Huguenot

A Huguenot (/ËˆhjuËÉ¡É™nÉ't/ or /huËÉ¡É™ËˆnoÊŠ/; French:Â [yÉ¡no], [yÉ¡É™no]) is a member of a French Protestant denomination with origins in the 16th or 17th centuries. Historically, Huguenots were French Protestants inspired by the writings of John Calvin (Jean Calvin in French) in the 1530s, who became known by that originally derisive designation by the end of the 16th century.

Huguenot numbers peaked near an estimated two million by 1562, concentrated mainly in the southern and central parts of France, about one-eighth the number of French Catholics. As Huguenots gained influence and more openly displayed their faith, Catholic hostility grew, in spite of increasingly liberal political concessions and edicts of toleration from the French crown. A series of religious conflicts followed, known as the Wars of Religion, fought intermittently from 1562 to 1598. The wars finally ended with the granting of the Edict of Nantes, which granted the Huguenots substantial religious, political and military autonomy.

Renewed religious warfare in the 1620s caused the political and military privileges of the Huguenots to be abolished following their defeat. They retained the religious provisions of the Edict of Nantes until the rule of Louis XIV, who progressively increased persecution of them until he issued the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685), which abolished all legal recognition of Protestantism in France, and forced the Huguenots to convert. While nearly three-quarters eventually submitted, roughly 500,000 Huguenots had fled France by the early 18th century.

The bulk of Huguenot Ã©migrÃ©s relocated to Protestant European nations such as England, Wales, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the Dutch Republic, the Electorate of Brandenburg and Electorate of the Palatinate in the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Prussia, the Channel Islands, and Ireland. They also spread beyond the Old World to the Dutch Cape Colony in South Africa, the Dutch East Indies, the Caribbean, and several of the English colonies of North America, where they were accepted and allowed to worship freely.

Persecution of Protestants diminished in France after the death of Louis XIV in 1715, and officially ended with the Edict of Versailles, commonly called the Edict of Tolerance, signed by Louis XVI in 1787. Two years later, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, Protestants gained equal rights as citizens.

Today, most Huguenots have been assimilated into various societies and cultures, but remnant communities in Alsace and the CÃ©vennes in France and a diaspora of Huguenots in England and French Australians still retain their Huguenot religious tradition.

Etymology

A term used originally in derision, Huguenot has indefinite origins. Various hypotheses have been promoted. The nickname may have been a combined reference to the Swiss politician BesanÃ§on Hugues (died 1532) and the religiously conflicted nature of Swiss republicanism in his time, using a clever derogatory pun on the name Hugues by way of the Dutch word Huisgenoten (literally housemates), referring to the connotations of a somewhat related word in German Eidgenosse (Confederates as in "a citizen of one of the states of the Swiss Confederacy") Geneva was John Calvin's adopted home and the centre of the Calvinist movement. In Geneva, Hugues, though Catholic, was a leader of the "Confederate Party", so called because it favoured independence from the Duke of Savoy through an alliance between the city-state of Geneva and the Swiss Confederation. The label Huguenot was purportedly first applied in France to those conspirators (all of them aristocratic members of the Reformed Church) involved in the Amboise plot of 1560: a foiled attempt to wrest power in France from the influential House of Guise. The move would have had the side effect of fostering relations with the Swiss. Thus, Hugues plus Eidgenosse by way of Huisgenoten supposedly became Huguenot, a nickname associating the Protestant cause with politics unpopular in France.

A version of this complex hypothesis is promoted by O.I.A. Roche, who writes in his book, The Days of the Upright, A History of the Huguenots (1965), that "Huguenot" is:

"a combination of a Dutch and a German word. In the Dutch-speaking North of France, Bible students who gathered in each other's houses to study secretly were called Huis Genooten ('housemates') while on the Swiss and German borders they were termed Eid Genossen, or 'oath fellows,' that is, persons bound to each other by an oath. Gallicised into 'Huguenot', often used deprecatingly, the word became, during two and a half centuries of terror and triumph, a badge of enduring honour and courage."

Some disagree with such double or triple non-French linguistic origins, arguing that for the word to have spread into common use in France, it must have originated in the French language. The "Hugues hypothesis" argues that the name was derived by association with Hugues Capet, king of France, who reigned long before the Reformation. He was regarded by the Gallicans and Protestants as a noble man who respected people's dignity and lives. Janet Gray and other supporters of the hypothesis suggest that the name huguenote would be roughly equivalent to little Hugos, or those who want Hugo.

In this last connection, the name could suggest the derogatory inference of superstitious worship; popular fancy held that Huguon, the gate of King Hugo, was haunted by the ghost of le roi Huguet (regarded by Roman Catholics as an infamous scoundrel) and other spirits, who instead of being in Purgatory came back to harm the living at night. It was in this place in Tours that the prÃ©tendus rÃ©formÃ©s ("these supposedly 'reformed'") habitually gathered at night, both for political purposes, and for prayer and singing psalms. Such explanations have been traced to the contemporary, Reguier de la Plancha (d. 1560), who in De l'Estat de France offered the following account as to the origin of the name, as cited by The Cape Monthly:

The origin of the name is curious; it is not from the German Eidegenossen as has been supposed. Reguier de la Plancha accounts for it as follows: â€" "The name huguenand was given to those of the religion during the affair of Amboyse, and they were to retail it ever since. I'll say a word about it to settle the doubts of those who have strayed in seeking its origin. The superstition of our ancestors, to within twenty or thirty years thereabouts, was such that in almost all the towns in the kingdom they had a notion that certain spirits underwent their Purgatory in this world after death, and that they went about the town at night, striking and outraging many people whom they found in the streets. But the light of the Gospel has made them vanish, and teaches us that these spirits were street-strollers and ruffians. In Paris the spirit was called le moine bourrÃ©; at Orleans, le mulet odet; at Blois le loup garon; at Tours, le Roy Huguet; and so on in other places. Now, it happens that those whom they called Lutherans were at that time so narrowly watched during the day that they were forced to wait till night to assemble, for the purpose of praying God, for preaching and receiving the Holy Sacrament; so that although they did not frighten nor hurt anybody, the priests, through mockery, made them the successors of those spirits which roam the night; and thus that name being quite common in the mouth of the populace, to designate the evangelical huguenands in the country of Tourraine and Amboyse, it became in vogue after that enterprise."

