Huguenot General Assemblies in France, 1579–1622: 'Public Opinion', Pamphlets and Political Memory

Abstract

AbstractHuguenot general assemblies mostly worked within the political traditions of their time and established themselves as credible interlocutors with the monarchy: why were they unable to regain their political standing after 1622? Far from ignoring 'public opinion', general assemblies during the reign of Henri IV had made efforts to engage with the world of print. With a changing political climate during the regency of Marie de Medicis and the first years of Louis XIII's personal rule, the assemblies were unable to prevent the appearance of pamphlets specifically aimed against them. Ranging from the burlesque to the theological, these pamphlets presented a falsely populist image of the assemblies to a broad public and gained credibility by referring, sometimes directly, to the Huguenot assembly records. The catalogued records, which were appropriated by Richelieu after the fall of La Rochelle in 1628, supported Huguenot claims relating to the edicts of pacification and represented their 'political me...