dragonnades or dragonades [key], name given to a form of persecution of French Protestants, or Huguenots, before and after the revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes (see Nantes, Edict of) by Louis XIV. It consisted of harassing the Huguenots by billeting soldiers (particularly the rowdy dragoons) in their houses and in disregarding the soldiers' misconduct. The outrages committed against the persons and property of the Huguenots contributed—at least as much as the legal enforcement of the revocation of the edict—to the conversion but also to the mass emigration of Huguenots, so that entire cities and regions were ruined and depopulated.
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