Some have suggested the name was derived, with similar intended scorn, from les guenon de Hus (the monkeys or apes of Jan Hus). While this and the many other theories offer their own measure of plausibility, attesting at least to the wit of later partisans and historians, "no one of the several theories advanced has afforded satisfaction."

History

Origins

The availability of the Bible in vernacular languages was important to the spread of the Protestant movement and development of the Reformed church in France. The country had a long history of struggles with the papacy by the time the Protestant Reformation finally arrived. Around 1294, a French version of the Scriptures was prepared by the Roman Catholic priest, Guyard de Moulin. A two-volume illustrated folio paraphrase version based on his manuscript, by Jean de RÃ©ly, was printed in Paris in 1487.

The first known translation of the Bible into one of France's regional languages, Arpitan or Franco-ProvenÃ§al, had been prepared by the 12th-century pre-reformer Peter Waldo (Pierre de Vaux). The Waldensians became more militant, creating fortified areas, as in CabriÃ¨res, perhaps attacking an abbey. They were suppressed by Francis I in 1545 in the Massacre of MÃ©rindol.

Other predecessors of the Reformed church included the pro-reform and Gallican Roman Catholics, such as Jacques Lefevre (c. 1455â€"1536). The Gallicans briefly achieved independence for the French church, on the principle that the religion of France could not be controlled by the Bishop of Rome, a foreign power. During the Protestant Reformation, Lefevre, a professor at the University of Paris, published his French translation of the New Testament in 1523, followed by the whole Bible in the French language in 1530. William Farel was a student of Lefevre who went on to become a leader of the Swiss Reformation, establishing a Protestant government in Geneva. Jean Cauvin (John Calvin), another student at the University of Paris, also converted to Protestantism. Long after the sect was suppressed by Francis I, the remaining French Waldensians, then mostly in the Luberon region, sought to join William Farel, Calvin and the Reformation, and Olivetan published a French Bible for them. The French Confession of 1559 shows a decidedly Calvinistic influence. Sometime between 1550 and 1580, members of the Reformed church in France came to be commonly known as Huguenots.

Criticisms of the Catholic Church

Like other religious reformers of the time, they felt that the Catholic church needed radical cleansing of its impurities, and that the Pope represented a worldly kingdom, which sat in mocking tyranny over the things of God, and was ultimately doomed. Rhetoric like this became fiercer as events unfolded, and eventually stirred up a reaction in the Catholic establishment.

Fanatically opposed to the Catholic Church, the Huguenots attacked priests, monks, nuns, monasticism, images, and church buildings. Most of the cities in which the Huguenots gained a hold saw iconoclast riots in which altars and images in churches, and sometimes the buildings themselves were torn down. Ancient relics and texts were destroyed; the bodies of saints exhumed and burned. The cities of Bourges, Montauban and Orleans saw substantial activity in this regard.

The Huguenots transformed themselves into a definitive political movement thereafter. Protestant preachers rallied a considerable army and a formidable cavalry, which came under the leadership of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. Henry of Navarre and the House of Bourbon allied themselves to the Huguenots, adding wealth and holdings to the Protestant strength, which at its height grew to sixty fortified cities, and posed a serious threat to the Catholic crown and Paris over the next three decades.

The Catholic Church in France and many of its members opposed the Huguenots. Some Huguenot preachers and congregants were attacked as they attempted to meet for worship. The height of this persecution was the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre when 5,000 to 30,000 were killed, although there were also underlying political reasons for this as well, as some of the Huguenots were nobles trying to establish separate centers of power in southern France. Retaliating against the French Catholics, the Huguenots had their own militia.

Reform and growth

Huguenots faced persecution from the outset of the Reformation, but Francis I (reign 1515â€"1547) initially protected the dissidents from Parlementary measures seeking to exterminate them. After the 1534 Affair of the Placards he distanced himself from Huguenots and their protection.

Huguenot numbers grew rapidly between 1555 and 1561, chiefly amongst nobles and city dwellers. During this time, their opponents first dubbed the Protestants Huguenots; but they called themselves reformÃ©s, or "Reformed". They organized their first national synod in 1558 in Paris.

By 1562, the estimated number of Huguenots peaked at approximately two million, concentrated mainly in the southern and central parts of France, compared to approximately sixteen million Catholics during the same period. Persecution diminished the number of Huguenots who remained in France, as many fled to Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, and England.

Wars of religion

As the Huguenots gained influence and displayed their faith more openly, Roman Catholic hostility to them grew, even though the French crown offered increasingly liberal political concessions and edicts of toleration.

Following the accidental death of Henry II in 1559, his son succeeded as King Francis II along with his wife, the Queen Consort, also known as Mary Queen of Scots. During the eighteen months of the reign of Francis II, Mary encouraged a policy of rounding up French Huguenots on charges of heresy, in front of Catholic judges, and employing torture and burning as punishments for dissenters. Mary returned to Scotland a widow, in the summer of 1561.

In 1561, the Edict of OrlÃ©ans declared an end to the persecution, and the Edict of Saint-Germain of January 1562 formally recognized the Huguenots for the first time. However, these measures disguised the growing tensions between Protestants and Catholics.

Civil wars

These tensions spurred eight civil wars, interrupted by periods of relative calm, between 1562 and 1598. With each break in peace, the Huguenots' trust in the Catholic throne diminished, and the violence became more severe, and Protestant demands became grander, until a lasting cessation of open hostility finally occurred in 1598.

The wars gradually took on a dynastic character, developing into an extended feud between the Houses of Bourbon and Guise, both of whichâ€"in addition to holding rival religious viewsâ€"staked a claim to the French throne. The crown, occupied by the House of Valois, generally supported the Catholic side, but on occasion switched over to the Protestant cause when politically expedient.

The French Wars of Religion began with a massacre at Vassy on 1 March 1562, when dozens (some sources say hundreds) of Huguenots were killed, and about 200 were wounded. It was in this year that some Huguenots destroyed the tomb and remains of Saint Irenaeus (d. 202), an early Church father and bishop who was a disciple of Polycarp.

