Beginning of the Dragonnades Persecution of Protestants (1680)

Name: Beginning of the Dragonnades Persecution of Protestants (1680)
Start: 1680
End: 1681

Type Event Region France Time 1680–1681

In 1680 the government of Louis XIV began devising and testing in French provinces where Protestants remained a policy of quartering dragoons in Hugu…

Timeline

1680Versailles · FranceUnder the influence of Madame de Maintenon and ministers such as Louvois, Louis XIV decided to accelerate Huguenot conversion by military means, approving a scheme to quarter dragoons in Protestant households in individual provinces, with the householders bearing the troops' upkeep to apply pressure.
1681Poitou · Nouvelle-AquitaineThe intendant of Poitou, Marillac, ordered dragoons to be quartered in Huguenot households, using robbery, beatings, and destruction to force conversion or flight; this produced a large number of nominal conversions in a short period, and the dragoon model was subsequently extended to Languedoc and other provinces.

Sources

The Huguenots: History and Memory in a Global Context — Geoffrey Treasure (2013)
The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes — Elie Benoist (1693)