As they had during the first French War of Religion, Protestants would rise up across France in coordination with the surprise of Meaux, during which the prince de Condé and admiral de Coligny had attempted to kidnap king Charles IX of France. While Protestants would seize places across France, from Dieppe in Normandy to Montauban in the south of France, they had less uniform success than in the prior civil war. The large majority of places seized by the Protestants were in the south of France, in the provinces of Dauphiné, Languedoc, and Guyenne. Here, they were coordinated under the leadership of the baron d'Acier, who acted as Condé's lieutenant for Languedoc, Dauphiné and Provence.
Several Protestant armies marched north to join with the main rebel army which was fighting in the Orléanais, Île de France and Champagne at various points during the conflict. This included an army from Languedoc, and another from Guyenne. Royalist Catholic armies also operated in the provinces outside of the main royal army, such as the force of the duc de Nevers (duke of Nevers) which traced its way up from French Piedmont to join with the royal army, the army of the vicomte de Joyeuse (viscount of Joyeuse) which operated in Languedoc and the Comtat Venaissin, and the army of the seigneur de Monluc (lord of Monluc) which fought in Guyenne, Saintonge, the Angoumois, and Aunis.
In some places, particularly in the south, agreements were reached in the first days of the war between the Catholic and Protestant populations of the city in question, agreeing to live in good harmony and concord with one another, favouring no side in the civil war. In other places, such as in Nîmes, urban seizures were accompanied by massacres.
The coming of peace after six months would not bring an end to the fighting, and particularly in the south the situation remained volatile and restive.
Île-de-France In February 1568, the seigneur de La Valette, at the command of three companies of foot soldiers, was entrusted with the defence of Dreux, Houdan, Montfort-l'Amaury and Nogent-le-Roi. He then joined in the defence of nearby Chartres the following month.
Paris At the outbreak of hostilities, many Protestants of Paris were expelled from the city. They would not return until after the end of the third war of religion in 1570.
The rebel Protestants seized nearby Saint-Denis shortly after the failure of Meaux, and come the night of 1 October, burning windmills were visible from Paris. A rumour was spread that the Protestants of the capital were preparing bundles of wood and gunpowder so that they might torch Paris. The enraged Catholics proceeded to invade the houses of the various Protestants who had not fled the city, murdering the occupants. The historian Diefendorf describes this episode as prefiguring the later St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, if on a significantly smaller scale.
The bourgeois militia, which had been reformed and rearmed on 29 September (without the proviso that excluded those who had captained the force in prior troubles from participating), played a role in this violence. According to the contemporary Étienne Pasquier, in the days that followed, those who did not put a white cross on their hats (a sign of their Catholicity) were at risk of being assassinated.
In December, the French capital agreed to proffer 1,500,000 livres for the guarding of their ramparts. A further 600,000 livres subsidy was secured by the king in January for the maintenance of the royal army. The capital was traditionally rich in words, that did not follow through into action, making this expression of Catholic devotion a novelty.
The militant Catholics of Paris were frustrated at Catherine's pushes towards peace, as illustrated in one episode from 13 January where Catherine was heckled by a Parisian while addressing the king. According to the English ambassador, Catherine had to conduct her negotiations with the rebels in secret for fear of upsetting Paris. A pamphlet of February decried the folly of coming to terms with rebels who wished to subvert and bring the state into ruin. The only cure to rebellion was to 'uproot it by the sword'.
Normandy With the outbreak of hostilities, Protestants fled from Paris, some entering lower-Normandy where they linked up with the comte de Montgommery. Here, a war of partisans quickly began to unfold.
At the Estates of Normandy in November, the king was petitioned to provide offices only to Catholics and require professions of faith. Those Protestants currently holding offices should not be permitted to exercise them. Similarly for ecclesiastical benefices, with any held by Protestants to be declared vacant. They further requested that no benefices be leased to Protestants. They sought to see Protestantism removed in its entirety from Normandy, with their ministers exiled and Protestants forbidden from bearing arms.
Rouen The Protestants of Rouen had planned to seize the city in coordination with the capture of the king at Meaux. However, when word came of the failure of the Meaux enterprise, the conspirators fled from Rouen. Those Protestants of particular militancy left the city to join the fighting or head to areas where their worship would not be suppressed. Those Protestants who remained behind were disarmed, and the city's defences were tightened. The toleration afforded Protestants in Rouen was revoked, and all Protestant office holders dispossessed. Those Protestants remaining in the city were put under surveillance. Of these, the ones the authorities felt were troublesome, were jailed.
Before the parlement of Rouen in December, the avocat du roi expounded upon the innate tendency of Protestants to conspire to overthrow the crown and establish a republic with the prince de Condé at its head.