The Huguenots became organized as a definitive political movement thereafter. Protestant preachers rallied a considerable army and a formidable cavalry, which came under the leadership of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. Henry of Navarre and the House of Bourbon allied with the Huguenots, adding wealth and holdings to the Protestant strength. At its height, they controlled sixty fortified cities and posed a serious threat to the Catholic crown and Paris over the next three decades.

St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

In what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August â€" 3 October 1572, Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris. Similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following. The main provincial towns and cities experiencing the Massacre were Aix, Bordeaux, Bourges, Lyon, Meaux, Orleans, Rouen, Toulouse, and Troyes. Nearly 3,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Toulouse alone. The exact number of fatalities throughout the country is not known. On 23â€"24 August, between about 2,000 and 3,000 Protestants were killed in Paris and between 3,000 and 7,000 more in the French provinces. By 17 September, almost 25,000 Protestants had been massacred in Paris alone. Beyond Paris, the killings continued until 3 October. An amnesty granted in 1573 pardoned the perpetrators.

Edict of Nantes

The pattern of warfare, followed by brief periods of peace, continued for nearly another quarter-century. The warfare was definitively quelled in 1598, when Henry of Navarre, having succeeded to the French throne as Henry IV, and having recanted Protestantism in favour of Roman Catholicism, issued the Edict of Nantes. The Edict established Catholicism as the state religion of France, but granted the Protestants equality with Catholics under the throne and a degree of religious and political freedom within their domains. The Edict simultaneously protected Catholic interests by discouraging the founding of new Protestant churches in Catholic-controlled regions.

With the proclamation of the Edict of Nantes, and the subsequent protection of Huguenot rights, pressures to leave France abated. However, enforcement of the Edict grew increasingly irregular over time, making life so intolerable that many fled the country. The Huguenot population of France dropped to 856,000 by the mid-1660s, of which a plurality lived in rural areas. The greatest concentrations of Huguenots at this time resided in the regions of Guienne, Saintonge-Aunis-Angoumois and Poitou.

Montpellier was among the most important of the 66 "villes de sÃ»retÃ©" that the Edict of 1598 granted to the Huguenots. The city's political institutions and the university were all handed over to the Huguenots. Tension with Paris led to a siege by the royal army in 1622. Peace terms called for the dismantling of the city's fortifications. A royal citadel was built and the university and consulate were taken over by the Catholic party. Even before the Edict of AlÃ¨s (1629), Protestant rule was dead and the ville de sÃ»retÃ© was no more.

By 1620 the Huguenots were on the defensive, and the government increasingly applied pressure. A series of three small civil wars known as the Huguenot rebellions broke out, mainly in southwestern France, between 1621 and 1629. revolted against royal authority. The uprising occurred a decade following the death of Henry IV, a Huguenot before converting to Catholicism, who had protected Protestants through the Edict of Nantes. His successor Louis XIII, under the regency of his Italian Catholic mother Marie de' Medici, became more intolerant of Protestantism. The Huguenots respond by establishing independent political and military structures, establishing diplomatic contacts with foreign powers, and openly revolting against central power. The rebellions were implacably suppressed by the French Crown.

Edict of Fontainebleau

Louis XIV gained the throne in 1643 and acted increasingly aggressively to force the Huguenots to convert. At first he sent missionaries, backed by a fund to financially reward converts to Catholicism. Then he imposed penalties, closed Huguenot schools and excluded them from favored professions. Escalating, he instituted dragonnades, which included the occupation and looting of Huguenot homes by military troops, in an effort to forcibly convert them. In 1685, he issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the Edict of Nantes and declaring Protestantism illegal.

The revocation forbade Protestant services, required education of children as Catholics, and prohibited emigration. It proved disastrous to the Huguenots and costly for France. It precipitated civil bloodshed, ruined commerce, and resulted in the illegal flight from the country of hundreds of thousands of Protestants, many of whom became intellectuals, doctors and business leaders in Britain as well as Holland, Prussia, and South Africa. Four thousand emigrated to the North American colonies, where they settled in New York and Virginia, especially. The English welcomed the French refugees, providing money from both government and private agencies to aid their relocation. Those Huguenots who stayed in France became Catholics and were called "new converts".

After this, Huguenots (with estimates ranging from 200,000 to 1,000,000) fled to surrounding Protestant countries: England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, and Prussia â€" whose Calvinist Great Elector Frederick William welcomed them to help rebuild his war-ravaged and underpopulated country. Following this exodus, Huguenots remained in large numbers in only one region of France: the rugged CÃ©vennes region in the south. In the early 18th century, a regional group known as the Camisards who were Huguenots rioted against the Catholic Church in the region, burning churches and killing clergy. It took French troops years to hunt down and destroy all the bands of Camisards, between 1702 and 1709.

End of persecution

By the 1760s, Protestants comprised about 700,000 people, or 2% of the population. It was no longer a favorite religion of the elite; most Protestants were peasants. It was still illegal, although the law was seldom enforced it could be a threat or a nuisance to Protestants. Calvinist lived primarily in the Midi; about 200,000 Lutherans lived in Alsace, where the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia still protected them.

Persecution of Protestants diminished in France after 1724, finally ending with the Edict of Versailles, commonly called the Edict of Tolerance, signed by Louis XVI in 1787. Two years later, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, Protestants gained equal rights as citizens.

The government encouraged descendants of exiles to return, offering them French citizenship in a 15 December 1790 Law:

"All persons born in a foreign country and descending in any degree of a French man or woman expatriated for religious reason are declared French nationals (naturels franÃ§ais) and will benefit from rights attached to that quality if they come back to France, establish their domicile there and take the civic oath."

This is the first law offering the right of return.

Article 4 of 26 June 1889 Nationality Law stated: "Descendants of families proscribed by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes will continue to benefit from the benefit of 15 December 1790 Law, but on the condition that a nominal decree should be issued for every petitioner. That decree will only produce its effects for the future."

