Edict of Nantes
Second; 1567–1568Saint-Denis; Chartres Third; 1568–1570Jarnac; La Roche-l'Abeille; Poitiers; Orthez; Moncontour; Saint-Jean d'Angély; Arney-le-Duc Fourth; 1572–1573Mons; Sommières; Sancerre; La Rochelle Fifth; 1574–1576Dormans Sixth; 1577La Charité-sur-Loire; Issoire; Brouage Seventh; 1580La Fère War of the Three Henrys (1585–1589)Coutras; Vimory; Auneau; Day of the Barricades Succession of Henry IV of France (1589–1594)Arques; Ivry; Paris; Château-Laudran; Rouen; Caudebec; Craon; 1st Luxembourg; Blaye; Morlaix; Fort Crozon Franco-Spanish War (1595–1598)2nd Luxembourg; Fontaine-Française; Ham; Le Catelet; Doullens; Cambrai; Calais; La Fère; Ardres; Amiens The Edict of Nantes (French: édit de Nantes) was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the minority Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was predominantly Catholic.
While upholding Catholicism as the established religion, and requiring the re-establishment of Catholic worship in places it had lapsed,[1]: 721 it granted religious toleration to the Protestant Huguenots, who had been waging a long and bloody struggle for their rights in France.
However, the Edict was eventually revoked by King Louis XIV in 1685, leading to a mass exodus of Huguenots from France and a loss of talent and resources for the country.
[a] The edict separated civil from religious unity, treated some Protestants for the first time as more than mere schismatics and heretics and opened a path for secularism and tolerance.
The Edict of St. Germain, promulgated 36 years earlier by Catherine de Médici, had granted limited tolerance to Huguenots but was overtaken by events, as it was not formally registered until after the Massacre of Vassy on 1 March 1562, which triggered the first of the French Wars of Religion.
Catholics rejected the apparent recognition of Protestantism as a permanent element in French society and still hoped to enforce religious uniformity.
Such an act of toleration was unusual in Western Europe,[c] where standard practice forced subjects to follow the religion of their ruler under the application of the principle of cuius regio, eius religio.
The edict dealt only with Protestant and Catholic coexistence and made no mention of Jews or Muslims, who were offered temporary asylum in France when the Marranos and Moriscos were expelled from Spain.
By the late 19th century the Catholic tradition[8] cited the signing in the Maison des Tourelles, the home of the prosperous Spanish trader André Ruiz, which was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.
[9] By the Peace of Montpellier in 1622, concluding a Huguenot revolt in Languedoc, the fortified Protestant towns were reduced to two, La Rochelle and Montauban.
The brevets were entirely withdrawn in 1629, by Louis XIII, following the Siege of La Rochelle, in which Cardinal Richelieu blockaded the city for fourteen months.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes also further damaged the perception of Louis XIV abroad, making the Protestant nations bordering France more hostile to his regime.
This edict was enacted by parlement two months later, less than two years before the end of the Ancien Régime and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 would fully eliminate religious discrimination in France.
[15] These are the principal and most salient provisions of the edict as promulgated in Nantes, Brittany, probably on 30 April 1598:[16] Henri, by the grace of God king of France and of Navarre, to all to whom these presents come, greeting:
Among the infinite benefits which it has pleased God to heap upon us, the most signal and precious is his granting us the strength and ability to withstand the fearful disorders and troubles which prevailed on our advent in this kingdom.
We ordain that the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion shall be restored and reëstablished in all places and localities of this our kingdom and countries subject to our sway, where the exercise of the same has been interrupted, in order that it may be peaceably and freely exercised, without any trouble or hindrance; forbidding very expressly all persons, of whatsoever estate, quality, or condition, from troubling, molesting, or disturbing ecclesiastics in the celebration of divine service, in the enjoyment or collection of tithes, fruits, or revenues of their benefices, and all other rights and dues belonging to them; and that all those who during the troubles have taken possession of churches, houses, goods or revenues, belonging to the said ecclesiastics, shall surrender to them entire possession and peaceable enjoyment of such rights, liberties, and sureties as they had before they were deprived of them....
We also permit those of the said religion to make and continue the exercise of the same in all villages and places of our dominion where it was established by them and publicly enjoyed several and divers times in the year 1597, up to the end of the month of August, notwithstanding all decrees and judgments to the contrary....
We very expressly forbid to all those of the said religion its exercise, either in respect to ministry, regulation, discipline, or the public instruction of children, or otherwise, in this our kingdom and lands of our dominion, otherwise than in the places permitted and granted by the present edict.
