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Home , 1680s

CHAPTER SEVEN

MODELS OF AN IMAGINED COMMUNITY: HUGUENOT DISCOURSE ON IDENTITY AND FOREIGN POLICY

David Onnekink

Introduction

‘Now we groan under hard Bondage, as the People of God did hereto- fore in Egypt; but God will deliver us out of it with a strong Hand and stretched out Arm. Now we are terried with the Power of our Enemies; But since t’is against God they wage War […] He’ll ght for us him- s e l f .’ 1 is statement was delivered in a sermon by Claude Brousson, the remarkable Huguenot pastor and subject of a renowned study by Walter Utt and Brian Strayer.2 Brousson responded to the persecution of the , and suggested a pacic course of action. He also suggested an identity model for the Huguenot community by compar- ing it to the people of Israel in bondage. e 1680s, and constitute a particular painful episode in the history of French . e dragonnades were followed up by the infamous Revocation of the of Nantes, aer which hundreds of thousands of Huguenots ed their native country and found refuge in Protestant states, such as , the Dutch Republic, the Palatinate and Brandenburg. During these years, the Huguenot exiles developed a sense of community, purpose and commitment. As such the Huguenots became a transnational community, but because of their hope of return, one with national aspirations. Given the situa- tion, there was also tension between the hope of return and the need to integrate into the societies the Huguenots had found refuge in.

1 Claude Brousson, e support of the faithful in times of persecution, or, a sermon preach’d in the Wilderness to the poor Protestants in (, 1699), 82. e sermon is not dated but was preached before 1695, and translated and republished immediately aer his death. e international readership of the works of these Huguenots meant they were oen translated. In this article, I have made use of the English version when possible. 2 Utt and Strayer, e Bellicose Dove. 194 david onnekink

The 1680s in particular also witnessed an important shift in interna- tional affairs. In 1684 a truce was concluded between France and , which for the moment alleviated tensions between the two great powers. Around the same time, however, the triangular relation- ship between the Dutch Republic, France and England started to become troubled. The accession to the throne of the Catholic James II in 1685, and the Revocation of the in October of that year, intensified the sense of crisis in the Protestant world. The influx of Huguenots into theD utch Republic significantly boosted such sentiments. At the same time, rumours of a renewed Anglo- French alliance against the Dutch Republic raised the spectre of a rep- etition of the 1672 invasion. Although the put such fears to rest, 1689 witnessed the outbreak of a long-expected war between the Allies and France. As is well known, many Huguenot soldiers were caught up in the Nine Years War, followed by the War of the Spanish Succession, in which many Huguenots fought as soldiers on the Allied side, against their compatriots. The galvanising effect of the Huguenots on the war effort was very significant.3 At the same time many Huguenots served the war with the pen. They wrote tracts in defence of the war, con- structed William III as a Protestant hero, and criticised the regime of Louis XIV. They were ultimately disappointed.4 In most literature it is assumed that the identification of the Huguenot exile community with the wars of the Allies was natural. However, the Huguenots were caught up in several paradoxes. Firstly, the creation of a transnational community, affiliated with the ‘Protestant International’,5 rested uneasily with the national aspirations of the Huguenots. The ‘geographical’ or spatial identity of the Huguenots therefore became a concern. Secondly, there was a tension between the need for constructing an exile community whilst at the same time maintaining a desire for return. The war effort necessitated demonisa- tion of Louis XIV’s regime, but hope for return problematised such an attitude. Thirdly, as suppressed citizens of France, the Huguenots might feel justified to stage a revolt against the King, but as Christians

3 Matthew Glozier and David Onnekink (eds), War, Religion and Service: Huguenot Soldiering, 1685–1713 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007); cf. chapter 6, above. 4 Utt and Strayer, The Bellicose Dove. 5 Robin Gwynn, ‘The Huguenots in Britain, the “Protestant International” and the Defeat of Louis XIV’, in Vigne & Littleton, Strangers.