Civil Wars Galore!

After Henry II's death, the French monarchy became very weak. Henry's heirs were quite incompetent to say the least; Francis II died after 17 months (It's kind of hard to rule when you're dead), Charles IX was only 10 years old (His mother, Catherine, ruled in his place), and Henry III was not exactly a clergyman's definition of moral. "Henry III divided much of his attention between debaucheries with his male favorites and frantic acts of repentance." As a result, the French monarchy took advantage of these weaknesses and used religion as a "cloak" for their independence. This resulted in the "War of the Three Henrys," a civil conflict between Catholic Henry of Guise, Protestant Henry of Navarre, and King Henry III who succeeded his brother Charles. Although I am somewhat plagiarizing Maria's diagram, let's just pretend I came up with it.

In addition to the civil wars in France, there was also some trouble occurring in the Netherlands. For ten years, between 1568 and 1578, civil war raged between Catholics and Protestants and between the seventeen provinces and Spain. As a result, the ten southern provinces, the Spanish Netherlands (future Belgium), remained under the control of Spain. The seven northern provinces (led by Holland, which by the way isn't a country?!?!?!?!?!) formed the Union of Utrecht and declared their independence from Spain in 1581. Here is a handy dandy map to try to make sense of all this:

Elizabeth in England had her own dilemma in deciding whether or not to assist the United Provinces in their quest for independence. She finally decided to intervene because of 4 main reasons:

1. England needed the wool produced in the Low Countries; therefore, the wars hurt the English economy.

2. With the fall of Antwerp, Catholicism would sweep through the Netherlands. She feared that a Spanish invasion in England would be next. 

3. Since William the Silent died, there was an elimination of a Protestant leader.

4. And last but not least, if Spain gained more land, they would automatically gain more power. 

I must reference Katie Coyne's words of wisdom...Land=Power=Money.