Who were the Huguenots?
John Calvin
(1509 - 1564),
religious
reformer. |
The Huguenots were French
Protestants who were members of the Reformed Church which
was established in 1550 by John
Calvin. The origin of the name Huguenot is uncertain, but
dates from approximately 1550 when it was used in court cases
against "heretics" (dissenters from the Roman Catholic Church). As
nickname and even abusive name it's use was banned in the
regulations of the Edict of Nantes which Henry IV (Henry of
Navarre, who himself earlier was a Huguenot) issued in 1598. The
French Protestants themselves preferred to refer to themselves as
"réformees" (reformers) rather than "Huguenots".
It was much later that the name
"Huguenot" became an honorary one.
| A
general edict which encouraged the extermination of the Huguenots was
issued on January 29th, 1536 in France. On March 1st, 1562
some 1200 Huguenots were slain at Vassy, France. This ignited the
the Wars of Religion which
would rip apart, devastate, and bankrupt France for the next three
decades.
 |
St. Batholomew massacre,
1572
Click on
image above for an enlarged
view |
During the infamous St Bartholomew
Massacre of the night of 23/24 August, 1572 more than 8 000
Huguenots, including Admiral
Gaspard de Coligny, Governor of Picardy and leader and spokesman of
the Huguenots, were murdered in Paris. It happened during the wedding of
Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot, to Marguerite de Valois (daughter of
Catherine de Medici), when thousands of Huguenots converged on Paris for
the wedding celebrations.
Catherine
de
Medici |
It was Catherine de Medici who
persuaded her weakling son Charles IX to order the mass murder,
which lasted three days and spread to the countryside. On Sunday
morning August 24th, 1572 she personally walked through the streets
of Paris to inspect the carnage. Henry of Navarre's life was spared
by pretending to support the Roman Catholic faith. In 1593 he made
his "perilous leap"and abjured his faith in July 1593, and 5 years
later he was the undisputed monarch as King Henry IV (le bon
Henri, the good Henry) of
France. | When
the first rumours of the massacre reached the Vatican in Rome on 2
September 1572, pope Gregory XIII was jubilant and wanted bonfires to be
lit in Rome. He was persuaded to wait for the official communication; the
very morning of the day that he received the confirmed news, the pope held
a consistory and announced that "God had been pleased to be
merciful". Then with all the cardinals he repaired to the Church of
St. Mark for the Te Deum, and prayed and ordered prayers that the
Most Christian King might rid and purge his entire kingdom (of France) of
the Huguenot plague.
On 8 September 1572 a procession of
thanksgiving took place in Rome, and the pope, in a prayer after mass,
thanked God for having "granted the Catholic people a glorious triumph
over a perfidious race" (gloriosam de perfidis gentibus populo
catholico loetitiam tribuisti).
 Gregory XIII engaged Vasari to
paint scenes in one of the Vatican apartments of the triumph of the Most
Christian King over the Huguenots. He had a medal struck representing an
exterminating angel smiting the Huguenots with his sword, the inscription
reading: Hugonottorium strages (Huguenot conspirators). In France
itself, the French magistracy ordered the admiral to be burned in effigy
and prayers and processions of thanksgiving on each recurring 24th August,
out of gratitude to God for the victory over the Huguenots.
Henry IV, himself a
former Huguenot (as Henry of Navarre) |
The Edict of Nantes was signed
by Henry IV on April 13th, 1598, which brought an end to the Wars of
Religion.
The Huguenots were allowed to practice
their faith in 20 specified French "free" cities. France became
united and a decade of peace followed. After Henry IV was murdered
in 1610, however, the persecution of the "dissenters" resumed in all
earnestness under the guidance of Cardinal Richelieu. The Huguenot
free cities were lost one after the other after they were conquered
by the forces of Cardinal Richelieu, and the last and most important
stronghold, La Rochelle, fell in 1629 after a siege lasting a
month. |
Richelieu, who
relentlessly persecuted the
Huguenots. |
Louis
XIV |
Louis XIV (the Sun King,
1643-1715) began to apply his motto l'état c'est moi ("I
am the state") and introduced the infamous Dragonnades - the
billeting of dragoons in Huguenot households. He began with a policy
of une foi, un loi, un roi (one faith, one law, one king) and
revoked the Edict of Nantes on 22 October 1685. The large scale
persecution of the Huguenots resumed. Protestant churches and the
houses of "obstinates" were burned and destroyed, and their bibles
and hymn books burned. Emigration was declared illegal. Many
Huguenots were burned at the stake | .
Scenes like these were
common during the persecution of the Huguenots in France during the
sixteenth and seventeenth century.
Click on picture above for
enlargement.
At least 200 000 French Huguenots fled to
countries such as Switzerland, Germany, England, America, and South
Africa, where they could enjoy religious freedom. Between 1618 and 1725
between 5 000 and 7 000 Huguenots reached the shores of America. Those who
came from the French speaking south of Belgium, an area known as
Wallonia, are generally known as Walloons (as opposed to
Huguenots) in the United States.
The organised large scale emigration of
Hugenots to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa occurred during 1688 -
1689. However, even before this large sscale emigration individual
Huguenots such as François Villion (1671) and the brothers
François and Guillaume du Toit (1686) fled to the Cape of
Good Hope. In 1692 a total of 201 French Huguenots had settled at the Cape
of Good Hope. Most of them settled in an area now known as Franschhoek
("French Corner"), some 70 km outside Cape Town, where many farms still
bear their original French names.
A century later the promulgation of the
Edict of Toleration on 28 November 1787 partially restored the civil and
religious rights of the Huguenots in France.
Next page: The Huguenot
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