Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
On 22 October 1685, Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau, formally revoking the Edict of Nantes (1598) which had granted France's Protestant Huguenot minority civil rights, legal protection, and the right to worship in designated towns. The revocation was enforced through the dragonnades — the billeting of dragoons in Protestant households with licence to terrorise occupants into conversion — and triggered the flight of an estimated 200,000 Huguenots to England, the Dutch Republic, Prussia, and South Africa, carrying with them skills in silk-weaving, watchmaking, glassblowing, military engineering, and commerce that enriched France's rivals for generations. The economic and military damage was immediate and severe: Prussia's Frederick William I explicitly welcomed Huguenot refugees with the Edict of Potsdam (November 1685), and whole industries relocated outside French borders. Louis's advisors including Vauban warned him of the economic consequences, but the king viewed religious uniformity as integral to political sovereignty — a calculation that dismayed Protestant Europe and strained diplomatic relations with England and the Dutch Republic.
- Year: 1685 CE
- Category: Political
