A series of nine religious and political conflicts in France, which took place intermittently between 1562 and 1598. They revolved around the great noble families fighting for control of the expiring Valois dynasty, supported on one side by the Protestant Huguenots and on the other by Catholic extremists. The wars were complicated and prolonged by interventions by Spain, Savoy, and Rome on the Catholic side and by England, the Netherlands, and the German princes on the Protestant side. After the turning-point of the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572), a third party of moderate Catholic “Politiques” emerged under the Montmorency family. However, its advocacy of mutual religious toleration was undermined in 1576 by the formation of the Catholic extremist Holy League, which opposed Henry III’s tolerant settlement of the fifth war. The Guise-led League grew more militant after the Bourbon Huguenot leader Henry of Navarre became heir to the French throne in 1584. The resulting War of the Three Henrys (1585–89), ended with the assassination of Henry III. Henry of Navarre fought on, overcame the League, and drove its Spanish allies out of the country. He adopted Catholicism (1593), and as Henry IV was able to establish religious toleration in France with the Edict of Nantes (1598). At the Peace of Vervins (1598) he reached a settlement with Spain. Then he applied himself to providing the firm monarchical rule which had been so damagingly lacking since the death of Henry II in 1559.