Persecution of Huguenots

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Summary

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. French Protestants were inspired by the writings of John Calvin in the 1530s, and they were called Huguenots by the 16th century. Violence against the Huguenots eventually culminated in the St. Bartholomew day massacre in 1572 and the mass persecution following that incident in cities all over France. The Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) was at the background of this persecution of the Huguenots that had been simmering for some years and finally erupted in 1572.

By the end of the 17th century and into the 18th century, roughly 500,000 Huguenots had fled France. They relocated to Protestant nations, such as England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the Dutch Republic, the Electorate of Brandenburg, Electorate of the Palatinate (both in the Holy Roman Empire), the Duchy of Prussia, the Channel Islands and eventually also to the soon to be established new Dutch colonies.

Historic Background:

Reformation & Counter-Reformation

Towards the end of the sixteenth century Europe was in crisis - bad crops, low wages, an English trade embargo, general social unrest - and to make matters even worse - new religious movements such as Lutheranism and Calvinism which resisted and threatened to disrupt certain established Catholic beliefs and practices. These movements wanted change, reformation.

Charles V and his son and successor to the trone - Philip II of Spain were staunch catholics and were intent on forcing their religious views on the dissidents, even if it meant using violence, intimidation, torture and war. Adheherents of the new protestant views and sects were declared heretics were being brutally hunted down by the (now already in existence for 300 years) Inquisition. The concept and scope of the Inquisition had significantly been expanded in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Turning against Catholicism implied opposing the status quo, the existing political order.

Geuzen-Revolt & Start of the Eigthy Years War

The northern regions and entities in the Netherlands were adamant and strongly inclined to resist such an absolute centralised and brutish power. The big physical distance between Philip II and the Netherlands (after living in the Netherlands in the early years of his reign, Philip II had decided to return to Spain) was a contributing factor in his failing to keep hold of the situation, which came to a head when on April 5, 1566 a few notables approached Margaret of Parma, Governor of the Netherlands for Philip II, to beg her to put an end to the persecution of the heretics. They were adressed in the presence of the Duchess by her counsillor Cardinal Granvelle in French as gueux (beggars). This name 'Geuzen' was then assumed by the confederacy of Calvinist Dutch nobles and other malcontents, who in fierce opposition to Spanish rule in the Netherlands, started the socalled Beeldenstorm - in an outburst of iconoclastic fury aimed at the opulence of the Catholic Church - art and many forms of church fittings and decoration were destroyed in unofficial or mob actions. Calvinists (the major Protestant denomination), Anabaptists, and Mennonites, angered by Catholic repression and theologically opposed to the Catholic use of images of saints (which in their eyes conflicted with the Second Commandment), stormed into hundreds of churches and monasteries throughout the Netherlands, destroying statues ('beelden' in Dutch) and iconic art ('afbeeldingen' in Dutch). This wave of destruction - this Beeldenstorm - spread to other cities in Europe and started off the Eighty Years War between the Netherlands and Spain. It is during this period that the South-North divide took place and the Republic of the Seven United Provinces was declared in 1588.

St. Bartholomew Day Massacre

Violence against the french Protestants eventually culminated in the St. Bartholomew day massacre in 1572 and spread to cities all over France. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre took place five days after the wedding of the king's sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre (the future Henry IV of France). This marriage was an occasion for which many of the most wealthy and prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris.

It began in the night of 23-24 August 1572 (the eve of the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle), two days after the attempted assassination of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the military and political leader of the Huguenots. The king ordered the killing of a group of Huguenot leaders, including Coligny, and the slaughter spread throughout Paris, thousands of Huguenots getting killed. Lasting several weeks, the massacre expanded outward to other urban centres and the countryside. Modern estimates for the number of dead across France vary widely, from 5,000 to 30,000.

