Dragonnades

Louis XIV combined legal persecution with a policy of terrorizing recalcitrant Huguenots who refused to convert to Catholicism by billeting both dragoons and ordinary infantrymen in their homes.

With the permission of the Secretary of State for War François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, Marillac systematically lodged troops with Protestants, in the expectation that existing laws exempting households newly converted to Catholicism from this practice would spur conversions.

[note 1] The Marquis himself was to be subsequently blamed for originating the dragonnades but research has established that responsibility rested with more junior officials such as de Marillac, ambitious for royal favour.

Most Huguenot refugees sought refuge in countries such as Switzerland, the Dutch Republic (from where some migrated to the Cape Colony in southern Africa), England, and the German territories (notably Brandenburg-Prussia).

[citation needed] The campaign ultimately proved detrimental to France's economy, as many were part of the nascent urban bourgeoisie and many others possessed skills such as silkweaving, clock-making, silversmithing, and optometry.