The Huguenots (, ; , ) were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. French Protestants were inspired by the writings of John Calvin in the 1530s, and they were called Huguenots by the 1560s. By the end of the 17th century, roughly 200,000 Huguenots had been driven from France during a series of religious persecutions. They relocated to Protestant nations, such as England, Denmark, Switzerland, the Dutch Republic, the Electorate of Brandenburg, Electoral Palatinate (both in the Holy Roman Empire), and the Duchy of Prussia, and also to the Dutch Cape Colony in present-day South Africa and the English 13 colonies of North America.

Etymology

A term used originally in derision, ''Huguenot'' has indefinite origins. Various theories have been promoted. The nickname may have been a French corruption of the German word ''Eidgenosse'', meaning "a Confederate", perhaps in combination with a reference to the religious leader and politician Besançon Hugues (died 1532). Geneva was John Calvin's adopted home and the center of the Calvinist movement. In Geneva, Hugues was the leader of the "Confederate Party", so called because it favoured an alliance between the city-state of Geneva and the Swiss Confederation. This theory of origin has support from the alleged fact that the label ''Huguenot'' was first applied in France to those conspirators (all of them aristocratic members of the Reformed Church) involved in the Amboise plot of 1560: a foiled attempt to transfer power in France from the influential House of Guise. The move would have had the side effect of fostering relations with the Swiss. Thus, ''Hugues'' plus ''Eidgenosse'' became ''Huguenot,'' a nickname associating the Protestant cause with politics unpopular in France.

Like the first hypothesis, several others account for the name as being derived from German as well as French. O.I.A. Roche writes in his book ''The Days of the Upright, A History of the Huguenots'' that "Huguenot" is

"a combination of a Flemish and a German word. In the Flemish corner of France, Bible students who gathered in each other's houses to study secretly were called ''Huis Genooten'' ('housemates') while on the Swiss and German borders they were termed ''Eid Genossen,'' or 'oath fellows,' that is, persons bound to each other by an oath. Gallicized into 'Huguenot', often used deprecatingly, the word became, during two and a half centuries of terror and triumph, a badge of enduring honor and courage."

Some disagree with dual linguistic origins, arguing that for the word to have spread into common use in France, it must have originated in the French language. The "Hugues hypothesis" argues that the name can be accounted for by connection with Hugues Capet king of France, who reigned long before the Reform times. He was regarded by the Gallicans and Protestants as a noble man who respected people's dignity and lives. Frank Puaux suggests, with similar connotations, a clever pun on the old French word for a ''covenanter'' (a signatory to a contract). Janet Gray and other supporters of the theory suggest that the name ''huguenote'' would be roughly equivalent to ''little Hugos'', or ''those who want Hugo''.

In this last connection, the name could suggest the derogatory inference of superstitious worship; popular fancy held that Huguon, the gate of King Hugo, was haunted by the ghost of ''le roi Huguet'' (regarded by Roman Catholics as an infamous scoundrel) and other spirits, who instead of being in purgatory came back to harm the living at night. It was in this place in Tours that the ''prétendus réformés'' ("these supposedly 'reformed'") habitually gathered at night, both for political purposes, and for prayer and singing the psalms. With similar scorn, some suggested the name was derived from ''les guenon de Hus'' (the monkeys or apes of Jan Hus). While this and the many other theories offer their own measure of plausibility, attesting at least to the wit of later partisans and historians, if not of the French people at the time of this term's origin, "no one of the several theories advanced has afforded satisfaction."

Reguier de la Plancha (d. 1560) in ''De l'Estat de France'' offers the following explanation as to the origin:

The origin of the name is curious; it is not from the German ''Eidegenossen'' as has been supposed. Reguier de la Plancha accounts for it as follows: — "The name ''huguenand'' was given to those of the religion during the affair of Amboyse, and they were to retail it ever since. I'll say a word about it to settle the doubts of those who have strayed in seeking its origin. The superstition of our ancestors, to within twenty or thirty years thereabouts, was such that in almost all the towns in the kingdom they had a notion that certain spirits underwent their Purgatory in this world after death, and that they went about the town during the night, striking and outraging many people whom they found in the streets. But the light of the Gospel has made them vanish, and teaches us that these spirits were street-strollers and ruffians. At Paris the spirit was called ''le moine bourré''; at Orleans, ''le mulet odet''; at Blois ''le loup garon''; at Tours, ''le Roy Huguet''; and so on in other places. Now, it happens that those whom they called Lutherans were at that time so narrowly watched during the day that they were forced to wait till night to assemble, for the purpose of praying to God, for preaching and receiving the Holy Sacrament; so that although they d'd frighten nor hurt anybody, the priests, through mockery, made them the successors of those spirits which roam the night; and thus that name being quite common in the mouth of the populace, to designate the evangelical ''huguenands'' in the country of Tourraine and Amboyse, it became in vogue after that enterprise."

