1629–1787

The Crushing of the Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

After Henry IV's assassination (1610), Marie de' Medici confirmed the Edict of Nantes. But her rapprochement with the Habsburgs provoked Huguenot revolts. Cardinal Richelieu supported Protestants in Germany, yet crushed their political and military power in France. After a year-long siege La Rochelle fell: of 25,000 residents, 1,500 survived. In 1629 Richelieu issued an edict of religious and civil toleration, ending the wars.

The crown abolished the national synod in 1659. Louis XIV was convinced that Protestants were a negligible minority. He worked first through inducements, then after 1684 through dragonnades. In 1685 he revoked the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau, outlawing Protestants.

Nearly half a million Huguenots, mostly prosperous merchants and craftsmen, fled to Switzerland, Germany, England, the Netherlands and North America. Their flight came at significant economic cost to France.

Those who remained, nominally converted, worshipped secretly in fields and forests as the "church of the desert." They faced galleys, prison and the execution of pastors. Apocalyptic preaching fed the Camisard peasant revolt, suppressed by 1709. This lasted until Antoine Court convened the first synod of the French Reformed Church in 1715, and Louis XVI finally proclaimed toleration in 1787.