The Edict of Fontainebleau (Revocation of the Edict of Nantes)

The preamble gives the king’s own account of the Edict of Nantes: his grandfather Henry IV had issued it to keep the peace and with the aim of bringing the Reformed back to the Catholic church, the plan was cut short by Henry’s sudden death, and the Reformed lost some of its advantages before the further edict given at Nîmes in 1629. It then says that most of the king’s Reformed subjects have now become Catholics, so that the edict has lost its purpose. That claim is the crown’s and is reported here as such.

The first article suppresses and revokes the edict “given at Nantes in April, 1598” together with the particular articles of the following May, and orders the Reformed churches pulled down. The articles that follow forbid Reformed worship in any place or private house, expel ministers who will not convert, close Reformed schools and require children to be baptized by the parish priests. It is cited in the Edict of Nantes and Louis XIV Revokes the Edict of Nantes.