The Edict of Nantes and King Henry IV

State Unity in France Rather than Religious Toleration

Jan 16, 2009

The Edict of Nantes was motivated by numerous political and social factors affecting the newly crowned French king's desire to end warfare and establish state unity.

The Edict of Nantes flowed out of King Henry IV’s desire to bring peace to his realm after many years of religious warfare in France as well as the need to create a unity embodied in the traditional concept of “one king, one faith, one law.” The Edict did not “introduce a systematic policy of religious toleration,” as pointed out by Mack Holt. [1] It was a “stepping stone” toward the future and represented a policy of appeasement designed to secure the loyalty of all parties.

The Need to Restore Unity

Pierre Goubert refers to the Edict of Nantes as “that temporary expedient imposed by thirty years indecisive warfare…” [2] Henry IV converted to Catholicism in 1593 with sincere intentions. Although he never said that “Paris is worth a Mass,” his actions suggest that peace and unity lay at the heart of the conversion. Pockets of resistance throughout France testified to the ferocity of the religious wars: members of the Catholic League controlled key areas and cities, such as Rheims, Huguenots continued to live on the defensive, and Spanish troops were still on French soil, including in Paris.

In 1595 Henry IV entered into a war with Spain, largely due to Spanish provocation, and in 1597 Huguenot leaders, impatient with the flow of events (although they fought side by side with Catholics against Spain), voiced renewed calls of resistance. Widespread peasant insurrections, linked especially to wine growers, between 1593 and 1594 provided the harsh reality that state unity must be a priority for the new king. Writes Holt, “There can be little doubt that the peasant uprisings….helped to convince Henry IV that a peace settlement and an end to the civil wars was urgently required.” [3]

Written in several parts both public and private, the Edict “underscored the Catholicity of the crown” while creating a “state within a state,” i.e., the Huguenot enclaves, that was never designed to be permanent. The very language of the Edict points to religious unity and says nothing in terms of religious toleration. Provisions allowing Huguenot cities to maintain troops of their own were temporary, lasting only eight years. The intention was to amalgamate French Calvinists into the unity of the French state. In reading the Edict itself, no theological questions are raised or debated.

Similarly, the Edict upheld the Catholic Church as the official church. Huguenots were required to pay the tithe, for example, and return confiscated Church property. French Protestantism was banned in Paris and Huguenots were forbidden to print and sell books, “except in cities and places where the public exercise of the said religion is permitted.” [4]

Revocation of the Edit by Louis XIV

Ironically perhaps, King Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict was also motivated, in part, by the desire to achieve state unity. By 1685, there were approximately 2 million French Calvinists in the realm. According to historians, including Goubert, Louis may have been motivated by several factors:

In most of these cases, Louis failed. James II of England, openly Catholic, was forced to flee during the Glorious Revolution; England would not return to the Catholic fold. Disparate Protestant states rallied to William III, formerly William of Orange, as news of French persecutions spread.

The Edict, as promulgated by Henry IV, was a measure, partly temporary, to restore peace and order to France. It addressed no theological questions. Lasting almost 100 years, it provided France with an industrious intelligentsia that would be dispersed after 1685, enriching other countries at the expense of France.

Sources:

[1] Mack P. Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 1562-1629 (Cambridge University Press, 1997) p. 153ff.

[2] Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen (Vintage Books-Random House, 1970) p.156.

The Huguenot Connection: The Edict of Nantes, Its Revocation, and Early French Migration to South Carolina, R. M. Golden, Editor (Springe, 1988)

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