Navarre, as royal heir, faces irrevocable opposition…
June 1584 CE
Navarre, as royal heir, faces irrevocable opposition by the militant Roman Catholics of the Holy League, who are unwilling to accept a Protestant king, and by the pope, who excommunicates him and declares him devoid of any right to inherit the crown.
The League, headed by Henri, Duke de Guise, and his brothers, claims to be the defender of the ancestral faith of France, but its increasing reliance on the support of Spain, the leading Catholic power, rapidly becomes a serious threat to French independence.
Henry III lacks the strength to contain the League's overwhelming influence.
The League sets up an alternative candidate to the throne.