Financing the Huguenot War Effort during the Early Wars of Religion, 1562-1570

During the first Wars of Religion, military needs obliged Huguenot leaders to obtain by all possible means the resources needed to finance their troops. At first, they turned to expedients and improvisations. We can thus distinguish seven revenue sources used during the first War of Religion: voluntary contributions from Reformed churches; seizure of wealth from the Catholic Church; loans; levying taxes on Huguenot-occupied cities; the confiscation of municipal, royal, and ecclesiastical revenues; ransoming prisoners; and requests for support from foreign Protestants. During the second and third wars, however, improvisation gave way to a more organized system, notably due to fund-raising organized by political assemblies meeting in the south of the kingdom, which marked the beginning of a process of rationalizing Huguenot war finance.