R1815thand16th

Theme: Efforts to restrain conflicts: treaties, balance-of-power diplomacy, and international organizations.

Edict of Nantes. (1598)

Henry of Navarre, who later became Henry IV, desired nothing more than a strong and united France. He knew that the majority of the French were Roman Catholics. Because of his great political desire he claimed, “Paris is worth a mass,” knelt before the archbishop of Bourges and was received into the Catholic Church. His willingness to sacrifice religious principles for political necessity saved France. Henry also published the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which granted Huguenots, French Calvinists, liberty of conscience and of public worship in 150 fortified towns. Henry IV’s reign and the Edict of Nantes prepared the way for French absolutism in the 17th century by restoring internal peace in France.

MLA:

McKay, John P. __A History of Western Society__. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003