This was the turning point in the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598). The Huguenot political movement was crippled by the loss of many of its prominent aristocratic leaders, as well as many re-conversions by the rank and file, and those who remained were increasingly radicalized. Though by no means unique, it "was the worst of the century's religious massacres." Throughout Europe, it "printed on Protestant minds the indelible conviction that Catholicism was a bloody and treacherous religion".

Fall of Antwerp and the exodus of Huguenots from France

In 1581 the northern provinces seceded and declared independence from the South under the name of the Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden (Republic of the Seven United Netherlands). The Act of Abjuration or Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, signed on 26 July 1581 in the Hague confirmed the decision made by the States-General of the Netherlands in Antwerp on 22 July 1581, formally declared all magistrates in the provinces which united in the Union of Utrecht absolved of their oath of allegiance to their overlord, Philip II of Spain. It stated that by oppressing and violating the ancient rights of his subjects, Philip was considered to have vacated his thrones in the Low Countries. As such, it was the formal declaration of independence of the Low Countries.

In 1585 the Spanjards had recaptured Antwerp under de leadership of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. In an effort to hold off the march of the Spanish Troops, the river Schelde that runs through the city was closed off, thereby effectively blocking the harbour. This measure heralded the division of the Netherlands into a Southern and a Northern part. The Dutch Republic rapidly became a destination for Huguenot exiles. As result of the political strife, conflict, and religious persecution, a great migration of mostly French speaking protestant refugees - many of them skilled workmen and artisans, intellectuals, artists, merchants and traders moved to Holland and Zeeland, bringing with them immense wealth in the 17th century for the new Dutch Republic that would be known as the Golden Age.

Some Huguenots fought in the Low Countries alongside the Dutch against Spain during the first years of the Dutch Revolt (1568–1609). Early ties were already visible in the "Apologie" of William the Silent - also known as William I, Prince of Orange (24 April 1533 – 10 July 1584), 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, who lead 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 main Walloon concentrations in the Dutch Republic at that time were in Leiden and Delft (province of South Holland), in Amsterdam in (province of North Holland) and in Groningen (province of Groningen). 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 Republics' colonies. They settled at the Cape of Good Hope in South-Africa and New Netherland in North America.^[1]

For more information see:

• the WikiTree Huguenot Migration Project

• the free page article on the Netherlands Seventeen Provinces & the birth of the Federated Dutch Provinces

• Experiencing Exile : Huguenot Refugees in the Dutch Republic, 1680-1700 Linden, D.C. van der, 2013. (Abstract). Dissertation Utrecht University (accessed August 18, 2014).

• Exile memories and the Dutch Revolt The narrated diaspora, 1550 – 1750. Müller, J.M., 2014, Doctoral thesis, Leiden University. (Open Access). Issue date: May 14, 2014. Publisher: Institute for History, Faculty of the Humanities, Leiden University (accessed August 18, 2014). (Also see the extensive List of Secondary sources).

• Protestant Exiles from France in the Reign of Louis XIV. Or the Huguenot Refugees and Their Descendants in Great Britain and Ireland · Volume 2 By David C. Agnew · 1871

• See: G2G-feed: Was Philip Delano a Huguenot or a settler of New Netherland?

• Protestant Exiles From France

Main Sources

• Wikipedia.org (Seventeen Provinces)^[1]
• Wikipedia.org (Huguenot).^[2]
• Freie Universität Berlin ^[2]
• https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/le-refuge-huguenot/ (The Musée Protestant of France offers a useful summary (in English) of the Huguenot situation of the 1500s-1700s, highlighting 4 of the European destinations chosen during the diaspora.)
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoine-Perrenot-Cardinal-de-Granvelle (More context on Cardinal Granvelle (1517-1586), mentioned in the Geuzen-Revolt paragraph above.)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Perrenot_de_Granvelle (More context on Cardinal Granvelle (1517-1586), mentioned in the Geuzen-Revolt paragraph above.)

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Wikipedia, seen May 5, 2014.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Philip van der Walt seen May 11, 2014.