In 1589 the Protestant Henri of Navarre – the future Henri iv – acceded to the throne of France, causing a profound political and religious crisis for Catholics in the kingdom. Contemporaries and many later historians have tended to cast this crisis as a struggle between politiques – who remained loyal to the monarchy and its new king ahead of religious concerns – and supporters of the Catholic League – who privileged religious considerations over others by asserting that only a Catholic could rule France. While one can find figures who fit comfortably into these two camps, this simple dichotomy between politiques and Leaguers masks a far more complex situation where Catholics, for a variety of reasons, maintained alternative positions. The interactions of Catholics with the League were shaped by religious concerns, but also by personal considerations, local and corporate loyalties and the shifting political and religious landscape in France – especially Henri iv's abjuration of the Protestant faith and the assassination of the Guise brothers and Henri iii. The twelve essays in this volume examine, through case studies, the complex factors at play in Catholic society, offering a nuanced exploration of the spectrum of responses to the League. The three contributions in part i, ‘Des Divisions omniprésentes des frontières mouvantes’, highlight in turn the variety of positions taken by members of the clergy, the parlement of Paris and the nobility, many of whom shifted between sides or maintained their neutrality as they reacted to an evolving situation. The importance of local circumstances and corporate interests in shaping the interaction of groups with the League is examined in part ii, ‘La Primauté des solidarities locales, communitaires and corporatives’, through case studies of peasant communities in Normandy and Brittany, the Cour des Monnaies in Paris and Leaguers in the Auvergne. Part iii, ‘À la Distance de la Ligue’, explores ways in which groups distanced themselves from the League, with one essay focusing on clergy who opposed the movement, a second on several figures in Provence who vacillated between sides to protect their interests, and a third on how some sons of Leaguers reintegrated into society after Henri iv's victory. Finally, part iv, ‘En Quête de coherence le choix assume de la moderation’ focuses on three individuals who pursued alternatives beyond those offered by politiques and Leaguers. Ennenmond Rabot d'Illins, a magistrate from Grenoble, sought to use rhetoric and persuasion to overcome extremism in Dauphiné, while Guy Coquille, a jurist based in Nevers, sought peace through reform of the papacy and the French Church. René Benoist, a parish priest in Paris and future confessor to Henri iv, pursued a strategy of ‘non-choice’ in his writings and actions that allowed him to survive and even thrive during this difficult period. While the case studies explored do not present a coherent overview of the League or the struggle over Henri iv's accession to the throne, they do provide valuable insight into the complex mix of religious, political, corporate, local and personal factors that shaped Catholic loyalties during the final convulsion of religious and civil war in sixteenth-century France.