Huguenots
French Protestants, their wars, rights and persecution.
Category: Culture, Society
- 1535Olivétan's French Bible is printed at Neuchâtel
In 1535 Pierre Robert Olivétan, a cousin of Calvin, publishes at Neuchâtel the first French Bible translated from Hebrew and Greek rather than Latin. Calvin writes its Latin preface; it is the first French Protestant Bible.
- 1562 – 1598The French Wars of Religion begin between Catholics and Huguenots
Conflict between Catholic and Protestant (Huguenot) factions, entangled with noble rivalries and a weakened Valois crown, broke into open civil war in 1562 and continued intermittently until 1598.
- August 24, 1572St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots in Paris
During the wedding celebrations of Henry of Navarre, King Charles IX ordered the killing of Huguenot leaders, and mobs in Paris and other cities then massacred thousands of Protestants. It began the night of 23-24 August 1572.
- August 1589Henry IV becomes king, founding the Bourbon dynasty
After Henry III's assassination, Henry of Navarre inherited the French throne as its first Bourbon king. He had to fight the Catholic League for years and converted to Catholicism in 1593 to win acceptance.
- April 13, 1598Edict of Nantes grants Huguenots religious rights
Henry IV granted French Protestants freedom of conscience, limited public worship and legal protections, largely ending the Wars of Religion and restoring royal authority.
- August 12, 1624Cardinal Richelieu becomes chief minister of Louis XIII
Richelieu centralised royal power by curbing noble privileges, crushing Huguenot political power (La Rochelle, 1627-28) and using intendants, while steering France against the Habsburgs in the Thirty Years' War.
- September 10, 1627 – October 28, 1628Richelieu besieges La Rochelle and crushes the Huguenots' military power
Royal forces besiege the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle from August 1627 until it surrenders on 28 October 1628, despite three failed English relief expeditions. Its population falls from about 27,000 to 5,000.
- October 18, 1685Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes (Edict of Fontainebleau)
Louis XIV ended legal toleration of Protestants, ordering their churches destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled France over the following years, taking skills and capital abroad.