Dauphiné (France) -- Description and travel; Huguenots; Waldenses
Though the greatest number of Huguenots banished from France at the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were merchants and manufacturers,
who transferred their skill and arts to England, which was not then a
manufacturing country; a large number of nobles and gentry emigrated
to this and other countries, leaving their possessions to be
confiscated by the French king.
The greater number of the nobles entered the armies of the countries
in which they took refuge. In Holland, they joined the army of the
Prince of Orange, afterwards William III., King of England. After
driving the armies of Louis XIV. out of Ireland, they met the French
at Ramilies, Blenheim, and Malplacquet, and other battles in the Low
Countries. A Huguenot engineer directed the operations at the siege of
Namur, which ended in its capture. Another conducted the siege of
Lille, which was also taken.
But perhaps the greatest number of Huguenot nobles entered the
Prussian service. Their descendants revisited France on more than one
occasion. They overran the northern and eastern parts of France in
1814 and 1815; and last of all they vanquished the descendants of
their former persecutors at Sedan in 1870. Sedan was, prior to the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the renowned seat of Protestant
learning; while now it is known as the scene of the greatest military
catastrophe which has occurred in modern history.
The Prime Minister of France, M. Jules Simon, not long ago recorded
the fateful effects of Louis XIV.'s religious intolerance. In
discussing the perpetual ecclesiastical questions which still disturb
France, he recalled the fact that not less than eighty of the German
staff in the late war were representatives of Protestant families,
driven from France by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The first of the appended memoirs is that of Samuel de Péchels, a
noble of Languedoc, who, after enduring great privations, reached
England through Jamaica, and served as a lieutenant in Ireland under
William III. Many of his descendants have been distinguished soldiers
in the service of England. The second is Captain Rapin, who served
faithfully in Ireland, and was called away to be tutor to the young
Duke of Portland. He afterwards spent his time at Wesel on the Rhine,
where he wrote his "History of England." The third is Captain Riou,
"the gallant and the good," who was killed at the battle of
Copenhagen. These memoirs might be multiplied to any extent; but those
given are enough to show the good work which the Huguenots and their
descendants have done in the service of England.
INTRODUCTION.
Six years since, I published a book entitled _The Huguenots: their
Settlements, Churches, and Industries, in England and Ireland_. Its
object was to give an account of the causes which led to the large
migrations of foreign Protestants from Flanders and France into
England, and to describe their effects upon English industry as well
as English history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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