The Edict Of Nantes

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The Success of ‘The Edict of Nantes’ in 1598. The Edict of Nantes in 1598 was only a temporary solution to the religious wars in France from 1562-1598. There were several attempts to bring peace and unity to France during this time but each attempt was met with hostility by both sides and a common ground was not found until the reign of Henry IV. The problems with the Edict of Nantes’ predecessors were that they heavily favoured the Catholics and never met the demands of the Huguenots. The likes of the Edict of Saint-Germaine and Ambroise both gave small successions to the Huguenots but not what they desired. The Huguenots faced years of depravity and were willing to fight for what they believed in so these small successions would not suffice and wars broke out because of their treatment. Henry IV’s rise to power played a significant part in the bringing of relative peace to France at a time when religious and civil wars were occurring regularly. He had grown up being somewhat sympathetic towards the Huguenots and was only Catholic for five years before he was king and it can be argued that the main reason to why he became Catholic was to achieve the crown of France. Henry’s unusual toleration of the Huguenots caused trouble for the native Catholics in France and angered Pope Clement but this toleration would somewhat prevail in the Edict of Nantes because of what the nation and the two factions suffered prior to its creation. The Edict of Nantes not only granted successions to both sides but they were far fairer to the Huguenots including the granting of their civil rights, the rights that they lost in the Edict of Boulogne. The Edict of Boulogne was a slap in the face for the Huguenots as it segregated them from modern society, permitting them to only preach in the towns of La Rochelle, Mountauban and Nimes and even with that, only in their own homes. No
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