Dragonnade sous louis xiv biography
Louis xiv brother...
Dragonnades
17th century French anti-Protestant policy
The Dragonnades was a policy implemented by Louis XIV in 1681 to force French Protestants known as Huguenots to convert to Roman Catholicism.
It involved the billeting of dragoons of the French Royal Army in Huguenot households, with the soldiers being given implied permission to mistreat the inhabitants and damage or steal their possessions.
Dragonnade sous louis xiv biography
Soldiers employed as part of this policy were derisively referred to as "missionary dragoons".
Background
With the Edict of Nantes in 1598, Henry IV of France ended the French Wars of Religion by granting a relatively high degree of toleration to French Protestants (known as Huguenots) as well as political and military privileges.
The latter were abolished in 1629 under the Peace of Alès following the Huguenot rebellions, but the provisions of the Edict of Nantes granting religious tolerance were largely maintained under the governments of Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Ma