Ireland and France share many similarities, so Irish people interested in genealogy may discover that their DNA ancestry results reveal significant French roots.
Irish immigration to France wasn’t on the same scale as that to England: but in the 1620s, strong streams from Munster to Brittany began arriving.
Normans
In France in the 17th century there were significant numbers of Irish exiles living as refugees; their exact number remains uncertain but could number in the hundreds. Many lived near Nantes and Paris while also serving in France’s army or trading as merchants.
Some historians prefer the terms Hiberno-Norman or Cambro-Norman to emphasize their connections to Ireland. This community brought with them money and ideas that quickly integrated themselves into local culture and society, becoming part of both culture and society.
The name Norman derives from Latin for “Norseman.” This term described a group that emerged in medieval Normandy through intermarriage between Viking settlers and native West Frankish and Gallo-Roman populations, creating an amalgamated population which eventually conquered England and Sicily in southern Italy, as well as contributing to creating counties and castles there.
Huguenots
Huguenots were religious reformers following John Calvin’s teachings who believed the Catholic Church needed purifying of any impurities that existed within its ranks. Their continued faith even during times of extreme persecution demonstrates their incredible courage and Christian beliefs.
Huguenots were among the first European settlers to settle outside France, both within Europe as well as North American and South African colonies. Once established in their new homes, they quickly integrated themselves into both local culture and industries – for instance those settling at Lisburn in Northern Ireland helped establish an intricate silk weaving industry there. Although France revoked their Edict of Nantes in 1685, many Huguenots maintained strong connections to their ancestral homeland; among these was Winston Churchill who is related through Leonard Jerome who established a London printing company at that time – whose ancestor Leonard Jerome founded London printing company at that time – Winston was an example.
French Wars of Religion
France is a land rife with Catholicism and religious diversity. But during its turbulent religious history in the 1500s and 1600s, millions died due to religious strife.
Though the French Wars of Religion were mostly religious in nature, they also played out as political struggle between various noble families competing for power under weak monarchs and protestant Christians striving for religious liberty amidst this battle between monarch and nobles.
In contrast to the Hundred Years War, which consisted of one unbroken battle, the War of Religion consisted of eight civil wars separated by periods of peace. It reached its apex with a massacre on St. Bartholomew’s Day 1572 when Protestants were massacred, yet hostilities continued even until Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598 granting Huguenots significant rights within what was then still predominantly Catholic France.
This exhibition uses weaponry, portraits and archive documents to examine this bloody period. It demonstrates how wars played out locally; how dynastic rivalries between Huguenot clans and noble houses of Montmorency, Bourbon and Guise became intertwined with religious conflict and eventually led to local wars between local tribes and noble houses of Montmorency, Bourbon, and Guise became interwoven with religious differences.
Protestantism
Protestantism encompasses many distinct traditions. Perhaps most well-known is Martin Luther’s Reformation, while others such as pastors and theologians like John Calvin also played important roles. Their appeal appealed to educated members of society; their influence could be felt across nobles, tradesmen and military personnel alike.
But the early seventeenth century proved disastrous for these groups. From World War I on, and beyond its conclusion, the Crown took steps to limit religious freedoms.
By 1685, King Louis had overturned the Edict of Nantes. Persecution against Huguenots escalated as soldiers living in Huguenot households or ransacking their homes attempted to convert them. Many fled France for Ireland where they intermarried with local people while simultaneously creating new communities based upon ethnicity, narratives of defeat and dispossession and Protestant models of civic society. Sheridan Le Fanu and Samuel Beckett among them wrote extensively in Ireland during this period.