Edict of Fontainebleau

The Edict of Nantes had been issued on 13 April 1598 by Henry IV of France and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the predominantly-Catholic state. Henry aimed at promoting civil unity by the edict. The edict offered general freedom of conscience to individuals and many specific concessions to the Protestants, such as amnesty and the reinstatement of their civil rights, including the rights to work in any field, including for the state, and to bring grievances directly to the king. It marked the end of the French Wars of Religion, which had afflicted France during the second half of the 16th century. == Revocation ==

as it now stands In his edict given at his Palace of Fontainebleau in October 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and ordered the destruction of Huguenot churches as well as the closing of Protestant schools. All members of the Reformed Church in France that were abroad were to have their possessions confiscated if they did not return within a period of four months from the decree. All pastors that did not convert would be subject to the pain of the galleys. Any 'recently converted' individuals found to be secretly practicing Protestantism would likewise face a similar punishment. The edict made official the policy of persecution that was already enforced since the dragonnades that he had created in 1681 to intimidate Huguenots into converting to Catholicism, renewing efforts to forcibly convert those north of the Loire valley. The edict was particularly unique in its official ban on emigration, proving itself to be distinctly repressive even among European standards. As a result of the officially-sanctioned persecution by the dragoons, who were billeted upon prominent Huguenots, many Protestants, estimates ranging from 210,000 to 900,000, left France over the next two decades. They sought asylum in the United Provinces, Sweden, Switzerland, Brandenburg-Prussia, Denmark, Scotland, England, Protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire, the Cape Colony in Africa and North America. On 17 January 1686, Louis XIV claimed that out of a Huguenot population of 800,000 to 900,000, only 1,000 to 1,500 had remained in France. It was believed that Louis XIV's pious second wife, Madame de Maintenon, was a strong advocate for persecution of the Protestants. She was thought to have urged Louis to revoke Henry IV's edict; however, there is no formal proof of this, and such views have now been challenged. Madame de Maintenon was by birth a Catholic but was also the granddaughter of Agrippa d'Aubigné, a stalwart Calvinist. Protestants tried to turn Madame de Maintenon and any time she took the defence of Protestants, she was suspected of relapsing into her family faith. Thus, her position was thin, which wrongly led people to believe that she advocated persecutions. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes aligned France with virtually every other European country of the period (with the exception of the Principality of Transylvania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), which legally tolerated only the majority state religion. == Effects ==

The Edict of Fontainebleau is compared by many historians with the 1492 Alhambra Decree ordering the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and the Expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 to 1614. All three are comparable insofar as they are legal manifestations of religious prejudice ending periods of relative tolerance, producing similarly undesirable social and economic effects. In practice, the revocation caused France to suffer a brain drain, as it lost many skilled craftsmen, including key designers such as Daniel Marot. Upon leaving France, Huguenots took with them knowledge of important techniques and styles, which had a significant effect on the quality of the silk, plate glass, silversmithing, watchmaking and cabinet making industries of those regions to which they relocated. Some rulers, such as Frederick Wilhelm, Duke of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg, who issued the Edict of Potsdam in late October 1685, encouraged the Protestants to seek refuge in their nations. Similarly, in 1720 Frederick IV of Denmark invited the French Huguenots to seek refuge in Denmark, which they accepted, settling in Fredericia and other locations. ==Abolition==

In practice, the implacable policies outlawing Protestants were opposed by the Jansenists, and were relaxed during the reign of Louis XV, particularly among discreet members of the upper classes. "The fact that a hundred years later, when Protestants were again tolerated, many of them were found to be both commercially prosperous and politically loyal indicates that they fared far better than the Catholic Irish", R. R. Palmer concluded. Moreover, when French revolutionary armies invaded other European countries between 1789 and 1815, they followed a consistent policy of emancipating persecuted or circumscribed religious communities (Roman Catholic in some countries, Protestant in others and Jewish in most). ==Apology==

In October 1985, on the tricentenary of the Edict of Fontainebleau, French President François Mitterrand issued a public apology to the descendants of Huguenots around the world. ==Famous Huguenots who left France==

• • Jean Chardin • de la Font • Jean Luzac (see also Nouvelles Extraordinaires de Divers Endroits) • Daniel Marot • Abraham de Moivre • Denis Papin • Duke of Schomberg == See also ==