Laughter and Tears

A caricature is a picture or a text that exaggerates the features of a person or a situation to make fun of them—sometimes kindly, sometimes cruelly. Caricatures have existed since at least ancient times.

The caricatures you can see here refer to the Wars of Religion, which divided Christians in France in the XVIth century into Protestants and Catholics.

King Henri IV was born a Protestant, but he later converted to Catholicism. He wanted Protestants and Catholics to live together peacefully, so in 1598 he signed a law called the Edict of Nantes.

Sadly, Louis XIV abolished the Edict in 1685. This led to new conflicts and forced many Protestants to leave France.