Edict of Nantes
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The Edict of Nantes was an edict signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV of France that granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was
First page of the Edict of Nantes (Archives nationales)
Henry IV of France by Frans Pourbus the younger
French Wars of Religion
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The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholics and Protestants from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease directly c
Edict of Nantes
…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. The Edict of Nantes helped to end the Wars of Religion in France, which had been raging for decades. It also ensured that the Protestant minority in…
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572) by François Dubois
John Calvin, whose ideas became central to French Protestantism
After an initial period of tolerance, Francis I repressed Reformist ideas
Massacre of Mérindol, as imagined by Gustave Doré (1832–1883)