Following the death of Charles IX in 1574 and the murder of his brother Henri III in 1589, Henri de Navarre was crowned King Henri IV.  Although Henri IV had converted to Catholicism for political reasons, he established basic rights for the Protestants.

When Henri IV was assassinated in 1610, the Protestants lost much of their protection.  The rise of the absolute monarchy began with his son and successor, Louis XIII, who regarded the Protestants as a threat to the monarchy.  His regent, Cardinal Richelieu, was obsessed with eliminating all Huguenot communities in France.  Protestant freedoms were restricted and, in 1622 the Crown began the first of three Huguenot Wars that ended in 1627 with the siege and fall of La Rochelle and an uneasy peace.

Louis XIV, who had ascended the throne as a young boy in 1643, believed that there should be “one king, one law and one religion” for France.  By 1665, Huguenot churches and schools began to be abolished and more restrictions were gradually imposed.   Huguenot men and women were imprisoned and their children kidnapped or forcibly removed and sent to orphanages and convents to be raised in the Roman Catholic faith.  The families of these children were billed for their room and board.

Between 1681 and 1686 royal troops were forcibly quartered with Huguenot families in several provinces in order to compel them to renounce their faith; these “dragonnades” were carried out in several provinces where Protestants were numerous.  The Huguenots were expected to pay the soldiers’ board and the “booted missionaries” punished those who resisted.  Those who did not agree to become Roman Catholics and who could not flee the country were often imprisoned, tortured or put to death.

By 1685, Louis XIV believed that years of intimidation and persecution had largely done away with the Huguenots, and the Edict of Nantes was revoked.  The Revocation led to the destruction of the last Protestant churches in France and forbade any assembly of non-Catholics.  Protestant ministers were given fifteen days to leave France or face execution.  The property of those who had already fled was forfeited to the Crown.   Protestant men and women caught attempting to leave France were condemned to galleys or imprisoned.

The remnants of the Protestant church in France went underground, holding secret worship and becoming known as the Church of the Desert, or le Désert. They worshipped in private homes, in deep woods and in caves – wherever they could gather together.  Those who were caught attending these secret worship services were relentlessly punished; men were sent to the galleys and women to convents where they were forcibly converted.

Persecution of Huguenots 1598

Secret Assembly, 1685

Prior to the Revocation, there were about eight hundred thousand Huguenots in France.  In the face of horrible persecution, approximately five hundred and fifty thousand of them recanted their faith.  During the next twenty years, it is estimated that about a quarter of a million Huguenots left France.  Many fled to friendly neighboring countries such as Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and parts of Belgium.  Others escaped to England and Ireland from where they embarked for the West Indies and British North America, especially to the Carolinas, Virginia, New York and New England.  Some eventually migrated as far as South Africa.

 The Huguenot refugees who left France were generally merchants, artisans, craftsmen, weavers or were skilled in specific trades.  Many were well-educated, and some were able to establish new roles as entrepreneurs or professionals where they settled.  They were generally well-received where they located, and became industrious members of their new communities.  Some of these immigrants and their descendents played significant roles in the history of their newly adopted countries.

The Huguenot Society of South Carolina was founded in 1885 by their descendants in order to honor and perpetuate the memory of these French Protestant men, women and children.