5.3.1. VIOLENCE THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION

GLORIFYING BRUTALITY PRECEDES THOSE WARS

Medieval painting can be violent...

     Martyrdom of Saint Denis (detail) by Henri Bellechose, toward 1400 /  zoom

...but it does not linger over details like this: 

Claude Abron

Evoking antiquity makes this glacial work still more nightmarish: 

 

The Massacres of the Triumvirs by Antoine Caron, 1566 / zoom 

 

A combat that has nothing to do with the subject:

Claude Abron

A chronicler casually remarks there were "many killed and wounded..." during the tournament to celebrate the birth of a prince (in 1518).

-- François Ier by Emmanuel Bourassin, 1997, p.75

Nobles wear coats of mail under their doublets, even at the Louvre. 

-- Letter of Henri IV, 1573

A platter shows a beheading:

Galerie Franck Baptiste

7 quai Voltaire, Paris 7e

The Wars of Religion justify and worsen violence,

 but do not cause it.

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Next: 

5.3.2.

The "season" of Protestant massacre