Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
- Date
- 18 October 1685
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Kingdom of France
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
On 18 October 1685 Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the Edict of Nantes (1598) and stripping France's Protestant Huguenots of the legal toleration they had held for nearly a century.
Protestant worship was banned, churches and schools were ordered destroyed, and pastors were given a fortnight to convert or go into exile, while ordinary believers were forbidden to emigrate and subjected to coercion, including the brutal billeting of soldiers (the dragonnades). The measure expressed Louis's conviction that religious uniformity was essential to absolute monarchy. Despite the prohibition on leaving, an estimated 200,000 or more Huguenots fled abroad over the following decades, carrying their skills to England, the Dutch Republic, Brandenburg-Prussia, Switzerland, South Africa and the American colonies. France suffered a notable loss of merchants, financiers and skilled craftsmen, while the host states gained from this influx of talent. The revocation hardened Protestant Europe against Louis XIV, fed the coalitions that would resist French power, and became a byword for the dangers of state-enforced religious conformity. It stands in sharp contrast to the more pluralist settlements emerging in the Dutch Republic and post-1688 England.
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Empires active in 18 October 1685
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- Edict of Nantes ends the French Wars of Religion13 April 1598
- St Bartholomew's Day Massacre24 August 1572
- Wahhab–Saud Pact Founds the Wahhabi Movement and First Saudi State1744
- Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and the start of the Reformation31 October 1517
- Galileo's Dialogue and his trial by the Inquisition1632–1633
- Compilation of the Adi Granth, Sikh Scripture1604 CE
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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