Foreign descendants of Huguenots lost the automatic right to French citizenship in 1945 (by force of the Ordonnance du 19 octobre 1945, which revoked the 1889 Nationality Law). It states in article 3: "This application does not, however, affect the validity of past acts by the person or rights acquired by third parties on the basis of previous laws."

Modern times

In the 1920s and 1930s, members of the extreme-right Action FranÃ§aise movement expressed strong animus against Huguenots and other Protestants in general, as well as against Jews and Freemasons. They were regarded as groups supporting the French Republic, which Action FranÃ§aise sought to overthrow.

In World War II, many Huguenots led by AndrÃ© TrocmÃ© in the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in CÃ©vennes helped save many Jews. They hid them in secret places or helped them get out of Vichy France. AndrÃ© TrocmÃ© preached against discrimination as the Nazis were gaining power in neighboring Germany and urged his Protestant Huguenot congregation to hide Jewish refugees from the Holocaust.

Approximately one million Protestants in modern France represent some 2% of its population. Most are concentrated in Alsace in northeast France and the CÃ©vennes mountain region in the south, who still regard themselves as Huguenots to this day. A diaspora of French Australians still considers itself Huguenot, even after centuries of exile. Long integrated into Australian society, it is encouraged by the Huguenot Society of Australia to embrace and conserve its cultural heritage, aided by the Society's genealogical research services.

Exodus

Most French Huguenots were either unable or unwilling to emigrate to avoid forced conversion to Catholicism. As a result, more than three-quarters of the Protestant population accepted the change in faith; some 500,000 fled in exodus.

Early emigration

The first Huguenots to leave France sought freedom from persecution in Switzerland and the Netherlands. A group of Huguenots was part of the French colonisers who arrived in Brazil in 1555 to found France Antarctique. A couple of ships with around 500 people arrived at the Guanabara Bay, present-day Rio de Janeiro, and settled in a small island. A fort, named Fort Coligny, was built to protect them from attack from the Portuguese troops and Brazilian Native Americans. It was an attempt to establish a French colony in South America. The fort was destroyed in 1560 by the Portuguese, who captured part of the Huguenots. The Portuguese threatened the prisoners with death if they did not convert to Catholicism. The Huguenots of Guanabara, as they are now known, produced a declaration of faith to express their beliefs to the Portuguese. This was their death sentence. This document, the Guanabara Confession of Faith, became the first Protestant confession of faith in the whole of the Americas.

In 1564 a group of Norman Huguenots under the leadership of Jean Ribault established the small colony of Fort Caroline on the banks of the St. Johns River in what is today Jacksonville, Florida. The effort was the first at any permanent European settlement in the present-day continental United States, but survived only a short time. A September 1565 French naval attack against the new Spanish colony at St. Augustine failed when its ships were hit by a hurricane on their way to the Spanish encampment at Fort Matanzas. Hundreds of French soldiers were stranded and surrendered to the numerically inferior Spanish forces led by Pedro Menendez. Menendez proceeded to massacre the defenseless Huguenots, after which he wiped out the Fort Caroline garrison.

South Africa

Individual Huguenots settled at the Cape of Good Hope from as early as 1671 with the arrival of FranÃ§ois Villion (Viljoen). The first Huguenot to arrive at the Cape of Good Hope was however Maria de la Queillerie, wife of commander Jan van Riebeeck (and daughter of a Huguenot church minister), who arrived on 6 April 1652 to establish a settlement at what is today Cape Town. The couple left for the Far East ten years later. On 31 December 1687 the first organised group of Huguenots set sail from the Netherlands to the Dutch East India Company post at the Cape of Good Hope. The largest portion of the Huguenots to settle in the Cape arrived between 1688 and 1689 in seven ships as part of the organised migration, but quite a few arrived as late as 1700; thereafter, the numbers declined and only small groups arrived at a time.

Many of these settlers were settled in an area that was later called Franschhoek (Dutch for French Corner), in the present-day Western Cape province of South Africa. A large monument to commemorate the arrival of the Huguenots in South Africa was inaugurated on 7 April 1948 at Franschhoek, where the Huguenot Memorial Museum was erected in 1957.

The official policy in the Dutch East India governors was to integrate the Huguenot and the Dutch communities. When Paul Roux, a pastor who arrived with the main group of Huguenots, died in 1724, the Dutch administration, as a special concession, permitted another French cleric to take his place "for the benefit of the elderly who spoke only French". However, within three generations French was replaced by Dutch as the home language of most of the Huguenot descendants.

Many of the farms in the Western Cape province in South Africa still bear French names. Many families, today mostly Afrikaans-speaking, have surnames indicating their French Huguenot ancestry. Examples include: Blignaut, Cilliers, de Klerk (Le Clercq), de Villiers, du Plessis, Du Preez (Des Pres), du Randt (Durand), du Toit, Duvenhage(Du Vinage), Franck, Fouche, Fourie (Fleurit), Gervais, Giliomee (Guilliaume), Gous/Gouws (Gauch), Hugo, Jordaan (Jourdan), Joubert, Kriek, Labuschagne (la Buscagne), le Roux, Lombard, Malan, Malherbe, Marais, Maree, Minnaar (Mesnard), Nel (Nell),Naude', Nortje (Nortier), Pienaar (Pinard), Retief (Retif), Rossouw (Rousseau), Taljaard (Taillard), TerBlanche, Theron, Viljoen (Villion) and Visagie (Visage). The wine industry in South Africa owes a significant debt to the Huguenots, some of whom had vineyards in France, or were brandy distillers, and used their skills in their new home.

North America

In 1562 French naval officer Jean Ribault led an expedition to the New World that founded Fort Caroline as a haven for Huguenots in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. Trying to keep control of La Florida, Spanish soldiers killed Ribault and many of his followers near St. Augustine in 1564.

Barred by the government from settling in New France, Huguenots led by JessÃ© de Forest, sailed to North America and settled instead in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (later incorporated into New York and New Jersey); as well as Great Britain's colonies, including Nova Scotia. A number of New Amsterdam's families were of Huguenot origin, often having emigrated as refugees to the Netherlands in the previous century. In 1628 the Huguenots established a congregation as L'Ã‰glise franÃ§aise Ã la Nouvelle-Amsterdam (the French church in New Amsterdam). This parish continues today as L'Eglise du Saint-Esprit, part of the Episcopal (Anglican) communion, and welcomes Francophone New Yorkers from all over the world. Upon their arrival in New Amsterdam, Huguenots were offered land directly across from Manhattan on Long Island for a permanent settlement and chose the harbor at the end of Newtown Creek, becoming the first Europeans to live in Brooklyn, then known as Boschwick, in the neighborhood now known as Bushwick.