Early history and beliefs

The availability of the Bible in local (vernacular) languages was important to the spread of the Protestant movement and the development of the Reformed church in France, and the country had a long history of struggles with the papacy by the time the Protestant Reformation finally arrived. Around 1294, a French version of the Scriptures was prepared by the Roman Catholic priest, Guyard de Moulin. The first known translation of the Bible into one of France's regional languages Arpitan or Franco-Provençal, had been prepared by the 12th century pre-reformer, Peter Waldo (Pierre de Vaux). Long after the sect was suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church, the remaining Waldensians, now mostly in the Luberon region of France, sought to join William Farel, John Calvin and the Protestant Reformation, and Olivetan published a French Bible for them. A two-volume folio version of this translation appeared in Paris, in 1488. Many of those who emerged from secrecy at this time were slaughtered by Francis I in 1545 in the Massacre of Mérindol. Since Calvin lived from 1509 to 1564 and Olivetan was his nephew, it is unlikely that Olivetan's French translation of the Bible (commissioned by the Waldensians) was published in Paris in 1488.

Other predecessors of the Reformed church included the pro-reform and Gallican Roman Catholics, like Jacques Lefevre (c. 1455–1536). The Gallicans briefly achieved independence for the French church, on the principle that the religion of France could not be controlled by the Bishop of Rome, a foreign power. In the time of the Protestant Reformation, Lefevre, a professor at the University of Paris, prepared the way for the rapid dissemination of Lutheran ideas in France with the publication of his French translation of the New Testament in 1523, followed by the whole Bible in the French language, in 1528. William Farel was a student of Lefevre who went on to become a leader of the Swiss Reformation, establishing a Protestant government in Geneva. Jean Cauvin (John Calvin), another student at the University of Paris, also converted to Protestantism. The French Confession of 1559 shows a decidedly Calvinistic influence. Sometime between 1550 and 1580, members of the Reformed church in France came to be commonly known as ''Huguenots''.

Criticisms of the Catholic Church

Above all, Huguenots became known for their harsh criticisms of doctrine and worship in the Catholic Church from which they had broken away, in particular the sacramental rituals of the Church and what they viewed as an obsession with death and the dead. They believed that the ritual, images, saints, pilgrimages, prayers, and hierarchy of the Catholic Church did not help anyone toward redemption. They saw Christian life as something to be expressed as a life of simple faith in God, relying upon God for salvation, and not upon the Church's sacraments or rituals, while obeying Biblical law.

Like other religious reformers of the time, they felt that the Catholic Church needed radical cleansing of its impurities, and that the Pope ruled the Church as if it was a worldly kingdom, which sat in mocking tyranny over the things of God, and was ultimately doomed. Rhetoric like this became fiercer as events unfolded, and eventually stirred up a reaction in the Catholic establishment.

The Catholic Church in France opposed the Huguenots, and there were incidents of attacks on Huguenot preachers and congregants as they attempted to meet for worship. The height of this persecution was the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre when 5,000 to 30,000 were killed, although there were also underlying political reasons for this as well. The Huguenots, retaliating against the French Catholics, frequently took up arms, even forcibly taking a few Catholic cities. Many Catholic monuments and shrines were destroyed in this action, a result of the Huguenots' iconoclasm.

The Huguenots took part in anti-Catholic movements in England during the reign of Henry VIII. They were hired by Henry VIII to suppress various Catholic orders in England. They were responsible for confiscation of many of the Catholic Church's possessions at the time on behalf of the king.

Reform and growth

Huguenots faced persecution from the outset of the Reformation; but Francis I (reigned 1515–1547) initially protected them from Parlementary measures designed for their extermination. The Affair of the Placards of 1534 changed the king's posture toward the Huguenots: he stepped away from restraining persecution of the movement.

