Edict of Nantes

Issued by King Henry IV in April 1598, the Edict of Nantes gave France's Calvinist Protestants, the Huguenots, a protected place in a mainly Catholic kingdom. It kept Catholicism as the state religion but granted Protestants freedom of conscience, limited rights of worship and equal civil standing, and it helped bring the French Wars of Religion to an end. Its guarantees were whittled away over the following decades, and Louis XIV revoked it in 1685.

An earlier attempt at limited toleration, the Edict of Saint-Germain issued under Catherine de' Medici, had been overtaken by the Massacre of Vassy on 1 March 1562, which set off the first of the wars of religion. Henry IV himself had been a Protestant before he came to the throne in 1589 and converted to Catholicism in 1593, a step many believed he took mainly to secure the crown. To restore royal authority he needed internal peace, and that required a settlement both sides could live with, enforced by the crown.

The settlement consisted of four texts: a main edict of 92 articles, 56 secret "particular" articles, and two royal warrants, or brevets, dealing with military and pastoral matters. The main text opened by ordering that everything done by either side during the troubles be treated as forgotten. Catholic worship was to be restored wherever it had lapsed, and Protestants still owed tithes and were bound to observe Catholic feast days and marriage rules. In return, Protestants could live anywhere in the kingdom without being forced to act against their consciences. Public Protestant worship, however, was confined to particular places, such as towns where it had been practised in 1597 and the households of certain nobles, and was banned at court and in and around Paris. Protestants were to be admitted to universities, schools and hospitals without discrimination, and they gained access to public office.

The brevets gave the Huguenots a number of fortified "places of safety", among them La Rochelle, for which the king paid a subsidy, plus about 150 further refuges maintained at their own expense. Pope Clement VIII is reported to have protested that the edict crucified him. The Parlement of Paris delayed ten months before registering a modified version in 1599, and Rouen held out until 1609.

Marie de' Medici confirmed the edict soon after Henry's assassination, calming Protestant fears of a repeat of the St Bartholomew's Day massacre. But the military guarantees shrank. After a Huguenot revolt, the Peace of Montpellier in 1622 cut the fortified Protestant towns to two, La Rochelle and Montauban. Following the fourteen-month siege of La Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII withdrew the brevets entirely in 1629. Thereafter the edict's application varied with domestic politics and foreign relations.

In October 1685 Louis XIV, Henry's grandson, cancelled the edict with the Edict of Fontainebleau and outlawed Protestantism. Ministers were given two weeks to leave unless they converted, while ordinary Protestants were forbidden to emigrate. Persecution followed, and as many as 400,000 people fled, many of them to Britain, Prussia, the Dutch Republic and Switzerland, with others reaching southern Africa and North America. France lost many skilled people to its rivals, and Brandenburg actively invited the refugees with its Edict of Potsdam. Civil rights for non-Catholics were restored only by the Edict of Versailles of 7 November 1787.

The edict was unusual in a Europe where subjects were generally expected to share their ruler's faith. By separating civil membership of the kingdom from religious conformity, it is often seen as an early step towards toleration and secular government.

Our 1600 map shows the Kingdom of France shortly after the edict was signed, and the 1700 map shows it after the revocation.