The Catholic League was created by Henry of Guise, in 1576 during the French Wars of Religion. Pope Sixtus V, the Jesuits, Catherine de' Medici, and Philip II of Spain were all members of this intransigent ultra-Catholic party, bent upon extirpating the Protestant heresy in France once and for all.

The Valois king, Henry III of France feared the power of the Guise faction and thus accepted the existence of the league but made himself its commander, eventually disbanding it in 1577 after using it to win several victories over the Huguenots.Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne won battles for the Catholic League.

In 1588, after the murder of Henry of Guise, the league rose up against the king in favor of the imprisoned Cardinal de Bourbon, whom they proclaimed "Charles X" (the next person to claim this title was Charles X of France, brother of Louis XVI). However, King Henry allied with the third faction, Henry of Navarre, in April 1589, and together they besieged Paris. Henry III was assassinated during the siege. This struggle in the French Wars of Religion is often known as "War of Three Henries."

The League was eventually forced to acknowledge the kingship of Henry of Navarre (after his conversion to Catholicism), and eventually died out under his rule.