Huguenot numbers grew rapidly between 1555 and 1561, chiefly amongst nobles and city dwellers. During this time, their opponents first dubbed the Protestants ''Huguenots''; but they called themselves ''reformés,'' or "Reformed." They organized their first national synod in 1558, in Paris.

By 1562, the estimated number, concentrated mainly in the southern and central parts of the country. The Huguenots in France likely peaked in number at approximately two million, compared to approximately sixteen million Catholics during the same period. Persecution diminished the number of Huguenots. Close to 30,000 Huguenots were killed during St. Bartholomew's Day massacre alone, and many times that amount before and after. Many fled from France to Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, and England.

Wars of religion

As the Huguenots gained influence and displayed their faith more openly, Roman Catholic hostility to them grew, even though the French crown offered increasingly liberal political concessions and edicts of toleration.

Following the accidental death of Henry II in 1559, his son succeeded as King Francis II along with his wife, the Queen Consort also known as Mary Queen of Scots. During the eighteen months of the reign of Francis II, Mary encouraged a policy of rounding up French Huguenots on charges of heresy, in front of Catholic judges, and employing torture and burning as punishments for dissenters. Mary returned to Scotland a widow, in the summer of 1561.

In 1561, the Edict of Orléans declared an end to the persecution, and the Edict of Saint-Germain of January 1562 formally recognized the Huguenots for the first time. However, these measures disguised the growing tensions between Protestants and Catholics.

Civil wars

These tensions spurred eight civil wars, interrupted by periods of relative calm, between 1562 and 1598. With each break in peace, the Huguenots' trust in the Catholic throne diminished, and the violence became more severe, and Protestant demands became grander, until a lasting cessation of open hostility finally occurred in 1598.

The wars gradually took on a dynastic character, developing into an extended feud between the Houses of Bourbon and Guise, both of which—in addition to holding rival religious views—staked a claim to the French throne. The crown, occupied by the House of Valois, generally supported the Catholic side, but on occasion switched over to the Protestant cause when politically expedient.

left|thumb|200px|Millais' painting, ''[[A Huguenot|Huguenot Lovers on St. Bartholomew's Day.]]'' The French Wars of Religion began with a massacre at Wassy on 1 March 1562, when dozens (some sources say hundreds) of Huguenots were killed, and about 200 were wounded.

The Huguenots became organized as a definitive political movement thereafter. Protestant preachers rallied a considerable army and a formidable cavalry, which came under the leadership of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. Henry of Navarre and the House of Bourbon allied with the Huguenots, adding wealth and holdings to the Protestant strength. At its height, they controlled sixty fortified cities and posed a serious threat to the Catholic crown and Paris over the next three decades.

St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

In what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August – 3 October 1572, Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris. Similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following. The main provincial towns and cities experiencing the Massacre were Aix, Bordeaux, Bourges, Lyon, Meaux, Orleans, Rouen, Toulouse, and Troyes. Nearly 3,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Toulouse alone. The exact number of fatalities throughout the country is not known. On the 23–24 August, between about 2,000 and 3,000 Protestants were killed in Paris and between 3,000 and 7,000 more in the French provinces. By 17 September, almost 25,000 Protestants had been massacred in Paris alone. Outside of Paris, the killings continued until the 3 October.

Montpellier was among the most important of the 66 "villes de sûreté" that the Edict of 1598 granted to the Huguenots. The city's political institutions and the university were all handed over to the Huguenots. Tension with Paris led to a siege by the royal army in 1622. Peace terms called for the dismantling of the city's fortifications. A royal citadel was built and the university and consulate were taken over by the Catholic party. Even before the Edict of Alès (1629), Protestant rule was dead and the ville de sûreté was no more.

By 1620 the Huguenots were on the defensive, and the government increasingly applied pressure. A series of small civil wars that broke out in southern France between 1610 and 1635 were long considered by historians to be regional squabbles between rival noble families. New analysis shows that these civil wars were in fact religious in nature, remnants of the French Wars of Religion that largely ended with the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Small wars in the provinces of Languedoc and Guyenne show Catholic and Calvinist groups using destruction of churches, iconoclasm, forced conversions, and the execution of heretics as weapons of choice.

Edict of Fontainebleau

Louis XIV acted more and more aggressively to force the Huguenots to convert. At first he sent missionaries to convert them, backed by a fund to financially reward converts to Catholicism. Then he imposed penalties, closed their schools and excluded them from favored professions. Escalating the attack, he tried to forcibly convert the Huguenots by using armed dragonnades (soldiers) to occupy and loot their houses. In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and declared Protestantism to be illegal by the Edict of Fontainebleau.

