This book aims - through translations of key documents concerning war, communal religious violence, political confrontation and aristocratic faction - to provide the means to study the French Wars of Religion through most important contemporary sources of the period 1560-1600. The overall theme is the inseparability of religious and political violence during that period.

The 226 documents printed include: key legislative acts of the period, from Edicts concerning religion and toleration in 1560-2 to the 1590s; sources on the forms of religious violence during the early years of conflict; a detailed examination of the interpretative problems raised by the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew; the early years of Henry III and the emergence of the first of the major Catholic Leagues; the breakdown of royal authority in the 1580s and its restoration by Henry IV.

Each section is accompanied by a commentary which guides the reader through the documents translated and there are genealogical tables and maps to accompany them. A guide to further secondary reading in English is provided.