Huguenot

Etymology

Its etymology is disputed. Perhaps the word comes from the German Eidgenossen , used initially in Switzerland and meaning confederated or entreated , but the orthography can be influenced by the patronym of Bezanson Hughes , one of the first Swiss Protestant chiefs. The catholic encyclopedia also proposes the etymology Hugon , in reference instead of gathering of reformed Tours which bore the name of a count of disaster report.

History

Most famous of Huguenots is certainly Henri of Navarre, wire of Jeanne d' Albret and future Henri IV. It was forced to abjure to save its life at the time of the Massacre of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (August 24th 1572), then to claim with the crown of France in 1593 (“Paris is worth a mass! ”).

During its reign, it restored civil peace in France by signing the edict of Nantes (April 13rd 1598) and by giving certain fortified towns to the Protestants.

In 1685, at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV a very great number of Huguenots fled for the plain Provinces of the Netherlands (from where a rather great number went to settle in South Africa), on the island of Manhattan into New Amsterdam, Switzerland or Prussie or Germany in Berlin.

In the Encyclopedia , with the “Taken refuge” article, one finds this quotation: “Louis XIV, by persecuting the Protestants, deprived his kingdom of almost a million industrial men” (article whom one supposes of Voltaire but written by Dumarsais).

Those which remained in France were persecuted until the middle of the 18th century by the " dragons". Thus one called those which were charged to persecute the Protestants. Certain caves of the south of France bear the name of the huguenots (in particular the prédicants of passage) which hid there not to be stopped.

The catholic Galicians and the reformists, like Jacques Lefèvre d' Étaples, were among the predecessors of Huguenots. Those followed the movement initiated by Martin Luther in Saxony, then organized by Jean Calvin starting from Geneva. They formed the Churches reformed in France, called contemptuously “alleged religion reformed” in the official texts.

The etymology most commonly accepted for huguenot returns to the German-speaking Switzerland Eidgenossen , that is to say confederated , expression indicating the cities and Swiss cantons in favor of the Reform following Ulrich Zwingli. One must note that within the Small-Council of Geneva it was the name given to the partisans of the Swiss Cantons, the partisans of the duke of Savoy being the " Mamelouks". Theodore de Bèze, close collaborator and continuator of Jean Calvin, mentions a popular etymology evoking legendary and heretic king “Hugonet”, but this origin is not retained.

Huguenots throughout the world

Following the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and already front because of the pressures made by the royal capacity, of many Huguenots found refuges in various Protestant states of Europe: German principalities (Cassel, Brandebourg (- Prussia),…), Plain Provinces (and from there the colony of the Cape), England, Switzerland… From there, some chose to emigrate and one finds communities today going down from Huguenots in South Africa and the the United States.

Huguenots in Brandebourg

During the ten years which followed the Guerre Thirty Year old, nearly a million French leave France of which more than 50.000 emigrate in Brandebourg. Among these people, there is nearly 200.000 Huguenots, fleeing their country where they do not have any more freedom of worship and where they risk their life if they do not convert. It is the case of the Metz-native emigration in Berlin following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

The Prussians accommodated readily these French because their economy was with lowest following the Guerre Thirty Year old and with five epidemics of plague which made, alone, 140.000 victims.

The Princes voters of Hesse and the Brandebourg seeing opportunity of accommodating this population huguenote formed often well and of a good intellectual level, take measures of reception hardly ten days after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (either on October 28th, 1685). Small holdings theirs are reserved, as well as the possibility of setting up a legal and penal parallel administration. Persecuted transform themselves into colonists. The many privileges granted to Huguenots, particularly those related to the land property, poked the jealousy. In spite of that, the integration of the French occurred relatively well and brought " plus" : the arrival of new trades such trades of the clock industry, for example, and of new fruit and vegetables, such oranges, lemons, cauliflowers, garden peas, artichokes etc

The influence of French Huguenots is remarkable today in the big cities of immigration such as Berlin or Francfort-sur-le-Main. Berlin with it only, having accommodated more than 35.000 French huguenots, built its preindustrial economy like its economic center around the capital and of the knowledge to make craftsmen and commercial huguenots. Certain districts of Berlin always feel this heritage. It is the case in particular district of Friedrichstadt, first hearth of installation of Huguenots in Berlin.

To speak French was prestigious, with the result that the majority of the German rich person wanted professors French for their children. All the fields of the German culture were influenced by the colonists huguenots. Today, this influence is attested by many signs, such, for example, on the place of Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin where many signs have French names. Many German terms (devenat however meanwhile increasingly obsolete) come from French: like " etepetete" (" being-can-être" - being used to qualify a pretentious woman) or " Muckefuck" (of false-mocca) for a coffee a little too clearly. (see the article on the article on the German language). After the end of the French occupation during the Napoleonean wars a nationalist reaction makes disappear this tendency.

Small islands of settlement transfer also the day in the south: the town of Erlangen in Franconie (Bavaria), close to Nuremberg) was founded by of Huguenots. Close to the Czech border , in the area of the Fichtelgebirge, (north of current Bavaria), a tradition perpetuates the protesting settlement: the decoration of the fountains for Easter in the shape of flower of lily ( Osterbrunnen , photograph).

See too

External bonds

the museum of the Desert
Huguenots de France and besides
National The Huguenot society
Deutsche Hugenotten-Gesellschaft
The Huguenot Web site
Huguenots, hundred years of persecutions, 1685-1789 per Mr. de Janzé, former deputy. 1886. Work on line.

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