The Huguenots stoutly defended themselves throughout France, although great numbers were slain. The tide of their fortunes constantly ebbed and flowed. In 1598, Henry IV. issued the famous Edict of Nantes, which was helpful to both Catholics and Protestants, reproducing the more favorable and tolerant of former edicts. Under Louis XIII. their rights were again attacked, which led to an unlucky league with England, and resulted in the siege and capitulation of their city of Rochelle. Then their treatment was again tolerant, and they loyally fought for Louis XIV., which that sovereign illy repaid by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685.

Before this crowning injustice great numbers had escaped from their inhospitable country. Over one million of the best and thriftiest citizens of the land now sought refuge elsewhere, and more than one-half of the commercial and manufacturing industries of the kingdom were crushed, resulting in stagnation and distress on every hand. Thus France at once suffered for her cruelty and wrong.

The Huguenots scattered throughout the world, blessing every country they visited by the addition of their intelligence, refinement, virtue and industry. Great numbers went to England, causing silk manufacture and other important industries to flourish there; others went to Ireland, making her linen and poplin manufactures the most important in the world; some went to Switzerland and some to Germany, and many crossed the Atlantic to seek peaceful homes and assured liberty in the New World.

Their trials and sufferings and heroic steadfastness, with the blessings they carried to many lands, make the story of the Huguenots one of the saddest and, at the same time, one of the brightest known to history.