The revocation forbade Protestant services, required education of children as Catholics, and prohibited emigration. It proved disastrous to the Huguenots and costly for France. It precipitated civil bloodshed, ruined commerce, and resulted in the illegal flight from the country of hundreds of thousands of Protestants, many of whom became intellectuals, doctors and business leaders in Britain as well as Holland, Prussia, and South Africa. Four thousand emigrated to the North American colonies, where they settled in New York and Virginia, especially. The English welcomed the French refugees, providing money from both government and private agencies to aid their relocation. Those Huguenots who stayed in France became Catholics and were called "new converts."

After this, Huguenots (with estimates ranging from 200,000 to 1,000,000) fled to surrounding Protestant countries: England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, and Prussia — whose Calvinist Great Elector Frederick William welcomed them to help rebuild his war-ravaged and underpopulated country. Following this exodus, Huguenots remained in large numbers in only one region in France: the rugged Cévennes region in the south. In the early 18th century, a regional group known as the Camisards revolted against the French crown.

Exodus

Most French Huguenots were forced to convert to Catholicism, because they did not want to emigrate or they could not. More than three-quarters of the Protestant population finally converted to Catholicism; the others (more than 200,000) moved to different countries.

Early emigration

The first Huguenots to leave France sought freedom from persecution in Switzerland and the Netherlands. A group of Huguenots was part of the French colonisers who arrived in Brazil in 1555 to found ''France Antarctique''. A couple of ships with around 500 people arrived at the Guanabara Bay, present-day Rio de Janeiro, and settled in a small island. A fort, named Fort Coligny, was built to protect them from attack from the Portuguese troops and Brazilian Native Americans. It was an attempt to establish a French colony in South America. The fort was destroyed in 1560 by the Portuguese, who captured part of the Huguenots. The Portuguese threatened the prisoners with death if they did not convert to Catholicism. The Huguenots of Guanabara, as they are now known, produced a declaration of faith to express their beliefs to the Portuguese. This was their death sentence. This document, the Guanabara Confession of Faith, became the first Protestant confession of faith in the whole of the Americas.

A group of Norman Huguenots under the leadership of Jean Ribault in 1562 established the small colony of Fort Caroline in 1564, on the banks of the St. Johns River, in what is today Jacksonville, Florida. The colony was the first attempt at any permanent European settlement in the present-day continental United States, but the group survived only a short time. In September 1565, an attack against the new Spanish colony at St. Augustine backfired when the French ships were hit by a hurricane on their way to the Spanish encampment at Fort Matanzas. Hundreds of French soldiers were stranded and surrendered to the numerically inferior Spanish forces led by Pedro Menendez. Menendez proceeded to massacre the defenseless Huguenots, and the Spanish wiped out the Fort Caroline garrison.

South Africa

Individual Huguenots settled at the Cape of Good Hope from as early as 1671 with the arrival of François Villion (Viljoen). The first Huguenot to arrive at the Cape of Good Hope was however Maria de la Queillerie, wife of commander Jan van Riebeeck (and daughter of a Huguenot church minister), who arrived on 6 April 1652 to establish a settlement at what is today Cape Town. The couple left for the Far East ten years later. On 31 December 1687 the first organised group of Huguenots set sail from the Netherlands to the Dutch East India Company post at the Cape of Good Hope. The largest portion of the Huguenots to settle in the Cape arrived between 1688 and 1689 in seven ships as part of the organised migration, but quite a few arrived as late as 1700; thereafter, the numbers declined and only small groups arrived at a time. thumb|The Huguenot Monument of Franschhoek. Many of these settlers were settled an area that was later called Franschhoek, (Dutch for French Corner), in the present-day Western Cape province of South Africa. A large monument to commemorate the arrival of the Huguenots in South Africa was inaugurated on 7 April 1948 at Franschhoek, where the Huguenot Memorial Museum was erected in 1957.

The official policy in the Dutch East India governors was to integrate the Huguenot and the Dutch communities. When Paul Roux - a pastor who arrived with the main group of Huguenots died in 1724 - the Dutch administration, as a special concession, permitted another French cleric to take his place "for the benefit of the elderly who spoke only French". However, within three generations French was replaced by Dutch as the home language of most of the Huguenot descendants.

