The years 1563–1567 would see the French crown, led by the queen mother Catherine de' Medici, and her son Charles IX attempt to implement the edict of Amboise which had brought the first French War of Religion to a close in April 1563. To this end, commissioners were sent out into the provinces, and the royal court would undertake a tour of the kingdom from 1564 to 1566.
The tranquillity of the provinces, and the toleration afforded to Protestantism and Catholicism, varied wildly across the kingdom. In the lands of the queen of Navarre in southern France, Protestantism was favoured to the point of exclusivity after 1566. Meanwhile, in cities such as Dijon in Burgundy, while technically legal, Protestants were subject to harassment and legal discrimination, the ambiguity of the edict of Amboise's terms being used against them.
Though at peace, the years would not be free of religious violence. In Paris, Protestants were murdered in the street. Meanwhile, in June 1566 in Pamiers, Catholics were massacred. The French crown attempted to suppress these disorders, entrusting its provincial agents with suppressing disturbances, and looking to curtail authorities (such as the Paris militia) little inclined to respect toleration of Protestantism.
Commissioners With the aim of sidelining the parlements, king Charles IX established a national system of commissioners, issuing letters of commission from 18 June 1563 to this effect. The commissioners would enforce the peace edict of Amboise in places where it was not yet implemented and impose justice on those who defied the piece. They would be supported in their work by the local administrative apparatus, and their commissions would be registered by the relevant regional parlement (highest court of ancien régime France, there were eight in the kingdom during this period: Paris, Rouen, Dijon, Grenoble, Aix, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Rennes). The commissioners were dispatched in pairs to each province of the kingdom with the exception of the province of Champagne which was exempted from receiving them. There were a total of twenty-eight commissions issued, though only thirteen commissioners would actually take up their charges in the provinces (some of them covering multiple territories).
The assigned commissioners were as follows. For the province of the Île de France, Mathieu Chartier and Pierre de Longueil; for Normandy, Jacques Viole and Jehan de La Guesle; for Picardy, Charles de Lamoignon and François le Cercier; for Burgundy, Estienne Charlet and Jehan de Montceaux; for the Lyonnais, Michel Queslain and Gabriel Myron; for Dauphiné and Provence, Jacques Phelippeaux and Jessé de Bauquemare; for Languedoc, Jean-Jacques de Mesmes and Jacques de Bauquemare; for Guyenne, Antoine Fumée and Jérôme Angenoust/Jacques Viart; for Poitou and Saintonge, René de Bourgneuf and Pierre de Masparraulte; for Brittany, Etienne Lallement and Charles de Chantecler; for Touraine, Maine and Anjou, François Briçonnet and Arnoul Boucher/Jean de Lavau; and for the Orléanais, Jehan-Baptiste de Machault.
Working alongside the commissioners in this national peace effort were the three maréchaux (Marshal - second most senior military office in the kingdom of France). Covering Paris, and the provinces of the Île de France, Picardy, Normandy, Champagne, the Orléanais, and Berry would be the maréchal de Montmorency. For the provinces of Touraine, Anjou, Maine, Poitou, parts of Brittany and lower-Normandy would be the maréchal de Bourdillon. For the Lyonnais, Dauphiné, Provence (including the territorial exclaves around the Comtat Venaissin) and Languedoc would be the maréchal de Vielleville. Vielleville would receive praise for his even-handedness and would subsequently be granted responsibility over Poitou and the pays Messin.
Île de France In the hopes of enforcing the peace, Charles leant on the four maréchaux of France. They were to conduct tours of inspection to assess how the edict of Amboise was being applied. The maréchal de Montmorency, the governor of the Île de France was tasked with touring the towns of his government by order of 6 May 1563.
Sites of worship For the bailliage of Senlis, the city of Pontoise was selected for Protestant worship. Charles alerted the maréchal de Montmorency to this on 20 April, before the main list of proposed sites had been published. It had been chosen over the objection of its inhabitants, and the cardinal de Bourbon, and therefore Charles left it to Montmorency as to whether he maintained it or moved it.
Discretion over all sights of Protestant worship in the Île de France would be devolved to the maréchal de Montmorency the following month.
With Protestant worship banned in Paris and the wider prévôté by the terms of the edict of Amboise, Catherine also sought to eliminate Protestant worship from the more prominent towns around Paris. In the bailliage of Senlis, Catherine looked to see the maréchal de Montmorency move the site of Protestant worship from Pontoise to a 'small city' in the area by a letter of 20 April. Nemours and Melun were declared to be unsuitable venues for Protestant worship, and Fontainebleau, where the Protestant duchess of Ferrara looked to establish Protestant preaching, was outlawed on grounds it was too close to the French court. Catherine suggested the place of Pont-Sainte-Maxence to Montmorency, advising him against Beauvais and Compiègne.
