Confessional Change and Political Engagement at the Beginning of the French Wars of Religion:The Case of Antoine de Croy', Prince de Porcien

The reasons that led a worthy portion of French nobility to join the Protestant cause between the end of Henry ll's reign and the beginning of Charles lX's reign remains an historical problem not yet satisfactorily proved. The task is not an easy one as the sources needed to shed light on the confessional choices of the French protestant nobility are scanty. However, there are exceptions and these ones are larger than usually reported. This is the case of Antoine de CroY, prince de Porcien, whose path, partially uncovered in the past, deserves a reexamination in light of the important role he played inside the French Huguenot movement. The aim of this paper is to study in depth the motivations that stand behind his engagement with the reformed cause and the stages that spanned it. An analysis of published and unpublished sources seems to imply that if the prince de Porcien hesitated for a while to publicly display his conversion to the Calvinist faith, afterwards he embraced without failing the fight for the Gospel as soon as he perceived that battle as the best way to find a balance between his faith and his standing in the society of his epoch. Because there is no doubt that, during his trajectory as a chief Huguenot, the prince de Porcien looked for and collected a sequence of benefits, starting from the marriage alliance he contracted with the daughter of a noble endowed with a much higher rank than his and whom, moreover, became later an heir. Nevertheless, far from only pursuing a social elevation to satisfy worldly passions, Porcien considered that the propitious situations that enriched his life, and which spurred his ambitions, came from God. Yet, these propitious situations arranged by God happened to him during his struggle for the Huguenot cause. A sign that God recognized him and his coreligionists as His chosen people. Hence, we can explain Porcien's lasting adherence to Calvinism and to the Huguenot party which only ended with his death occurred in 1567 It must be noted further that kinship relations, material and religious interests coalesced to shape Porcien's strong commitment to strengthen the Huguenot movement. This paper is particularly interested on how these patterns related to each other.