Caen Pact of friendship
In Caen, a unanimous convention to maintain cordial relations between Protestants and Catholics was established on 3 October. The assembly which resolved upon this was large, according to Dauvin's estimates containing perhaps 10% of the population of Caen, and was presided over by the sieur de Bras. Notably absent were the lieutenant of the governor, captain de Crécy, and the lieutenant-general of the bailliage Olivier de Brunville. The governor himself was also absent, having departed Normandy itself in August. By its unanimity, the absence of dissent from the arrangement was well illustrated. As with the similar convention of Montélimar, it was to be through legal means that political conflicts and disputes saw their resolutions. The urban values of neighbourliness and commerce were emphasised in the agreement. Though they might be of varying faiths, they are all citizens of Caen.
The terms stated that both confessions enjoyed the umbrella of collective protection. This relied however on a commitment to uphold the strict prohibitions on causing religious outrage or mobilising their faithful. Priests and pastors were to counsel their flocks towards patience. By this means, the Caennais supported their government in the maintenance of order, and the government of the city in turn offered the protection of the law to those of both faiths. Those who transgressed against the other faith, by their actions or words, would be brought before the authorities, where the sentence of death was on the cards. This held true also for the possession of weapons. The presence of strangers in the town was deplored, neither innkeepers nor regular residents were to take them into the city in the present circumstances. The xenophobic elements of the terms coloured all such pacts of 1567.
Many of the contemporary southern pacts were designed to forestall violence, and thus the imposition of a royal garrison. Caen is therefore unique in that it was already subject to a royal garrison at the time it was established. Therefore, Dauvin characterises it as an anticipatory act pending the return of the warlike governor, the seigneur de Méritens.
The sieur de Bras oversaw the submission of remonstrances to the seigneur de Matignon concerning the burden of taxation the city of Caen had to bear thanks to its garrison.
Return of Méritens On 7 February 1568, two days before Méritens returned, the sieur de Bras took the initiative to order that under penalty of fine, all breastplates, pikes and helmets that had been previously distributed by deposited in the hôtel de ville.
Méritens returned to the city on 9 February. Bras subsequently met with Méritens in the château and had a difficult conversation. The governor explained he had already made his orders clear in writing and they must be complied with. Returning, letters from Méritens dated 6 and 7 January were 'uncovered'. In these letters, the governor demanded that the households and burghers of Caen finance sixty shovels, sixty stretchers, pikes, gunpowder and various other military provisions. The sieur de Bras was opposed to these measures, and ordered a general assembly be convened to deliberate on them. In the following meeting, the avocat du roi argued that they should comply with Méritens' request. The sieur de Bras carried the day for non-compliance with the governor's orders by 2:1.
Ultimately no confrontation would follow. On 21 February Bras announced that the governor's orders had been complied with, and the city council announced that for want of funds to fulfil it, they were reducing the annuity granted to a deceased burgher to whom several acres of land had been mortgaged. In considering de Bras' retreat, the historian Dauvin offers two possibilities, firstly that he realised the conflict would anger both the king and governor, and secondly that he wanted to show himself a worthy public servant for a senior posting in the city.
In February 1568, the seigneur de Méritens explained that he had in his captivity a 'guardian' of the Protestant seigneur de Colombières, and he was going to put this man on trial.
Dieppe The Protestants seized the port of Dieppe. In the king's opinion, they intended to repeat their manoeuvre of the first French War of Religion by handing the place to the English sovereign. Before this project could be realised, it was recaptured for the crown, with the rebels cut to pieces in the reconquest.
Picardy Boulogne Boulogne was governed by the Protestant seigneur de Morvilliers. On 30 September, Morvilliers wrote to Catherine about the local situation. He noted that while the king and queen mother had affirmed the toleration of Protestantism, Protestants in Picardy felt intimidated, and were fleeing their property in large number. Nobles were flocking to Boulogne to gather around Morvilliers and expressed a willingness to fight. Morvilliers assured Catherine, he had appraised them of the crown's good intentions and stopped them from following the war path. He sought Catherine's advice on how to proceed.
By his explanation of events, Morvilliers left open the possibility that he might join the rebellion, as the case for Protestant self-defence was made in his letter. His policy thus depended on the royal response.
The alderman complained to Charles in October that the image of the 'Virgin of Boulogne' was stolen in the night. In the company of their governor, the seigneur de Morvilliers, they conducted a search for it in the households of the city. Unable to locate it, and with witnesses proving unhelpful, they concluded that Protestant soldiers had done it to arouse passions. As a result, it was resolved to grant Morvilliers extraordinary powers for the employ of his soldiers.
From October, Boulogne was subject to sacks by Flemish Protestants. Catholic worship would cease there for six months.
Genlis' campaign In the border province of Picardy, the soldiers of the sieur de Genlis carved a path of destruction through the Soissonnais.