Edict of Nantes ends the French Wars of Religion
- Date
- 13 April 1598
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Kingdom of France
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
On 13 April 1598 King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, granting French Protestants (Huguenots) substantial rights of conscience and worship and bringing the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598) to a close.
Henry, a former Huguenot leader who had converted to Catholicism in 1593 to secure the throne, used the edict to reconcile a kingdom shattered by decades of civil war that had cost millions of lives through combat, famine and disease. While confirming Roman Catholicism as the established faith, the edict allowed Protestants freedom of conscience, public worship in specified places, civil equality and access to office, and granted them a network of fortified safe towns as guarantees of their security. It was among the earliest and most far-reaching acts of state-sponsored religious coexistence in Europe, embodying the emerging idea that political unity need not require religious uniformity and that the sovereign could stand above confessional faction. The settlement underpinned a generation of recovery and the rebuilding of royal authority. Its provisions, however, eroded over the following century and were finally revoked by Louis XIV in 1685.
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Empires active in 13 April 1598
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- St Bartholomew's Day Massacre24 August 1572
- Revocation of the Edict of Nantes18 October 1685
- Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and the start of the Reformation31 October 1517
- Compilation of the Adi Granth, Sikh Scripture1604 CE
- Wahhab–Saud Pact Founds the Wahhabi Movement and First Saudi State1744
- Galileo's Dialogue and his trial by the Inquisition1632–1633
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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