Abstract: According to the metaphor of the kingdom as a body, sixteenth-century French society considered itself a body whose integrity was threatened by the constitution of parts or factions. If loyalty to the king was one of the primary conditions of unity, the Wars of Religion shook this system; in 1584, the death of the Catholic heir to the throne provoked the creation of the Guise faction. The spectre of division would haunt the country for a long time.
