The Huguenot

From the author of Louis XIV, an unprecedented history of the entire Huguenot experience in France, from hopeful beginnings to tragic diaspora. Following the Reformation, a growing number of radical Protestants came together to live and worship in Catholic France. These Huguenots survived persecution and armed conflict to win—however briefly—freedom of worship, civil rights, and unique status as a protected minority. But in 1685, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes abolished all Huguenot rights, and more than 200,000 of the radical Calvinists were forced to flee across Europe, some even farther. In this capstone work, Geoffrey Treasure tells the full story of the Huguenots’ rise, survival, and fall in France over the course of a century and a half. He explores what it was like to be a Huguenot living in a “state within a state,” weaving stories of ordinary citizens together with those of statesmen, feudal magnates, leaders of the Catholic revival, Henry of Navarre, Catherine de’ Medici, Louis XIV, and many others. Treasure describes the Huguenots’ disciplined community, their faith and courage, their rich achievements, and their unique place within Protestantism and European history. The Huguenot exodus represented a crucial turning point in European history, Treasure contends, and he addresses the significance of the Huguenot story—the story of a minority group with the power to resist and endure in one of early modern Europe’s strongest nations. “A formidable work, covering complex, fascinating, horrifying and often paradoxical events over a period of more than 200 years…Treasure’s work is a monument to the courage and heroism of the Huguenots.”—Piers Paul Read, The Tablet

In 1700, King William III assigned Charles de Sailly to accompany Huguenot refugees to Manakin Town on the Virginia frontier. The existing explanation for why this migration was necessary is overly simplistic and seriously conflated. Based largely on English-language sources with an English Atlantic focus, it contends that King William III, grateful to the French Protestant refugees who helped him invade England during the Glorious Revolution (1688) and win victory in Ireland (1691), rewarded these refugees by granting them 10,000 acres in Virginia on which to settle. Using French-language sources and a wider, more European focus than existing interpretations, this book offers an alternative explanation. It delineates a Huguenot refugee resettlement network within a «Protestant International», highlighting the patronage of both King William himself and his valued Huguenot associate, Henri de Ruvigny (Lord Galway). By 1700, King William was politically battered by the interwoven pressures of an English reaction against his high-profile foreign favorites (Galway among them) and the Irish land grants he had awarded to close colleagues (to Galway and others). This book asserts that King William and Lord Galway sponsored the Manakin Town migration to provide an alternate location for Huguenot military refugees in the worst-case scenario that they might lose their Irish refuge.

This award-winning book is the definitive account of the principal Huguenot family settlements in Ireland. Mrs. Lee's objective in writing this book was to demonstrate the French Protestant contribution to the history of Ireland, and, in particular, the Huguenot influence in trade, the professions, and Irish social life. In the process of describing, in successive chapters, the Huguenot presence in the city of Cork, Cork County, Waterford and Wexford, Carlow, Portarlington, western Ireland, and Dublin, she furnishes specific biographical and genealogical details concerning the more successful Huguenot families who settled in those localities in the wake of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The book is also sprinkled with lists of Huguenot ministers, churches (with their dates of founding), apprentices, students, and so on. At the conclusion of the work the reader will find a bibliography and a very serviceable index to surnames and subjects, and at the outset, a map of the Huguenot settlements throughout Ireland.

"A bibliography of some works relating to the Huguenot refugees, whence they came, where they settled": v. 1, pp. 130-149.

3 books of epic historical adventure now in one volume. A family torn apart. A king with an iron fist. Will their love, faith and loyalty be strong enough to help them survive war, persecution and a cruel separation? France, 1685. Jeanne is the wife of a wealthy merchant, but now she risks losing everything. Louis XIV's soldiers will stop at nothing to convert the country's Huguenot "heretics" to the "true" faith, yet Jeanne and Jacob hold fast to their Protestant principals of liberty of conscience. But will the punishment for their defiance be more than they can bear? If Jeanne and Jacob can't find a way to evade the soldiers' clutches, their family will face a fate worse than poverty and imprisonment. They may never see each other again... As Jacob becomes an indentured servant in the New World and Jeanne earns a meagre living in Switzerland, a sudden disruption in European politics leaves their chance of a bittersweet homecoming more doubtful than ever... Will the Delpech family survive the years of war, piracy and persecution to reunite at last? You'll adore this brilliantly researched historical saga, because everyone loves heart-warming tales of family loyalty and a fight for survival against the odds. Read The Huguenot Connection trilogy to start a journey through history today!

In this book, scholars of the Huguenot Refuge examine the situation of French Protestants before and after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France and in the countries to which many of them fled during the great exodus which followed the Edict of Fontainebleau. Covering a period from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 19th century, the book examines aspects of life in France, from the debate on church unity to funeral customs. Its primary focus is on the departure from France and its consequences, both before and after the Revocation. It offers insights into individuals and groups, from grandees - such as Henri de Ruvigny, depute general and later known as Earl of Galway - to converted Catholic priests, and from businessmen and communities choosing their destination for economic as well as religious reasons, to women and children moving across European frontiers or groups seeking refuge in the islands of the Indian Ocean. The information-gathering activities of the French authorities and the reception of problematic groups - such as the Camisard prophets among exile communities - are examined, as well as the significant contributions which Huguenots began to make in a variety of fields to the countries in which they had settled. The refugees were extremely interested in the history of their diaspora and of the individuals of which it was composed, and this theme too is explored. Finally, the Napoleonic period brought some of the refugees up against France in a more immediate way, raising further questions of identity and aspiration for the Huguenot community in Germany.