Melun, Corbeil, and Meulan would all be granted exemptions from Protestant worship. The Catholics of Meulan had argued in a petition of November 1563, that the edict was intended for areas in which there was religious diversity, but that there was not a single Protestant among their number. The Protestants of Melun meanwhile, attempted to assert the original designation of a suburb of their city as the site of Protestant worship after had been changed to a place two leagues away.
Paris The maréchal de Montmorency, governor of Paris, was held in suspicion by Catholics in Paris, for he had introduced his cavalry into the capital and installed cannons in the Bastille. In the opinion of the Spanish ambassador to France, Álava, Montmorency, along with the prince de Condé and the admiral de Coligny were planning to seize the capital. The historian Diefendorf moderates this view, arguing that the Catholics of Paris held Montmorency in suspicion as being overly sympathetic to Protestants, but nevertheless respected his authority.
Coming of peace The capital represented a Catholic stronghold. Protestants, and those suspected of being Protestants were attacked and killed, and during the war the city had largely been emptied of its Protestant population. The coming of peace had been greeted with disgust, the heralds who proclaimed it on 30 March being targeted with thrown mud, or even hunted down. The prévôt des marchands (provost of the merchants, de facto mayor of Paris before the establishment of the title) reprimanded the Paris militia for failing to maintain order on 7 April. This rebuke was followed with a stronger one delivered by king Charles and queen mother Catherine on Easter Sunday, 11 April. They alluded to the murder of several prisoners who had been seized from the guards. The city was urged to put an end to such activities. In response to this rebuke, the city officials pinned the blame for the murder of the prisoners on their guards, who had mentioned that they were rebel Protestants. No effort would be made to track down the responsible, though going forward more precautions were taken with prisoner transfers.
The radical preacher Simon Vigor denounced the edict and expounded on the right to disobey an impious sovereign.
The bureau de la ville attempted to stop Protestants from returning to their homes or working. In this they could look to the parlement which had on 12 April declared that Parisian Protestants should delay their return until after the situation had calmed, Easter had passed, and the mercenaries had departed the kingdom. Those Protestants who attempted to return were subject to attacks, and had to make their coming home under cover of darkness.
Government by Amboise's terms By the terms of the edict of Amboise, Protestants in the capital were not to travel to neighbouring bailliages to attend worship and then return to Paris. If they wished to practice their faith, they were to emigrate from the capital permanently. For the burial of their dead, they had to conduct internments at night, and without any sort of gathering. The parlement of Paris ensured the rigorous following of these stringent prohibitions.
In the summer of 1563, the Corpus Christi celebrations were tarnished by violence. An unknown Protestant was killed in the event. A gentleman of the prince de Condé's suite named Couppé, who was accompanying the carriage of the princes wife Éléonore de Roye on route to Vincennes was also killed near one of the capital's gates by a group numbering perhaps three-hundred men. The couple were playing host to Charles and Catherine at this time.
Prévôt des marchands against the guard and militia The next day, Charles ordered the prévôt des marchands to arrest those responsible. That afternoon, two militia captains were arrested and charged with involvement in the deed. This was unacceptable to the other militia captains, who rushed to support their compatriots. They threatened that the people would riot if their colleagues were not released. The prévôt relented and freed the captains. He then went through the city and explained measurers to be undertaken which amounted to a curfew.
In late June, a Protestant who had been executed for robbery had his body torn down, where it was beaten with sticks before being dragged into the Seine. The prévôt des marchands and alderman rushed out to confront the crowd. They ordered that they hand over the body, and several members of the crowd were arrested. Those adults arrested were sentenced to be hanged, but on route to their hanging, they were freed by the crowd, who tossed stones at the guards. In the following inquest, militiamen and guards deemed responsible for the lapse in security were fined.
On 2 July, a special guard was created to protect the prêvôt des marchands and aldermen during their rounds in the city. This proved no help for two aldermen conducting inspections of the guard at the porte Saint-Antoine on 9 July, who were set upon by a crowd who chanted 'kill the Huguenots'. Militia officers eventually intervened to rescue the aldermen. Three militia men were charged with instigating this riot, with witnesses reporting that the aldermen were trying to protect the Protestants. The guilty militia men were on duty at the time.
Orders came down from the crown that those guarding the gates of Paris cease to daily parade out of their posts to drumbeats and flying standards on 19 July. This was defied by some captains. The ensign at the porte Saint-Jacques marched his men through the city in a procession spearheaded by two bagpipers. The prévôt des marchands attempted to reason with the captains when they came as a collective to the hôtel de ville to protest the order. One captain was suspended after he stated that he would not march without drums and standards. Threats were made that any who defied this order would have their names reported to the king, but this accomplished little.