WI: Overall Huguenot victory in the French Wars of Religion

In OTL,they did in a way but that's beside the point.

The best they could get is a Catholic Bourbon as King and Henri of Navarre ruling much of southern France in a large and prosperous Navarre.
 
And Navarre as a seafaring, colonizing Basque nation! What a timeline that could make!

I don't think it would be Basque-speaking. French was already the language of the nobility by that time. And assuming we are talking about a Navarre that includes other areas in the Midi, most of it would be speaking Occitan.
 
I don't think it would be Basque-speaking. French was already the language of the nobility by that time. And assuming we are talking about a Navarre that includes other areas in the Midi, most of it would be speaking Occitan.
Especially as the [larger] section of Navarre that was located to the south of the Pyrenees had already been conquered by Aragon+Castille...
 
Not possible. The population numbers wouldn't allow for a Huguenot France to be set up. 15% of the total population is the absolute highest amount of protestants in France during the Wars of Religion. They couldn't force their views on the other 85%. Its just not possible.
 

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But they could at least try to expand and force out some of that at a portion, right? I mean, Navarre at the time was more Occitan than Basque really (the Basque portion now being a part of Spanish Navarre), and they could very well force through an early semblance of Occitan proto-nationalism through a Huguenot victory.
 
Not possible. The population numbers wouldn't allow for a Huguenot France to be set up. 15% of the total population is the absolute highest amount of protestants in France during the Wars of Religion. They couldn't force their views on the other 85%. Its just not possible.

Highly difficult--perhaps even prohibitively so. But then, in Austria, 20% of country managed to do just that to 80%, so I wouldn't rule it out completely. (Though France obviously would pose astounding difficulties.)

However, the question wasn't "can we have a Huguenot France?" --it was "what if the Huguenots win the Wars of Religion?"

My answer--it probably goes very much like what happened IOTL at first, with the Huguenots getting their toleration, only this time the King's a Protestant too. This means they're less likely to cause problems that result in the Kings and their Regents getting on their big Huguenot squashing boots. The problem is whatever happened to exhaust the Catholics enough so that they'd consent to be ruled by a Protestant is likely to wear off in time, so now THEY'RE the ones causing the problems.

So, end result of a Huguenot victory--another War of Religion in 10-15 years. Repeat until the Bourbons are overthrown, or almost all Catholics get tired of the hassle. Whichever comes first.
 
Where did you find Austria having at a moment 80% of protestants ? I never read nor heard about such a figure.

There is one thing which is not taken into account in this alternate TL about people changing religion, catholic turning protestant or protestant turning back catholic.

Firstly, most christian people wanted reformation of the church. But this did not mean they wanted a reformation of the faith. There was a catholic reformation and there was a protestant reformation.

Secondly, roman catholicism was to a large extent the natural religion of most people. People rarely wanted or liked change, especially in faith and religious matters. And it is harder to have people give-up the old religion for a new one than to have people who embraced a new religion turning back to the old one. You need very deep and powerful reasons to have people change of religion.

As far as France is concerned, there would have been almost problem if a king had wanted a reformation of the material trouble that plagued the Church. Almost everybody wanted a more virtuous Church and clergy.

But if there had been a protestant king, you wouuld very probably have had the civil war France faced with the catholic League.
 
Where did you find Austria having at a moment 80% of protestants ? I never read nor heard about such a figure.

There is one thing which is not taken into account in this alternate TL about people changing religion, catholic turning protestant or protestant turning back catholic.

Firstly, most christian people wanted reformation of the church. But this did not mean they wanted a reformation of the faith. There was a catholic reformation and there was a protestant reformation.

Secondly, roman catholicism was to a large extent the natural religion of most people. People rarely wanted or liked change, especially in faith and religious matters. And it is harder to have people give-up the old religion for a new one than to have people who embraced a new religion turning back to the old one. You need very deep and powerful reasons to have people change of religion.

As far as France is concerned, there would have been almost problem if a king had wanted a reformation of the material trouble that plagued the Church. Almost everybody wanted a more virtuous Church and clergy.

But if there had been a protestant king, you wouuld very probably have had the civil war France faced with the catholic League.

I don't know about 80%, but IIRC, directly before the counter-reformation, Protestantism had spread as far south as Austria.
 
To be fair I was referring to Austria proper, not everything that Austria held. But the fact is outside of the Tyrol and Croatia, most of their holdings were Protestant majority, with a few oddball situations like Styria. (Protestant majority German nobility ruling a Catholic majority Slovenian peasantry.) And after the Thirty Years War, they rolled it all back.
 
Yes, but this is precisely what I questioned. I strongly doubt there ever were 80% protestants in what is today's Austria. Nor even a majority.
 
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