The war began when the Catholic League convinced King Henry III to issue an edict outlawing Protestantism and annulling Henry of Navarre's right to the throne. For the first part of the war, the royalists and the Catholic League were uneasy allies against their common enemy, the Huguenots.
The Declaration of Independence was signed 87 years before 1863. Lincoln began his eulogy with a reference to this event as a reminder that the Civil War soldiers were fighting and dying for freedom.