Huguenot immigrants did not disperse or settle in different parts of the country, but rather, formed three societies or congregations; one in the city of New York, another 21 miles north of New York in a town which they named New Rochelle, and a third further upstate in New Paltz. The "Huguenot Street Historic District" in New Paltz has been designated a National Historic Landmark site and contains the oldest street in the United States of America. A small group of Huguenots also settled on the south shore of Staten Island along the New York Harbor, for which the current neighborhood of Huguenot was named.

New Rochelle, located in the county of Westchester on the north shore of Long Island Sound, seemed to be the great location of the Huguenots in New York. It is said that they landed on the coastline peninsula of Davenports Neck called "Bauffet's Point" after traveling from England where they had previously taken refuge on account of religious persecution, four years before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They purchased from John Pell, Lord of Pelham Manor, a tract of land consisting of six thousand one hundred acres with the help of Jacob Leisler. It was named New Rochelle after La Rochelle, their former strong-hold in France. A small wooden church was first erected in the community, followed by a second church that built of stone. Previous to the erection of it, the strong men would often walk twenty-three miles on Saturday evening, the distance by the road from New Rochelle to New York, to attend the Sunday service. The church was eventually replaced by a third, Trinity-St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which contains heirlooms including the original bell from the French Huguenot Church "Eglise du St. Esperit" on Pine Street in New York City, which is preserved as a relic in the tower room. The Huguenot cemetery, or "Huguenot Burial Ground", has since been recognized as a historic cemetery that is the final resting place for a wide range of the Huguenot founders, early settlers and prominent citizens dating back more than three centuries.

Some Huguenot immigrants settled in Central and Eastern Pennsylvania, such as Philip Woodring born 1741 in Alsace, France, and died 1819 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. They assimilated with the predominately Pennsylvania German settlers of the area.

In 1700 several hundred French Huguenots migrated from England to the colony of Virginia, where the English Crown had promised them land grants in Lower Norfolk County. When they arrived, colonial authorities offered them instead land 20 miles above the falls of the James River, at the abandoned Monacan village known as Manakin Town, now in Powhatan County. Some settlers landed in present-day Chesterfield County. On 12 May 1705, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act to naturalise the 148 Huguenots still resident at Manakintown. Of the original 390 settlers in the isolated settlement, many had died; others lived outside town on farms in the English style; and others moved to different areas. Gradually they intermarried with their English neighbors. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, descendants of the French migrated west into the Piedmont, and across the Appalachian Mountains into the West of what became Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and other states. In the Manakintown area, the Huguenot Memorial Bridge across the James River and Huguenot Road were named in their honor, as were many local features, including several schools, including Huguenot High School.

In the early years, many Huguenots also settled in the area of present-day Charleston, South Carolina. In 1685, Rev. Elie Prioleau from the town of Pons in France, was among the first to settle there. He became pastor of the first Huguenot church in North America in that city. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, several Huguenot families of Norman and Carolingian nobility and descent, including Edmund Bohun of Suffolk England from the Humphrey de Bohun line of French royalty descended from Charlemagne, Jean Postell of Dieppe France, Alexander Pepin, Antoine Poitevin of Orsement France, and Jacques de Bordeaux of Grenoble, immigrated to the Charleston Orange district. They were very successful at marriage and property speculation. After petitioning the British Crown in 1697 for the right to own land in the Baronies, they prospered as slave owners on the Cooper, Ashepoo, Ashley and Santee River plantations they purchased from the British Landgrave Edmund Bellinger. Some of their descendants moved into the Deep South and Texas, where they developed new plantations.

The French Huguenot Church of Charleston, which remains independent, is the oldest continuously active Huguenot congregation in the United States. L'Eglise du Saint-Esprit in New York, founded in 1628, is older, but it left the French Reformed movement in 1804 to become part of the Episcopal Church.

Most of the Huguenot congregations (or individuals) in North America eventually affiliated with other Protestant denominations with more numerous members. The Huguenots adapted quickly and often married outside their immediate French communities, which led to their assimilation. Their descendants in many families continued to use French first names and surnames for their children well into the nineteenth century. Assimilated, the French made numerous contributions to United States economic life, especially as merchants and artisans in the late Colonial and early Federal periods. For example, E.I. du Pont, a former student of Lavoisier, established the Eleutherian gunpowder mills, which produced material for the American Revolutionary War.

Paul Revere was descended from Huguenot refugees, as was Henry Laurens, who signed the Articles of Confederation for South Carolina; Jack Jouett, who made the ride from Cuckoo Tavern to warn Thomas Jefferson and others that Tarleton and his men were on their way to arrest him for crimes against the king; Francis Marion, and a number of other leaders of the American Revolution and later statesmen. The last active Huguenot congregation in North America worships in Charleston, South Carolina, at a church that dates to 1844. The Huguenot Society of America maintains Manakin Episcopal Church in Virginia as an historic shrine with occasional services. The Society has chapters in numerous states, with the one in Texas being the largest.

The Netherlands

Some Huguenots fought in the Low Countries alongside the Dutch against Spain during the first years of the Dutch Revolt (1568â€"1609). The Dutch Republic rapidly became a destination for Huguenot exiles. Early ties were already visible in the "Apologie" of William the Silent, condemning the Spanish Inquisition, which was written by his court minister, the Huguenot Pierre L'Oyseleur, lord of Villiers. Louise de Coligny, daughter of the murdered Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny, married William the Silent, leader of the Dutch (Calvinist) revolt against Spanish (Catholic) rule. As both spoke French in daily life, their court church in the Prinsenhof in Delft held services in French. The practice has continued to the present day. The Prinsenhof is one of the 14 active Walloon churches of the Dutch Reformed Church. The ties between Huguenots and the Dutch Republic's military and political leadership, the House of Orange-Nassau, which existed since the early days of the Dutch Revolt, helped support the many early settlements of Huguenots in the Dutch Republic's colonies. They settled at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and New Netherland in North America.

