Huguenots (French Calvanists)

The Huguenots, French Protestants, became the center of political and religious quarrels in France between 1500 and 1600. Important people such as Anthony King of Navarre, Louis I de Bourbon de Conde, and Admiral Gaspard de Coligny were Huguenots. They were named the Huguenots by the French Roman Catholics. The name, Huguenots, is believed to be from Besancon Hugues, a Swiss religious leader. The Huguenots were the followers of John Calvin's teachings, and they belonged to the …

…threat for power. The Huguenots were then heavily persecuted forcing many to leave to England, Prussia, Netherlands, and America. For the Huguenots who did not leave, they lived under those extreme conditions until shortly before the French Revolution, when the laws began to slacken off them in 1789. However they never fully gained back their religious and political rights until the Constituent Assembly in 1791. The Constituent Assembly gave equal rights to Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Jews.