Many of the farms in the Western Cape province in South Africa still bear French names. Many families, today mostly Afrikaans-speaking, have surnames indicating their French Huguenot ancestry. Examples include: Blignaut, de Klerk (Le Clercq), de Villiers, du Plessis, Du Preez (Des Pres), du Toit, Franck, Fouche, Fourie (Fleurit), Gervais, Giliomee (Guilliaume), Gous / Gouws (Gauch), Hugo, Jordaan (Jourdan), Joubert, Labuschagne (la Buscagne), le Roux, Lombard, Malan, Malherbe, Marais, Minnaar (Mesnard), Nel (Nell), Nortje (Nortier), Pienaar (Pinard), Retief (Retif), Rossouw (Rousseau), Taljard (Taillard), TerBlanche, Theron, Viljoen (Villion) and Visagie (Visage). The wine industry in South Africa owes a significant debt to the Huguenots, some of whom had vineyards in France, or were brandy distillers, and used their skills in their new home.

North America

In 1562 French naval officer Jean Ribault led an expedition to the New World that founded Fort Caroline as a haven for Huguenots in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. Trying to keep control of ''La Florida'', Spanish soldiers killed Ribault and many of his followers near St. Augustine in 1565.

Barred by the government from settling in New France, many Huguenots sailed to North America and settled instead in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (later incorporated into New York and New Jersey); as well as Great Britain's colonies, including Nova Scotia. A number of New Amsterdam's families were of Huguenot origin, often having emigrated as refugees to the Netherlands in the previous century. In 1628 the Huguenots established a congregation as ''L'Église française à la Nouvelle-Amsterdam'' (the French church in New Amsterdam). This parish continues today as ''L'Eglise du Saint-Esprit'', part of the Episcopal (Anglican) communion, and welcomes Francophone New Yorkers from all over the world. Services are conducted in French for a Francophone parish community, and members of the Huguenot Society of America. But the liturgy and doctrines have nothing to do with Huguenot practices and polity, as it is Episcopal in character. Upon their arrival in New Amsterdam, Huguenots were offered land directly across from Manhattan on Long Island for a permanent settlement and chose the harbor at the end of Newtown Creek, becoming the first Europeans to live in Brooklyn, NY, then known as Boschwick, today known as Bushwick.

Huguenot immigrants founded New Paltz, New York. They built what is now the oldest street in the current United States of America with the original stone houses, which is a National Historic Landmark District. They also founded New Rochelle (named after La Rochelle in France), New York. Louis DuBois, son of Chretien DuBois, was one of the original Huguenot settlers in this area, along with the Daniel Perrin family. In 1692 Huguenots settled on the south shore of Staten Island, New York.The present-day neighbourhood of Huguenot was named for those early settlers. A town near Port Jervis, New York is named Huguenot.

Some Huguenot immigrants settled in Central Pennsylvania. They assimilated with the predominately Pennsylvania German settlers of the area.

In 1700 several hundred French Huguenots went to the colony of Virginia, where the English Crown had promised them land grants in Lower Norfolk County. When they arrived, they were offered instead land 20 miles above the falls of the James River, at the abandoned Monacan village known as Manakin Town, now in Powhatan County. Some settlers landed in present-day Chesterfield County. On 12 May 1705, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act to naturalise the 148 Huguenots still resident at Manakintown. Of the original 390 settlers there, many had died; others lived outside town on farms in the English style; and others moved to different areas. Gradually they intermarried with their English neighbors, and through the 18th and 19th century, descendants of the French migrated west into the Piedmont, and across the Appalachian Mountains into the West of what became Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and other states. In the Manakintown area, the Huguenot Memorial Bridge across the James River and Huguenot Road were named in their honor, as were many local features, including several schools, including Huguenot High School. In the early years, many Huguenots also settled in the area of present-day Charleston, South Carolina. In 1685, Rev. Elie Prioleau from the town of Pons in France was among the first to settle there. He became pastor of the first Huguenot church in North America in that city. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, several Huguenot families of Norman and Carolingian nobility and descent including Edmund Bohun of Suffolk England from the Humphrey de Bohun line of French royalty descended from Charlemange, Jean Postell of Dieppe France, Alexander Pepin, Antoine Poitevin of Orsement France, and Jacques de Bordeaux of Grenoble, immigrated to the Charleston Orange district and were very successful at marriage and property speculation. After petitioning the British Crown in 1697 for the right to own land in the Baronies, they prospered as gentlemen planters on the Goose, Ashpoo, Ashley and Santee River plantations they purchased from the British Landgrave Edmund Bellinger.

