A citadel to find harmony. Power struggles in Lyon during the Wars of Religion (1564-1585)

Throughout the 16th century, the city of Lyon had been an essential strategic area for the monarchy in order to control the borders of the kingdom. However, its statute of “bonne ville” grants the municipality significant police powers, and the city government is based on a balance between the royal power and its representatives, the consulate and the Church of Lyon. Having become one of the centers of the Reformation in France, the city was captured by Protestant troops in April 1562, who wanted to make it a “second Geneva”. The period of peace settlement coincides with the royal Tour de France, aiming at reminding everyone the link between the king and his kingdom. Punishment for some, security measure for others, a citadel was created to ensure the maintenance of Lyon under royal authority. However, the financial problems and the daily functioning of this new element of the Lyon landscape require collaboration, and even a constant negotiation between the representatives of the monarchy, trying to ensure the royal control over this distant space, and the local elites, attached to their freedoms, including self-organization of their security. The presence of the fortress crystallizes the Lyon oppositions against what is experienced as an intolerable interference of the central power. Its destruction in a coup planned by the consulate and the provincial governor marks the temporary failure, on the eve of the League, of the monarchy to maintain effective control over the entire kingdom.