A decree promulgated by Henry IV that terminated the French Wars of Religion. It was signed at Nantes, a port on the Loire estuary in western France. The Edict defined the religious and civic rights of the Huguenots, giving them freedom of worship and a state subsidy to support their troops and pastors. It virtually created a state within a state and was incompatible with the policies of Richelieu and Mazarin and of Louis XIV. The fall of the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle to Richelieu’s army in 1628 marked the end of these political privileges. After 1665 Louis XIV embarked on a policy of persecuting Protestants and in 1685 he revoked the Edict.