Station: [9] Louis XIV and the Edict of Fontainebleau

A historical portrait of Louis the Fourteenth, conveying the king's preferred image of himself – with flowing black curls – courtesy of a wig. The king was seen as … vain … profligate … and a glory-hound who went down in history as a warmonger. 
With his statement "L'État, c'est moi" – "I am the state", he bolstered his aim of absolutism – unrestricted power. He alone was to rule over both the state and the church. Roman Catholicism was to be the only valid state religion, and Protestantism was to be wiped out. 
Even under his father, Louis the Thirteenth, the Huguenots were progressively being stripped of their rights. At the time, the king and his prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu, struck a decisive blow against the Protestants with the capture of the Huguenot city of La Rochelle in 1628. It was a Protestant power centre and considered impregnable – and home to 28,000 Huguenots. In the end, Richelieu managed to sever all supply routes into the city. Most of the population starved to death. When La Rochelle surrendered, only 5,000 of the 28,000 residents had survived. 
Louis the Fourteenth saw the Huguenots as a threat to his absolute power and wanted to eradicate Protestantism in France. In 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had granted the Huguenots limited rights, and issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, which created a new legal framework:
Protestant services were banned with immediate effect, Reformed churches had to be demolished, all Huguenots were to convert to Roman Catholicism and bring up their children as Catholics. Huguenots were not permitted to emigrate, though their pastors were given just two weeks to go into exile. Anyone who resisted was at risk of severe punishment, imprisonment or death. 
A wave of forced conversions swept across France. In some cases, they were brutally enforced by the king's dragoons. They were billeted with Huguenot families and viciously terrorised them. No one was safe. They stole the families' possessions and mistreated old and young, men and women. Only when the male head of the household renounced his faith did they move on. In large parts of France, these brutal practices almost completely eliminated the Reformed faith. Today, French Protestants are a minority that accounts for just 3 per cent of the population.

Foto: © DHG