The French Huguenot Church of Charleston, which remains independent, is the oldest continuously active Huguenot congregation in the United States. Founded in 1628, ''L'Eglise du Saint-Esprit'' in New York is older, but it left the French Reformed movement in 1804 to become part of the Episcopal Church.

Most of the Huguenot congregations (or individuals) in North America eventually affiliated with other Protestant denominations with more numerous members. The Huguenots adapted quickly and often began to marry outside their immediate French communities fairly rapidly, which led to their assimilation. Their descendants in many families continued to use French first names and surnames for their children well into the nineteenth century, as they tried to keep some connection to their heritage. Assimilated, the French made numerous contributions to United States economic life, especially as merchants and artisans in the late Colonial and early Federal periods. For example, E.I. du Pont, a former student of Lavoisier, established the Eleutherian gunpowder mills, which produced material for the American Revolutionary War.

Paul Revere was descended from Huguenot refugees, as was Henry Laurens, who signed the Declaration of Independence for South Carolina; Jack Jouett, who made the ride from Cuckoo Tavern to warn Thomas Jefferson and others that Tarleton and his men were on their way to arrest him for crimes against the king; Francis Marion, and a number of other leaders of the American Revolution and later statesmen. The last active Huguenot congregation in North America worships in Charleston, South Carolina, at a church that dates from 1844. The Huguenot Society of America maintains Manakin Episcopal Church in Virginia as an historic shrine with occasional services.

The Netherlands

Some Huguenots fought in the Low Countries alongside the Dutch against Spain during the first years of the Dutch Revolt (1568–1609). The Dutch Republic rapidly became a destination for Huguenot exiles. Early ties were already visible in the "Apologie" of William the Silent, condemning the Spanish Inquisition, which was written by his court minister, the Huguenot Pierre L'Oyseleur, lord of Villiers. Louise de Coligny, daughter of the murdered Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny, married William the Silent, leader of the Dutch (Calvinist) revolt against Spanish (Catholic) rule. As both spoke French in daily life, their court church in the Prinsenhof in Delft held services in French. The practice has continued to the present day. The Prinsenhof is one of the 14 active Walloon churches of the Dutch Reformed Church. The ties between Huguenots and the Dutch Republic's military and political leadership, the House of Orange-Nassau, which existed since the early days of the Dutch Revolt, helped support the many early settlements of Huguenots in the Dutch Republic's colonies. They settled at the Cape of Good Hope in South-Africa and New Netherland in North America.

Stadtholder William III of Orange, who later became King of England, emerged as the strongest opponent of king Louis XIV after the French attacked the Dutch Republic in 1672. William formed the League of Augsburg as a coalition to oppose Louis and the French state. Consequently, many Huguenots considered the wealthy and Calvinist Dutch Republic, which led the opposition to Louis XIV, as the most attractive country for exile after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They also found many French-speaking Calvinist churches there.

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Dutch Republic received the largest group of Huguenot refugees, an estimated total of 75,000 to 100,000 people. Amongst them were 200 clergy. Many came from the region of the Cévennes, for instance, the village of Fraissinet-de-Lozère. This was a huge influx as the entire population of the Dutch Republic amounted to ca. 2 million at that time. Around 1700, it is estimated that nearly 25% of the Amsterdam population was Huguenot. In 1705, Amsterdam and the area of West-Frisia were the first areas to provide full citizens rights to Huguenot immigrants, followed by the Dutch Republic in 1715. Huguenots intermarried with Dutch from the outset.

One of the most prominent Huguenot refugees in the Netherlands was Pierre Bayle. He started teaching in Rotterdam, where he finished writing and publishing his multi-volume masterpiece, ''Historical and Critical Dictionary''. It became one of the 100 foundational texts of the US Library of Congress. Some Huguenot descendants in the Netherlands may be noted by French family names, although they typically use Dutch given names. Due to the Huguenots' early ties with the leadership of the Dutch Revolt and their own participation, some of the Dutch patriciate are of part-Huguenot descent. Some Huguenot families have kept alive various traditions, such as the celebration and feast of their patron ''Saint Nicolas'', similar to the Dutch ''Sint Nicolaas'' (Sinterklaas) feast.

