Main Text

The Edict of Nantes, 1598, released Protestants from the persecution and discrimination they had been living under in France, an officially Roman Catholic country. A century or so later, the edict was abolished, with significant consequences for British industry. This admirably straightforward account is taken, with some minor alterations, from the Dictionary of Dates, first compiled by Irish newspaper editor Joseph Timothy Haydn (1788/93–1856).

Slightly altered.

The Edict of Nantes, 13 April, 1598,⁠ by which Henry IV of France granted toleration to his Protestant subjects, was confirmed by Louis XIII in 1610,⁠ and by Louis XIV in 1652.⁠ It was revoked by Louis XIV on 22 October 1685.⁠ His act cost France 50,000 Protestant families,⁠ and gave to England and Germany thousands of industrious artisans.⁠ It also caused a fierce insurrection in Languedoc.⁠ Some of the refugees settled in Spitalfields, where their descendants yet remain;⁠ others settled in Soho and St Giles’s, and pursued the art of making crystal glasses, and carried on the silk manufacture and jewellery, then little understood in England.

Footnotes

Footnote

1598

In this year, Elizabeth I was on the English throne. She reigned from 1558 to 1603, when she was succeeded by James VI and I (he was King of Scotland and now also of England, hence the two regnal numbers).

Footnote

1610

On May 14, 1610, Henry IV was assassinated by François Ravaillac, a Roman Catholic activist. To reassure the Protestants of France, Marie de’ Medici, Henry’s widow and now regent for the nine-year-old Louis XIII, saw to it that Henry’s landmark ruling was confirmed.

Footnote

1652

This was during the Fronde civil war, when Louis needed the goodwill of the Huguenots, a numerous and influential Calvinist community.

Footnote

1685

The Edict of Fontainebleau, signed by the King on 18 October and registered by Parliament four days later, abolished the Edict of Nantes.

Footnote

Families

Modern scholars speak of individuals rather than families, estimating the numbers at 150,000 to 200,000 people. The figures nonetheless work out much the same; arguably, Haydn’s metric is more valuable, in the sense that the family bond is key in creating a lasting legacy of industry such as he describes.

Footnote

Artisans

Other destinations included the Dutch Republic, Prussia (Brandenburg), and North America. The Dutch Republic was soon to be closely tied to England, when James II’s daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William of Orange became joint rulers of Scotland and England in 1688. As yet, there was no USA and no Canada, but both the French and the English were busily establishing colonial possessions there.

Footnote

Languedoc

The Province of Languedoc, capital Toulouse, lies in what is now Occitanie in Southern France. As Haydn says in another entry, this insurrection was the Camisard Rebellion (1702–1710), in the Cévennes region of Languedoc; the nickname Camisards is taken from the shirts they wore for their night-time attacks. After the Edict of Nantes was revoked, persecution and discrimination of Protestants spiked. In July 1702, a group of prisoners of conscience was broken out of gaol, and the revolt began. One of the Camisards’ most able commanders, Jean Cavalier, left France and joined the British army. He was appointed lieutenant governor of Jersey in 1738, and died in London two years later.

Footnote

Yet remain

Haydn’s Dictionary was first published in 1841, and subsequently revised and updated many times; the edition quoted here came out in 1910. In the century that has passed, London and British society in general have changed; the French in Spitalfields were later followed by Irish and Bangladeshi settlers.

Author Details

From Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates
Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information 1910 (25th edition)
Source
Based on
Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information (25th edition, (1910).

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