Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Remembering the Wars of Religion examines the painful legacy of civil war, focusing on memories of violence and victimhood after the French Wars of Religion. Officially, these wars ended in 1598, when the Edict of Nantes proclaimed peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants, and ordered them to forget the troubles that had begun in 1562. The reality in biconfessional cities scarred by the wars such as Lyon, La Rochelle, and Montpellier was more complicated. Catholics and Protestants who had lived through the conflict found it impossible to forget or forgive the violence they had witnessed and the losses they had suffered. Whether in personal chronicles and elegant portrait galleries, or public spaces such as churches, courtrooms, and the street, the conflict between the two groups dragged on for another century. Memories were repeatedly used to antagonize, fuelling local tensions and undermining the official policy of toleration established by the Edict of Nantes. Remembering the Wars of Religion thus offers a compelling new perspective on the challenges of religious coexistence and peacebuilding. It shows that besides state policies of intolerance and doctrinal differences rooted in the Reformation, it was the manipulation of wartime memories by subsequent generations that fuelled long-term animosity and ultimately laid the basis for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.</jats:p>