Wales

A number of French Huguenots settled in Wales, in the upper Rhymney valley of the current Caerphilly County Borough. The community they created there is still known as Fleur de Llys, an unusual French village name in the heart of the valleys of Wales, which itself neighbours nearby Hengoed, and Ystrad Mynach. Apart from the French village name, very little remains of the influence of the Huguenot French, other than in the name of the local rugby team Fleur De Lys RFC.

England

An estimated 50,000 Protestant Walloons and Huguenots fled to England, about 10,000 of whom moved on to Ireland around the 1690s. In relative terms, this could be the largest wave of immigration of a single community into Britain ever. Andrew Lortie (born André Lortie), a leading Huguenot theologian and writer who led the exiled community in London, became known for articulating Huguenot criticism of the Holy See and transubstantiation.

Of the refugees who arrived on the Kent coast, many gravitated towards Canterbury, then the county's Calvinist hub, where many Walloon and Huguenot families were granted asylum. Edward VI granted them the whole of the Western crypt of Canterbury Cathedral for worship. This privilege in 1825 was reduced to the south aisle and in 1895 to the former chantry chapel of the Black Prince. Services are still held there in French according to the Reformed tradition every Sunday at 3 pm. Other evidence of the Walloons and Huguenots in Canterbury includes a block of houses in Turnagain Lane where weavers' windows survive on the top floor, and 'the Weavers', a half-timbered house by the river (now a restaurant - see illustration above). The house derives its name from a weaving school which was moved there in the last years of the 19th century, resurrecting the use to which it had been put between the 16th century and about 1830. Many of the refugee community were weavers. Others practised the variety of occupations necessary to sustain the community distinct from the indigenous population, as such separation was the condition of the refugees' initial acceptance in the City. They also settled elsewhere in Kent, particularly Sandwich, Faversham and Maidstone - towns in which there used to be refugee churches.

The French Protestant Church of London was established by Royal Charter in 1550. It is now at Soho Square. Huguenot refugees flocked to Shoreditch, London in large numbers. They established a major weaving industry in and around Spitalfields (see Petticoat Lane and the Tenterground). In Wandsworth their gardening skills benefited the Battersea market gardens. The Old Truman Brewery, then known as the Black Eagle Brewery, appeared in 1724. The fleeing of Huguenot refugees from Tours, France had virtually decimated the great silk mills they had built.

Other Huguenots arriving in England settled in Bedfordshire, which was (at the time) the main centre of England's lace industry. Huguenots greatly contributed to the development of lace-making in Bedfordshire, with many families settling in Cranfield, Bedford and Luton. Some of these immigrants moved to Norwich, which had accommodated an earlier settlement of Walloon weavers; they added to the existing immigrant population, which comprised about a third of the population of the city.

Ireland

Many Huguenots settled in Ireland during the Plantations of Ireland, encouraged by an act of parliament for Protestants' settling in Ireland. It coincided with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Huguenot regiments fought for William of Orange in the Williamite war in Ireland, for which they were rewarded with land grants and titles, many settling in Dublin. Significant Huguenot settlements were in Dublin, Cork, Portarlington, Lisburn, Waterford and Youghal. Smaller settlements which included Killeshandra in County Cavan were to leave their own mark particularly with the growth of flax and the Irish linen industry. For over 150 years Huguenots were allowed to host their services in Lady Chapel in St. Patrick's Cathedral. An old Huguenot cemetery is located in the centre of Dublin, off St. Stephen's Green; previous to its establishment, Huguenots used the The Cabbage Garden near the Cathedral.

A number of Huguenots served as mayors in Dublin, Cork, Youghal and Waterford in the 17th and 18th century. Some took their skills to Ulster and assisted in the founding of the Irish linen industry, particularly in the Lisburn area. Numerous signs of Huguenot presence can still be seen with names still in use, and with areas of the main towns and cities named after the people who settled there, for instance the Huguenot District and French Church Street in Cork City, D'Olier Street in Dublin named after a High Sheriff, and one of the founders of the Bank of Ireland. A French Church in Portarlington, County Laois dates back to 1696, and was built to serve the significant new Huguenot community in the town; they were then the majority of the townspeople.

One of the more notable Huguenot descendants in Ireland was Seán Lemass (1899–1971), who served as ''Taoiseach'' from 1959 until 1966.

