Πολεμώντας τη λήθη: Εθνικό αφήγημα και προτεσταντική ιστοριογραφία στη Γαλλία των Βουρβόνων

Abstract

The French Wars of Religion (1562-1598) represent a pivotal point in the evolution of the so-called historiographical revolution in 16th-century France. They contributed decisively in the rise and establishment of contemporary (living) history as the dominant historiographical trend, but equally to the disentanglement of national from dynastic history; they constituted a unique, tragic historical event which called for a particular historical interpretation. On the other hand, as they escalated,
they became the field for opposing historical interpretations, aligned with the confessional divide.
   Focussing on 17th-century, Bourbon France, this article follows the evolution of this historiographical clash –which to a large extent expressed itself discreetly, due to the royal policy of national oblivion– right to the aftermath of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. Following the historians’ debate regarding the nation’s past and future throughout the 17th-century, it will be shown that the heirs to the first Bourbon monarch instrumentalized the policy of national oblivion that Henry IV was the first to introduce, to push the Huguenot minority initially to marginalization and "silent decay" and eventually to its violent suppression.
   Among French Protestant historians of the late 17th century, Elie Benoist was probably the only one to grasp the deeper political strategy behind the promulgation and eventual revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1598, 1685), which Benoist blamed on Henry’s successors and the French Catholic clergy. Benoist realized that the royal policy of "national oubliance", promoted by Henry IV, served as the founding pillar of an impressively efficient royal network of patronage and political control over the country. The Edict of Nantes was not promoting a regime of permanent religious tolerance, it was more likely a truce between the French monarchy and the Huguenot minority; over religious tolerance, the Edict of Nantes sought to establish national concord.