This was why, in 1593, Henri converted to Catholicism. This was well timed because when Henri inherited the throne, within months the main leader of the Catholic League, Cardinal de Bourbon, died childless. This caused the Catholics to ask for a ten day truce in 1593 but they could not find anyone to inherit the throne. When Henri decided to convert, he instantly became the Catholic candidate for the throne thus undermining a lot of opposition to his reign.
This decision was very important because many people now started to desert the Catholic League and join Henri’s cause, interestingly he also managed to maintain most of the support from the Huguenots because part of his timing in converting was due to the fact that he did not want to upset his supporters and he did not want to look like a hypocrite.
This conversion was also very important because after his crowning in 1594, Paris opened its gates to him and the surrender of the Catholic League looked to be imminent. So now, not only did he have control of his capital city, which was important for his reassertion of authority, therefore stabilising the kingdom, but his main opposition could now not contest him so very well. Some Huguenots also recognised that his conversion had been for political reasons (much like his marriage to Marguerite de Valois) rather than a conversion of conviction.
So, he managed to unite his people by presenting with a common enemy; Spain who, up until 1593 had been funding the Catholic League in their campaign against Henri. The Spanish had caused great problems for Henri and the stability of his kingdom because they had aided the Catholic League in campaigns against him. To present his kingdom with the Spanish as a common enemy meant that the Catholics and Protestants in France stopped seeing each other as enemy so the uncertainty of civil war was reduced.
It was important for Henri not to show too much compassion for the Huguenots after his conversion, in order not to unsettle the Catholics. In 1593 the Huguenots asked for more religious toleration, Henri refused. This had serious repercussions that Henri had to deal with in order to stabilise the kingdom because the Huguenot National Assembly had began discussions on protecting Huguenot lands and threatened to refuse to pay taxes. By 1597 it was at crisis point, when a Huguenot Duke refused to serve his king in a battle against the Spanish at Amiens, Henri knew he had to address the religious situation before civil war broke out again. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes was published that laid out the rights of Huguenots in France. It stated that Huguenots had free will to their faith, except in the capital city, in areas where it had been established in 1596 and 1597. Huguenots were also given similar rights as those exercised by Catholics. Huguenots could hold any office, apply for any occupation and have access to hospitals schools and universities.
This edict enabled Henri to try and reduce the animosity between Catholics and Protestants without making the crown vulnerable. For instance, Huguenots had to abide by the laws of the land, they could not set up their own courts. This was to reduce the risks of a separate state of Huguenots being set up that would risk the authority of the crown. Henri had to be very tactful in dealing with religion because he did not have the money to be able to deal with another outbreak of civil war. He also had to be careful because the authority of the crown had been severely damaged by civil war and countries such as Spain were willing to take advantage of its vulnerable position by funding the main opponents to Henri’s reign; the Catholic League and so he had to try and reunite the French people to reduce the threat of invasion by Spain which would seriously unsettle the kingdom.
Henri’s timing and his dealings with religion were ultimately very important in stabilising the crown and kingdom because he managed to address the problem even if not solving it completely, without causing civil war and by 1598 the kingdom was much more settle than the one he inherited in 1589.
