The King’s Command
by Rosemary Hayes
‘An absorbing tale told with sensitivity. The forgotten struggles of Huguenot refugees come to moving, heartrending life.’
~ Steven Veerapen, author of A Dangerous Trade
16 year old Lidie Brunier has everything; looks, wealth, health and a charming suitor, but there are dark clouds on the horizon.
Lidie and her family are committed Huguenots and Louis XIV has sworn to stamp out this ‘false religion’ and make France a wholly Catholic country.
Gradually Lidie’s comfortable life starts to disintegrate as Huguenots are stripped of all rights and the King sends his brutal soldiers into their homes to force them to become Catholics.
Others around her break under pressure but Lidie and her family refuse to convert.
With spies everywhere and the ever present threat of violence, they struggle on.
Then a shocking betrayal forces Lidie’s hand and her only option is to try and flee the country.
A decision that brings unimaginable hardship, terror and tragedy and changes her life for ever.
Rosemary Hayes has written over forty books across different genres, from historical fiction to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books.
Praise for Rosemary Hayes:
‘One of the very best historical novels I have ever read’
~ Sandra Robinson, Huguenot Ancestry Expert
‘The King’s Command is Rosemary Hayes’s first novel for adults, but the story-telling skills she has honed over a prolific career as a prize-winning children’s author are evident on every page of this tense, immersive and dramatic account of religious persecution in late seventeenth-century France.’
~ Kat Armstrong, author
‘The detail within this book is fascinating and I learned so much about what like was like in the late 17th century. It’s excellent!’
~ Amazon Reviewer
Why did the Huguenots leave France and what happened to them afterwards?
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| (c) Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain |
Like many others, I have Huguenot ancestry and for the past two years I have been finding out what happened to my own forbears and to countless other Huguenot families when they fled France in the late 17th century. My book ‘The King’s Command’ tells their story. It is a story of jealousy, persecution and religious intolerance but it is also a story of love, courage and faith.
The Name
No-one knows the exact genesis of the word Huguenot but it is thought, originally, to have been a term of insult by French Catholics towards French Protestants. However, in time it became adopted by the Protestants and widely used by them.
Why did the Huguenots flee France? A brief background.
The wars of religion between Protestants and Catholics raged in France during the second half of the 16th century where hatred ran deep, armies were raised and atrocities committed by both sides. These wars were finally brought to an end through the actions of King Henry IV. Henry, originally a Protestant, was a pragmatist. In a bid to unite the country he converted to Catholicism, reportedly saying “Paris is well worth a mass” and promulgated the Edict of Nantes (1598) which granted official tolerance to Protestantism, and for eighty years or so the Huguenots thrived.
Henry’s successors, however, were far less tolerant of the Huguenots, destroying their strongholds and breaking up their military organisation and when the young Louis XIV finally took control of his throne in 1661, he vowed to make France a wholly Catholic country and wipe out the ‘false religion’ of Protestantism once and for all. During his reign, the Edict of Nantes, which had protected Huguenots for so long, was revoked and their lives became impossible.
Unless they denied their faith, they would forfeit their property, be unable to practise their professions or trades and their children would be forcibly removed from them to be brought up as Catholics. They were banned from holding gatherings, even in private, and their temples were destroyed. Yet they were not allowed to leave the country, even if they were ‘new converts’; the King did not want to lose the skills of these hardworking and successful people.
Hardly surprising then, that many converted and many fled despite the penalties if they were caught.
How did the Huguenots escape from France and where did they go?
Long before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many Huguenot families had already seen the way the wind was blowing and had quietly sold their homes and businesses to travel to other countries where they could live and work in peace and worship freely. They dispersed all over the world, to Switzerland, Germany, Holland, England and further afield to America and South Africa. With their ethic of hard work and willingness to pass on their skills to others, they soon became valued citizens of their host countries. In England, many settled in London or at disembarkation ports such as Rochester, Dover, along the South coast and the South West. In London, many, particularly those in the weaving trade, settled in Spitalfields, in East London.
Others stayed on in France, unwilling to leave their native land, and suffered the consequences. Life became intolerable for them unless they abjured, troops were sent into their homes to force them to do so and they lived in constant terror so, despite the dangers, at the time of the Revocation and thereafter, they laid their plans to flee. Networks of special routes and safe houses were established, where Huguenots stayed with those sympathetic to their cause before travelling on, often at night. Sea captains were bribed, as were others, to give them safe passage, but nothing was certain.
My own ancestors escaped to Geneva and, even though they were prosperous and well connected, this was a very long and perilous journey from where they lived in Gascony, not far from Bordeaux. They would certainly have had to have had good contacts and guides along the way to help them.
There are stories of escape where fleeing Huguenots managed to elude their pursuers and make their way to other countries, but also horrific accounts of greedy sea captains taking money from them and then tossing them overboard, of tortures inflicted on those who refused to convert and of refugees hiding on board ships having noxious gas fed into their hiding places. There were plenty of financial rewards offered to those betraying Huguenots and to soldiers finding stowaways, with spies and informers everywhere.
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| (c) Wikimedia Commons, public domain |
Huguenots often carried mereau coins with them when they fled. These coins were originally issued to those of their faith as proof that they were eligible to take communion but in those fraught times, they had another purpose. They were used, when they were fleeing, to show to their helpers along the way to prove that they were, indeed, genuine Huguenots and not spies.
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| (c) Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain |
In my book, I have made my main protagonists escape from the small port of La Tremblade on the West coast of France. Many Huguenots did escape from La Tremblade as it was less well guarded than other, bigger ports. I came across an excellent contemporary description of a family’s escape from there which I used as background.
In what state did they arrive and how did they settle?
In London, there was already an established community of Huguenots and when the great influx arrived there at the time of the Revocation and thereafter, they welcomed these refugees (the first time that term was used) and helped them to settle. Many had abjured before they arrived and sought to be readmitted to their faith. The huge temple in Threadneedle Street (burnt down at the time of the fire of London and rebuilt, by the church community, in only three years) often held special services to do this.
Some of these refugees arrived with literally nothing but the clothes they were wearing and there were charitable organisations to help them. Others, like my own ancestors, managed to bring some money and goods with them. After her husband’s death, in rather mysterious circumstances, it is recorded that Lydia, my direct ancestor, brought with her some silver and some family portraits (presumably taken from their frames and rolled up.) She, her widowed mother and her surviving children settled in the ‘pleasant village of Hammersmith’ where there was a Huguenot community and church.
It is hardly surprising that France was emptied of some of its most skilled citizens during these turbulent times. The Protestant countries to which the Huguenots fled were hugely enriched by their presence. Doctors, lawyers, weavers, gold and silversmiths, clockmakers, lace makers, shoe makers, jewellers, glove makers, book binders, perfumers all passed on their skills to those who gave them refuge and became valued citizens of their adopted countries.
Rosemary Hayes
Rosemary Hayes has written over fifty books for children and young adults. She writes in different genres, from edgy teenage fiction (The Mark), historical fiction (The Blue Eyed Aborigine and Forgotten Footprints), middle grade fantasy (Loose Connections, The Stonekeeper’s Child and Break Out) to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books. Many of her books have won or been shortlisted for awards and several have been translated into different languages.
Rosemary has travelled widely but now lives in South Cambridgeshire. She has a background in publishing, having worked for Cambridge University Press before setting up her own company Anglia Young Books which she ran for some years. She has been a reader for a well known authors’ advisory service and runs creative writing workshops for both children and adults.
Rosemary has recently turned her hand to adult fiction and her historical novel ‘The King’s Command’ is about the terror and tragedy suffered by the French Huguenots during the reign of Louis XIV.
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