The Huguenots

Henry IV of France had been head of the Protestant (Huguenot) religion and had signed the Edict of Nantes of 1598 which had given Protestants religious freedom in France. This freedom was to continue through his son, Louis XIII's reign and when Cardinal Mazarin was powerful.

Mazarin died in 1661. Louis XIV then assumed the reigns of power and the persecution of the Huguenots began and they started to leave the country. Louis XIV married his mistress Madame de Maintenon, who was governed by the Jesuits, in 1685 and Louis revoked the Edict the same year.

Half a million of France's best and most industrious citizens fled the country, penniless. Over 13,000 of those who fled, mostly from Lyons, settled in Spitalfields to found the silk industry.

Everything possible was done to make them welcome and church collections were made and homes provided and by 1680 Spitalfields was almost completely built over to Brick Lane.

These were some of the best brains and craftsmen of France. In Spitalfields they were close enough to London to compete without coming under the City's jurisdiction. They became known as 'The Profitable Strangers' because of their trades but they were not welcomed by all and were described by Dr. Welton as 'the very offal of the earth'. Despite this description they produced fabric of superb quality and were soon given naturalisation and full civic rights and proved themselves to be good citizens.

The population of East London by this time was reckoned to have reached 80,000. Within a few years whole army regiments were made up of French Huguenots.

Within fifty years many of these Huguenots had become merchants, financiers and landowners and they dominated the area until 1809 when many Jewish people moved there. All were soon assimilated into English society.

Rochelle Street in Bethnal Green was named after the port from which so many Huguenots had sailed, La Rochelle. The port, however, had far more significance to them than just being the port from which they sailed, for it was here that Jeanne d'Albret, heiress of the king of Navarre and Bearn, took her son Henry IV in 1569 and presented him to the Huguenot army at whose head he fought.