The French wars of religion of the sixteenth century represented a momentous watershed in the history of early modern Europe and immediately became the object of, on the one hand, memorialisation and remembrance (notwithstanding the Edict of Nantes' provision of total oblivion), and of a long but sizeable process of historicization on the other hand. This paper will focus on what could be called a trend of appearance of instances of "retrospective prophecy" in both the memorialisation and the historicization processes connected to the wars of religion. From the destiny of the Valois dynasty - which was extinct by the end of the sixteenth century and whose extinction some French Reformed believers tended to ascribe to God's will - to the eschatological vein underlying the nature of religious violence in such a troublesome moment in the history of France (studied, among others, by Natalie Zemon Davis and Denis Crouzet), this paper will attempt to understand the extent to which sixteenth- and seventeenth-century historians of the wars of religion tried to rationalise and objectivise the forty years of "troubles de religion" while acknowledging the widespread belief in supernatural reasons behind some key events, or rather embraced eschatological or apocalyptical narratives, identifying elements of prophetic nature or value in omens, premonitions, and announcements by protagonists (both lay and clerical) of the public sphere which preceded such events, thus - for instance - legitimising or criticising present political or religious events, as well as the new dynasty which had ascended the throne of France.