Stadtholder William III of Orange, who later became King of England, emerged as the strongest opponent of king Louis XIV after the French attacked the Dutch Republic in 1672. William formed the League of Augsburg as a coalition to oppose Louis and the French state. Consequently, many Huguenots considered the wealthy and Calvinist Dutch Republic, which led the opposition to Louis XIV, as the most attractive country for exile after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They also found many French-speaking Calvinist churches there.

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Dutch Republic received the largest group of Huguenot refugees, an estimated total of 75,000 to 100,000 people. Amongst them were 200 clergy. Many came from the region of the CÃ©vennes, for instance, the village of Fraissinet-de-LozÃ¨re. This was a huge influx as the entire population of the Dutch Republic amounted to ca. 2Â million at that time. Around 1700, it is estimated that nearly 25% of the Amsterdam population was Huguenot. In 1705, Amsterdam and the area of West Frisia were the first areas to provide full citizens rights to Huguenot immigrants, followed by the Dutch Republic in 1715. Huguenots intermarried with Dutch from the outset.

One of the most prominent Huguenot refugees in the Netherlands was Pierre Bayle. He started teaching in Rotterdam, where he finished writing and publishing his multi-volume masterpiece, Historical and Critical Dictionary. It became one of the 100 foundational texts of the US Library of Congress. Some Huguenot descendants in the Netherlands may be noted by French family names, although they typically use Dutch given names. Due to the Huguenots' early ties with the leadership of the Dutch Revolt and their own participation, some of the Dutch patriciate are of part-Huguenot descent. Some Huguenot families have kept alive various traditions, such as the celebration and feast of their patron Saint Nicolas, similar to the Dutch Sint Nicolaas (Sinterklaas) feast.

Wales

A number of French Huguenots settled in Wales, in the upper Rhymney valley of the current Caerphilly County Borough. The community they created there is still known as Fleur de Lys (the symbol of France), an unusual French village name in the heart of the valleys of Wales. Nearby villages are Hengoed, and Ystrad Mynach. Apart from the French village name and that of the local rugby team, Fleur De Lys RFC, little remains of the French heritage.

England

Both before and after the 1708 passage of the Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act, an estimated 50,000 Protestant Walloons and Huguenots fled to England, with many moving on to Ireland and elsewhere. In relative terms, this was one of the largest waves of immigration ever of a single ethnic community to Britain. Andrew Lortie (born AndrÃ© Lortie), a leading Huguenot theologian and writer who led the exiled community in London, became known for articulating their criticism of the Pope and the doctrine of transubstantiation during Mass.

Of the refugees who arrived on the Kent coast, many gravitated towards Canterbury, then the county's Calvinist hub. Many Walloon and Huguenot families were granted asylum there. Edward VI granted them the whole of the western crypt of Canterbury Cathedral for worship. In 1825, this privilege was reduced to the south aisle and in 1895 to the former chantry chapel of the Black Prince. Services are still held there in French according to the Reformed tradition every Sunday at 3 pm.

Other evidence of the Walloons and Huguenots in Canterbury includes a block of houses in Turnagain Lane, where weavers' windows survive on the top floor, as many Huguenots worked as weavers. The Weavers, a half-timbered house by the river, was the site of a weaving school from the late 16th century to about 1830. (It has been adapted as a restaurantâ€"see illustration above. The house derives its name from a weaving school which was moved there in the last years of the 19th century, reviving an earlier use.) Others refugees practised the variety of occupations necessary to sustain the community as distinct from the indigenous population. Such economic separation was the condition of the refugees' initial acceptance in the City. They also settled elsewhere in Kent, particularly Sandwich, Faversham and Maidstoneâ€"towns in which there used to be refugee churches.

The French Protestant Church of London was established by Royal Charter in 1550. It is now located at Soho Square. Huguenot refugees flocked to Shoreditch, London. They established a major weaving industry in and around Spitalfields (see Petticoat Lane and the Tenterground) in East London. In Wandsworth, their gardening skills benefited the Battersea market gardens. The Old Truman Brewery, then known as the Black Eagle Brewery, was founded in 1724. The flight of Huguenot refugees from Tours, France drew off most of the workers of its great silk mills which they had built. Some of these immigrants moved to Norwich, which had accommodated an earlier settlement of Walloon weavers. The French added to the existing immigrant population, then comprising about a third of the population of the city.

Some Huguenots settled in Bedfordshire, one of the main centres of the British lace industry at the time. Although 19th century sources have asserted that some of these refugees were lacemakers and contributed to the East Midlands lace industry, this is contentious. The only reference to immigrant lacemakers in this period is of twenty-five widows who settled in Dover, and there is no contemporary documentation to support there being Huguenot lacemakers in Bedfordshire. The implication that the style of lace known as 'Bucks Point' demonstrates a Huguenot influence, being a "combination of Mechlin patterns on Lille ground", is fallacious: what is now known as Mechlin lace did not develop until first half of the eighteenth century and lace with Mechlin patterns and Lille ground did not appear until the end of the 18th century, when it was widely copied throughout Europe.

Ireland

Following the French Crown's revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many Huguenots settled in Ireland in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, encouraged by an act of parliament for Protestants' settling in Ireland. Huguenot regiments fought for William of Orange in the Williamite war in Ireland, for which they were rewarded with land grants and titles, many settling in Dublin. Significant Huguenot settlements were in Dublin, Cork, Portarlington, Lisburn, Waterford and Youghal. Smaller settlements, which included Killeshandra in County Cavan, contributed to the expansion of flax cultivation and the growth of the Irish linen industry.

For over 150 years, Huguenots were allowed to hold their services in Lady Chapel in St. Patrick's Cathedral. A Huguenot cemetery is located in the centre of Dublin, off St. Stephen's Green. Prior to its establishment, Huguenots used the Cabbage Garden near the Cathedral.

