Treaty of Joinville

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The Treaty of Joinville was signed in secret in December 1584 by the French Catholic League, led by France's first family of Catholic nobles, the Guise, and Hapsburg Spain. The aim of the treaty was to form a Catholic alliance against Protestant forces, notably Elizabeth I of England, in response to the accession to the French throne of Henry of Navarre, at this point a Protestant.

In reality, there was little concerted effort on the part of either signatory to act against Elizabeth, as the Catholic League's position in France deteriorated as Henry IV gained support. However, Elizabeth was so disturbed by the nightmare scenario of a Catholic alliance between France and Spain against England, the prospect of which had been remote given the prolonged Hapsburg-Valois conflict, that she for the first time endorsed direct military intervention in the Spanish Netherlands. This Spanish territory was in the process of an uprising against Spanish rule; the Spanish response was a crackdown under a hard-line military governor, the Duke of Parma.

Elizabeth's decision represented a complete reversal of her previous policy, which was not to support rebels in circumstances where they were rebelling against legitimate authority. She in turn might have become vulnerable to revolts from English Catholics, so this U-turn demonstrates how much the Treaty of Joinville alarmed her.

As a direct consequence, Elizabeth signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with the United Provinces in 1585, financing an expedition to the Netherlands, led by Robert Dudley, of between seven and eight thousand soldiers. This was the catalyst for the war between England and Spain which climaxed in the launch of the Spanish Armada in 1588.