Royal Edicts

A decree by a king, a queen or a ruling prince, issued to a kingdom rather than to an empire. Expulsion and toleration both appear under this heading, and in the French case the same crown did each in turn, which is the argument for filing them together: an edict of toleration is only as durable as the reign after it. The entries give the enacting date and, where there is one, the instrument that undid it, so a reader can see how long each arrangement actually lasted.