didn't want to change the theology or practice, just the ruler. Similarly, a generation or two later this Gallican church would be different from the Roman one, probably trying to mend some fences with the Huguenots...
 
"What if Henry IV refuses to convert back to Catholicism after the French Wars of Religion, making France a Protestant nation?"

Other commentators have beaten me to it, but Henri IV staying Protestant does not make France Protestant. Only about 10% of the population was Protestant at the time.

Actually the deal the Protestants got of a sort of armed toleration within France was the best they could of gotten in 1589. A break-up of France was possible. A Protestant Bourbon dynasty would have gone over about as well as the Catholic and quasi-Catholic Stuarts did in England and Scotland.

You could more reasonably get a Calvinist influenced breakaway Gallician church due to a dispute between one of the earlier 16th century French Kings and the Pope. However, the Popes would have treated the possibility of France breaking away much, much more seriously than they treated England breaking away. It would be an interesting question to explore.
 
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