The Estates General of 1593 was a national meeting of the three orders of France that met from January to August 1593. Unlike any other Estates General of France, it was convoked without the authority of a king, at the behest of duke of Mayenne, lieutenant-general of the kingdom for the rebel Catholic ligue (league) movement, which controlled Paris and many other cities. The Catholic ligue had reformed in 1584 to oppose the succession to the throne of the Protestant king of Navarre. They proposed the candidacy of Cardinal Bourbon, Navarre's Catholic uncle. In 1589, the king died, and while royalists recognised Navarre as Henri IV, ligueur (leaguer) controlled areas instead recognised Bourbon as Charles X. In 1590, Bourbon died, leaving the ligue without a king. Many ligueur nobles were happy without a king, but pressure was brought to bear on Mayenne, and by late 1592 he agreed to convoke an Estates General to elect a new one. This Estates would not be recognised by Henri.
The Estates assembled from the limited areas the ligue controlled in January 1593, their arrival impeded by the forces of Henri. He did however recognise the danger in their electing a king, and therefore reached out to entreat with the Estates, a prospect which was agreed to over the objections of radical members of the Estates. The resulting conference at Suresnes on 27 April produced a short truce, and the occasion of Henri's announcement of his planned conversion to Catholicism in mid May. Meanwhile, at the Estates, the Spanish allies of the ligue sort to impose the king of España's daughter known as the Infanta as the queen of France, proposing first the Austrian Archduke Ernst, and when this was received poorly proposing instead a French prince, the duke of Guise. To aid their project they attempted to distribute bribes, but these were poorly received. The Spanish proposals aroused the displeasure of the legal-minded members of the Estates, who walked out in June in protest. The Parlement (highest court of France) of Paris subsequently declared that Salic Law (succession through the male line) was inviable, and foreign princes were illegible for the French throne. By now the momentum was against the Spanish, and even with the ambassador proposing French princes, neither the Second or Third Estate felt they had the authority to elect a king. The Estates' final business would be to ratify the adoption of the Tridentine Decrees, with its final meeting on 8 August before it was prorogued by Mayenne.