Chapter Three considers central questions in the French political thought of this era, regarding the status of the ‘ancient’ constitution, the power of election and deposition, and the divisive nature of debates about succession laws. It demonstrates the complex nature and range of responses to Hotman’s Francogallia in these contexts, as well as exploring the role of both the Estates General and the often-overlooked Paris parlement in conserving the constitution. It also considers the problem of ‘popular sovereignty’ and its implications for League political thought, establishing that the Leaguers were only interested in the elective, and deposing, powers of the ‘prudent multitude’ and not the wider populace. The double incorporation of the people, as a whole, into the commonwealth and the church is shown to be centrally important in these debates.

Chapter Five focusses specifically on the issue of papal power, and particularly the heightening of tensions brought about by the question of receiving the Tridentine decrees in France. It aims both to contextualise the League debates, and to position them in relation to the ongoing question of the precise content of the Gallican liberties. In the work of lawyers, such as Antoine Hotman and Louis Dorléans, and theologians such as Gilbert Génébrard, Jean Porthaise and Jean Boucher, the deliberations over the Tridentine decrees are shown to be anchored in the context of a revival of late medieval conciliarism, and the still-resonant clash between royal and papal power embodied in the disputes between Boniface VIII and Phillip IV (1296–1303). From the problem of Sixtus V’s power of excommunication, to the troubled issue of Henri IV’s abjuration of Protestantism, this chapter further indicates that these debates, transformed and adapted from the medieval era, would go on to define Henri IV’s reign after 1594 and last well beyond the life span of the League itself.