Beyond diplomacy: making sense of foreign participation in the French wars of religion

The French Wars of Religion, generally conceived as a series of civil wars, saw the participation of a wide range of different actors from outside the kingdom of France. Using the language of international relations, historians who have touched on this subject have tended to draw clear lines between the motives and experiences of French and foreign participants in the conflict. By studying Protestant German princes who became embroiled in the wars in France this article will demonstrate that actors from beyond the borders of the kingdom did not see themselves as outsiders interfering in its domestic affairs. Though ideas about sovereignty and nationhood were beginning to take shape, the princes viewed their role in France through the lens of the older system of patronage. These networks were essentially transnational and caused the German princes to become entangled in the same structures that shaped the political process inside France.