A number of Huguenots served as mayors in Dublin, Cork, Youghal and Waterford in the 17th and 18th centuries. Numerous signs of Huguenot presence can still be seen with names still in use, and with areas of the main towns and cities named after the people who settled there. Examples include the Huguenot District and French Church Street in Cork City; and D'Olier Street in Dublin, named after a High Sheriff and one of the founders of the Bank of Ireland. A French church in Portarlington dates back to 1696, and was built to serve the significant new Huguenot community in the town. At the time, they constituted the majority of the townspeople.

One of the more notable Huguenot descendants in Ireland was SeÃ¡n Lemass (1899â€"1971), who was appointed as Taoiseach, serving from 1959 until 1966.

Germany and Scandinavia

Around 1685, Huguenot refugees found a safe haven in the Lutheran and Reformed states in Germany and Scandinavia. Nearly 50,000 Huguenots established themselves in Germany, 20,000 of whom were welcomed in Brandenburg-Prussia, where they were granted special privileges (Edict of Potsdam) and churches in which to worship (such as the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, AngermÃ¼nde) by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia. The Huguenots furnished two new regiments of his army: the AltpreuÃŸische Infantry Regiments No. 13 (Regiment on foot Varenne) and 15 (Regiment on foot Wylich). Another 4,000 Huguenots settled in the German territories of Baden, Franconia (Principality of Bayreuth, Principality of Ansbach), Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Duchy of WÃ¼rttemberg, in the Wetterau Association of Imperial Counts, in Electoral Palatinate and Palatinate-ZweibrÃ¼cken, in the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt), in modern-day Saarland; and 1,500 found refuge in Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony. Three hundred refugees were granted asylum at the court of George William, Duke of Brunswick-LÃ¼neburg in Celle.

In Berlin, the Huguenots created two new neighbourhoods: Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichstadt. By 1700, one-fifth of the city's population was French speaking. The Berlin Huguenots preserved the French language in their church services for nearly a century. They ultimately decided to switch to German in protest against the occupation of Prussia by Napoleon in 1806-07. Many of their descendents rose to positions of prominence. Several congregations were founded, such as those of Fredericia (Denmark), Berlin, Stockholm, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Helsinki, and Emden.

Prince Louis de CondÃ©, along with his sons Daniel and Osias, arranged with Count Ludwig von Nassau-SaarbrÃ¼cken to establish a Huguenot community in present-day Saarland in 1604. The Count supported mercantilism and welcomed technically skilled immigrants into his lands, regardless of their religion. The CondÃ©s established a thriving glass-making works, which provided wealth to the principality for many years. Other founding families created enterprises based on textiles and such traditional Huguenot occupations in France. The community and its congregation remain active to this day, with descendants of many of the founding families still living in the region. Some members of this community emigrated to the United States in the 1890s.

In Bad Karlshafen, Hessen, Germany is the Huguenot Museum and Huguenot archive. The collection includes family histories, a library, and a picture archive.

Effects

The exodus of Huguenots from France created a brain drain, as many Huguenots had occupied important places in society. The kingdom did not fully recover for years. The French crown's refusal to allow non-Catholics to settle in New France may help to explain that colony's slow rate of population growth compared to that of the neighbouring British colonies, which opened settlement to religious dissenters. By the time of the French and Indian War (the North American front of the Seven Years' War), a sizeable population of Huguenot descent lived in the British colonies, and many participated in the British defeat of New France in 1759-60.

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, invited Huguenots to settle in his realms, and a number of their descendants rose to positions of prominence in Prussia. Several prominent German military, cultural, and political figures were ethnic Huguenot, including poet Theodor Fontane, General Hermann von FranÃ§ois, the hero of the First World War Battle of Tannenberg, Luftwaffe General and fighter ace Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe flying ace Hans-Joachim Marseille, and famed U-boat captain Lothar von Arnauld de la PeriÃ¨re. The last Prime Minister of the (East) German Democratic Republic, Lothar de MaiziÃ¨re, is also a descendant of a Huguenot family, as is the German Federal Minister of Defence, Thomas de MaiziÃ¨re.

The persecution and flight of the Huguenots greatly damaged the reputation of Louis XIV abroad, particularly in England. The two kingdoms, which had enjoyed peaceful relations prior to 1685, became bitter enemies and fought against each other in a series of wars (called the "Second Hundred Years' War" by some historians) from 1689 onward.

Symbol

The Huguenot cross is the distinctive emblem of the Huguenots (croix huguenote). It is now an official symbol of the Ã‰glise des Protestants rÃ©formÃ©s (French Protestant church). Huguenot descendants sometimes display this symbol as a sign of reconnaissance (recognition) between them.

Apology and honours

In October 1985, to commemorate the tricentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, President FranÃ§ois Mitterrand of France announced a formal apology to the descendents of Huguenots around the world. At the same time, the government released a special postage stamp in their honour reading "France is the home of the Huguenots" (Accueil des Huguenots).

Legacy

France

A number of French churches are descended from the Huguenots, including:

United States

New Paltz, New York
New Rochelle, New York, named for the city of La Rochelle, a former Huguenot stronghold in France. The Huguenot and Historical Association of New Rochelle was organized in 1885 for the purpose of perpetuating the history of its original Huguenot settlers. The mascot of New Rochelle High School is the Huguenot; and one of the main streets in the city is called Huguenot Street.
Bayonne, New Jersey
Charleston, South Carolina, is home to the only active Huguenot Church in the United States
The early leaders John Jay and Paul Revere were of Huguenot descent.
Francis Marion, an American Revolutionary War guerrilla fighter in South Carolina, was of predominantly Huguenot ancestry.
Four-term Republican United States Representative Howard Homan Buffett was of Huguenot descent.
Walloon Settlers Memorial (located in Battery Park) is a monument given to the City of New York by the Belgian Province of Hainaut in honor of the inspiration of JessÃ© de Forest in founding New York City. Baron de Cartier de Marchienne, representing the government and Albert I, King of Belgium, presented the monument to Mayor John F. Hylan, for the City of New York 18 May 1924.
In 1924, the US issued a commemorative half-dollar, known as the "Huguenot-Walloon Half Dollar", to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Huguenots' settlement in what is now the United States.
The Huguenot neighborhood in New York City's borough of Staten Island, straddling Huguenot Avenue
In Richmond, Virginia and the neighbouring Chesterfield County, there is a Huguenot Road. A Huguenot High School in Richmond and Huguenot Park in Chesterfield County, along with several other uses of the name throughout the region, commemorate the early refugee settlers.
The Manakintown Church serves as a National Huguenot Memorial.
Huguenot Memorial Park, Jacksonville, Florida

England

There is a Huguenot society in London, which organises a yearly festival, and also the French Protestant Church of London, founded in 1550 in Soho Square, still remains open currently, and also is a registered charity since 1926.

