TheEdict of Fontainebleau (18 October 1685, published 22 October 1685) was anedict issued by French KingLouis XIV and is also known as theRevocation of the Edict of Nantes. TheEdict of Nantes (1598) had grantedHuguenots the right to practice their religion without state persecution. Protestants had lost their independence in places of refuge underCardinal Richelieu on account oftheir supposed insubordination, but they continued to live in comparative security and political contentment. From the outset,religious tolerance in France had been a royal, rather than popular, policy.[1]
The lack of universal adherence to his religion did not sit well with Louis XIV's vision of perfectedautocracy.[2]
TheEdict of Nantes had been issued on 13 April 1598 byHenry IV of France and granted theCalvinistProtestants ofFrance, also known asHuguenots, substantialrights in the predominantly-Catholic state. Henry aimed at promoting civil unity by theedict.[3] The edict treated some Protestants with tolerance and opened a path forsecularism. It offered generalfreedom of conscience to individuals and many specific concessions to the Protestants, such asamnesty and the reinstatement of theircivil 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 theFrench Wars of Religion, which had afflicted France during the second half of the 16th century.
In his edict given at hisPalace of Fontainebleau in October 1685,[4] Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and ordered the destruction of Huguenot churches as well as the closing of Protestant schools. The edict made official the policy of persecution that was already enforced since thedragonnades that he had created in 1681 to intimidate Huguenots intoconverting to Catholicism. As a result of the officially-sanctioned persecution by thedragoons, who werebilleted upon prominent Huguenots, many Protestants, estimates ranging from 210,000 to 900,000, left France over the next two decades. They soughtasylum in theUnited Provinces,Sweden,Switzerland,Brandenburg-Prussia,Denmark,Scotland,England, Protestant states of theHoly Roman Empire, theCape Colony in Africa and North America.[5] 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.[citation needed]
It has long been said that a strong advocate for persecution of the Protestants was Louis XIV's pious second wife,Madame de Maintenon, who was thought to have urged Louis to revoke Henry IV's edict. There is no formal proof of that, and such views have now been challenged. Madame de Maintenon was by birth a Catholic but was also the granddaughter of Agrippa d'Aubigné, an unrelenting 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.[citation needed]
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes brought France into line with virtually every other European country of the period (with the exception of thePrincipality of Transylvania and thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), which legally tolerated only the majority state religion. The French experiment of religious tolerance in Europe was effectively ended for the time being.
The Edict of Fontainebleau is compared by many historians with the 1492Alhambra Decree ordering theExpulsion of the Jews from Spain and theExpulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 to 1614. All three are similar both as outbursts of religious intolerance ending periods of relative tolerance and in their social and economic effects. In practice, the revocation caused France to suffer a kind of earlybrain drain, as it lost many skilled craftsmen, including key designers such asDaniel 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 andcabinet making industries of those regions to which they relocated. Some rulers, such asFrederick Wilhelm, Duke of Prussia andElector of Brandenburg, who issued theEdict of Potsdam in late October 1685, encouraged the Protestants to seek refuge in their nations. Similarly, in 1720Frederick IV of Denmark invited the French Huguenots to seek refuge in Denmark,[6] which they accepted, settling inFredericia and other locations.[7][8]
In practice, the stringency of policies outlawing Protestants was opposed by theJansenists[9] and was relaxed during the reign ofLouis XV, especially 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 theCatholic Irish",R. R. Palmer concluded.[2]
By the late 18th century, numerous prominent French philosophers and literary men of the day, includingAnne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, were arguing strongly for religious tolerance. Efforts byGuillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes, minister toLouis XVI, andJean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne, a spokesman for the Protestant community, together with members of a provincial appellate court orparlement of theAncien Régime, were particularly effective in persuading the king to open French society despite concerns expressed by some of his advisors. Thus, on 7 November 1787, Louis XVI signed theEdict of Versailles, known as the edict of tolerance registered in theparlement2+1⁄2 months later, on 29 January 1788. The edict offered relief to the main alternative faiths ofCalvinistHuguenots,Lutherans andJews by giving their followers civil and legal recognition as well as the right to form congregations openly after 102 years of prohibition.
Full religious freedom had to wait two more years, with enactment of theDeclaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The 1787 edict was nonetheless a pivotal step in eliminating religious strife, and it officially ended religious persecution in France.[10] Moreover, when French revolutionary armies invaded other European countries between 1789 and 1815, they followed a consistent policy ofemancipating persecuted or circumscribed religious communities (Roman Catholic in some countries, Protestant in others and Jewish in most).
In October 1985, in the tricentenary of the Edict of Fontainebleau,French PresidentFrançois Mitterrand issued a public apology to the descendants of Huguenots around the world.[11]
Given at Fontainebleau in the month of October, in the year of grace 1685, and of our reign the forty-third.
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