Hello Avon
The Edict of Nantes was issued in France in 1598 by Henry IV. This effectively ended the religious wars in France which had raged 30 years previous to this, by securing Huguenots religious tolerance and civil status, albeit very limited, confined to certain areas only, where Protestantism was already ingrained. From about 1660 Louis XIV slowly eroded the rights of this Edict, by passing counter laws, and making sure the original Edict was pedantically followed to the letter. By 1685 as a result something like 80% of France's Huguenot temples had already been destroyed and many forced to convert to Catholicism. Convinced Huguenots and their 'heresy' had been 'stamped out' by these measures, he felt the Edict was no longer needed, and that year he revoked it all together, which led to the mass exodus of around 200,000 Huguenots to other countries, which continued for about a century until his great grandson Louis XVI passed an Edict of Toleraton in the 1780's.