Prussia

Huguenot refugees in Prussia are thought to have contributed significantly to the development of the textile industry in that country.

Ireland

Sean Francis Lemass, Taoiseach of Ireland from 1959â€"1966, was of Huguenot descent.

South Africa

Most South African Huguenots settled in the Cape Colony, where they became assimilated into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans population. Many modern Afrikaners have French surnames, which are given Afrikaans pronunciation and orthography. The early immigrants settled in Franschhoek ("French Corner") near Cape Town. The Huguenots contributed greatly to the wine industry in South Africa.

Australia

The majority of Australians with French ancestry are descended from Huguenots. Some of the earliest to arrive in Australia held prominent positions in English society, notably Jane Franklin and Charles La Trobe.

Others who came later were from poorer families, migrating from England in the 19th and early 20th centuries to escape the poverty of London's East End Huguenot enclaves of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green. Their impoverishment had been brought on by the Industrial Revolution, which caused the collapse of the Huguenot-dominated silk-weaving industry. Many French Australian descendants of Huguenots still consider themselves very much Huguenots or French, even in the twenty-first century.

Notes

External links

Historic Huguenot Street
Huguenot Fellowship
Psalm 25 "A toi, mon Dieu, mon cÅ"ur monte" from the Genevan Psalter performed at an event at the cathedral in Noyon, France marking the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth in 2009. The music has been credited with little documentation to both Claude Goudimel and Louis Bourgeois. Only three of the ten verses of the original are performed here. YouTube video (3:06)
The Huguenot Society of Australia
Library for Huguenot History, Germany
The National Huguenot Society
The Huguenot Society of America
Huguenot Society of Great Britain & Ireland
Mitterrand's Apology to the Huguenots (in French)
Postage Stamp Commemorating the Apology
Who were the Huguenots?

Texts

Early Prayer Books of America: Being a Descriptive Account of Prayer Books Published in the United States, Mexico and Canada by Rev. John Wright, D.D. St Paul, MN: Privately Printed, 1898. Pages 188 to 210 are entitled "The Prayer Book of the French Protestants, Charleston, South Carolina." (597 pdfs)
The French Protestant (Huguenot) Church in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Includes history, text of memorial tablets, and the rules adopted in 1869. (1898, 40 pdfs)
La Liturgie: ou La ManiÃ¨re de cÃ©lÃ©brer le service Divin; Qui est Ã©tablie Dans le Eglises de la PrincipautÃ© de Neufchatel & Vallangin. (1713, 160 pdfs)
La Liturgie: ou La ManiÃ¨re de cÃ©lÃ©brer le service Divin; Qui est Ã©tablie Dans le Eglises de la PrincipautÃ© de Neufchatel & Vallangin. Revised and corrected second edition. (1737, 302 pdfs)
La Liturgie: ou La ManiÃ¨re de CÃ©lÃ©brer le Service Divin, Comme elle est Ã©tablie Dans le Eglises de la PrincipautÃ© de Neufchatel & Vallangin. Nouvelle Ã©dition, AugmentÃ©e de quelques Prieres, Collectes & Cantiques. (1772, 256 pdfs)
La Liturgie: ou La ManiÃ¨re de CÃ©lÃ©brer le Service Divin, qui est Ã©tablie Dans le Eglises de la PrincipautÃ© de Neufchatel & Vallangin. Cinquieme Ã©dition, revue, corrigÃ©e & augmentÃ©e. (1799, 232 pdfs)
The Liturgy of the French Protestant Church, Translated from the Editions of 1737 and 1772, Published at Neufchatel, with Additional Prayers, Carefully Selected, and Some Alterations: Arranged for the Use of the Congregation in the City of Charleston, S. C. Charleston, SC: James S. Burgess, 1835. (205 pdfs)
The Liturgy of the French Protestant Church, Translated from the Editions of 1737 and 1772, Published at Neufchatel, with Additional Prayers Carefully Selected, and Some Alterations. Arranged for the Use of the Congregation in the City of Charleston, S. C. New York, NY: Charles M. Cornwell, Steam Printer, 1869. (186 pdfs)
The Liturgy, or Forms of Divine Service, of the French Protestant Church, of Charleston, S. C., Translated from the Liturgy of the Churches of Neufchatel and Vallangin: editions of 1737 and 1772. With Some Additional Prayers, Carefully Selected. The Whole Adapted to Public Worship in the United States of America. Third edition. New York, NY: Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 1853. 228 pp. Google Books and the Internet Archive. Available also from Making of America Books as a DLXS file or in hardcover.
The Liturgy Used in the Churches of the Principality of Neufchatel: with a Letter from the Learned Dr. Jablonski, Concerning the Nature of Liturgies: To which is Added , The Form of Prayer lately introduced into the Church of Geneva. (1712, 143 pdfs)
Manifesto, (or Declaration of Principles), of the French Protestant Church of London, Founded by Charter of Edward VI. 24th July, A.D. 1550. By Order of the Consistory. London, England: Messrs. Seeleys, 1850.
Preamble and rules for the government of the French Protestant Church of Charleston: adopted at meetings of the corporation held on the 12th and the 19th of November, 1843. (1845, 26 pdfs)
Synodicon in Gallia Reformata: or, the Acts, Decisions, Decrees, and Canons of those Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France by John Quick. Volume 1 of 2. (1692, 693 pdfs)
Synodicon in Gallia Reformata: or, the Acts, Decisions, Decrees, and Canons of those Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France by John Quick. Volume 2 of 2. (1692, 615 pdfs)

Huguenot

Selasa, 30 Juni 2015

Huguenot

Etymology