Germany and Scandinavia

Huguenot refugees found a safe haven in the Lutheran and Reformed states in Germany and Scandinavia. Nearly 44,000 Huguenots established themselves in Germany, particularly in Prussia, where many of their descendents rose to positions of prominence. Several congregations were founded, such as those of Fredericia (Denmark), Berlin, Stockholm, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Helsinki, and Emden.

By 1700, a significant proportion of Berlin's population was French speaking. The Berlin Huguenots preserved the French language in their church services for nearly a century. They ultimately decided to switch to German in protest against the occupation of Prussia by Napoleon in 1806-07.

Prince Louis de Condé, along with his sons Daniel and Osias, arranged with Count Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken to establish a Huguenot community in present-day Saarland in 1604. The Count was a supporter of mercantilism and welcomed technically skilled immigrants into his lands regardless of their religion. The Condés established a thriving glass-making works, which provided wealth to the principality for many years, and other founding families created enterprises, including textiles and other traditional Huguenot occupations in France. The community and its congregation remain active to this day, with many of the founding families still present in the region. Some members of this community emigrated to the United States in the 1890s.

In Bad Karlshafen, Hessen, Germany is the Huguenot Museum and Huguenot archive. The collection includes family histories, a library, and a picture archive.

Effects

The exodus of Huguenots from France created a brain drain, as many Huguenots had occupied important places in society. The kingdom did not fully recover for years. The French crown's refusal to allow non-Catholics to settle in New France may help to explain that colony's slow rate of population growth compared to that of the neighbouring British colonies, which opened settlement to religious dissenters. By the time of the French and Indian War, a sizeable population of Huguenot descent lived in the British colonies, and many participated in the British conquest of New France in 1759-60.

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg invited Huguenots to settle in his realms, and a number of their descendants rose to positions of prominence in Prussia. Several prominent German military, cultural, and political figures in subsequent history, including poet Theodor Fontane, General Hermann von François, the hero of the First World War Battle of Tannenberg, Luftwaffe General and fighter ace Adolf Galland; and famed U-boat captain Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, trace their ancestry to the Huguenot refugees from France. The last Prime Minister of the (East) German Democratic Republic, Lothar de Maizière, is also a scion of a Huguenot family, as is the German Federal Minister of Defence, Thomas de Maizière.

The persecution and flight of the Huguenots greatly damaged the reputation of Louis XIV abroad, particularly in England. The two kingdoms, which had enjoyed peaceful relations prior to 1685, became bitter enemies and fought against each other in a series of wars (called the "Second Hundred Years' War" by some historians) from 1689 onward.

End of persecution and restoration of French citizenship

Persecution of Protestants diminished in France after 1724, finally ending with the Edict of Versailles, commonly called the Edict of Tolerance signed by Louis XVI in 1787. Two years later, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, Protestants gained equal rights as citizens.

A 15 December 1790 Law stated: "All persons born in a foreign country and descending in any degree of a French man or woman expatriated for religious reason are declared French nationals (''naturels français'') and will benefit from rights attached to that quality if they come back to France, establish their domicile there and take the civic oath." This is thought to be the first law recognising the right of return.

Article 4 of the 26 June 1889 Nationality Law stated: "Descendants of families proscribed by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes will continue to benefit from the benefit of the 15 December 1790 Law, but on the condition that a nominal decree should be issued for every petitioner. That decree will only produce its effects for the future."

Foreign descendants of Huguenots lost the automatic right to French citizenship in 1945 (by force of the ''ordonnance du 19 octobre 1945'', revoking the 1889 Nationality Law)."Ordonnance du 19 octobre 1945" also states in article 3 " This application does not however affect the validity of past acts by the person or rights acquired by third parties on the basis of previous laws."

In the 1920s and 1930s, members of the extreme-right Action Française movement expressed strong animus against Protestants, as well as against Jews, and freemasons - all three being regarded as groups supporting the French Republic, which Action Française sought to overthrow.

Protestants in France today number about one million, or about two percent of the population. They are most concentrated in Alsace, in southeastern France and the Cévennes region in the south.

Legacy

France

A number of French churches are descended from the Huguenots, including:

Reformed Church of France

Evangelical Reformed Church of France (Union Nationale des Églises Réformées Évangéliques Indépendantes de France)

United States

New Paltz, NY http://www.huguenotstreet.org/

Charleston, SC is home to the only Huguenot Church in the United States

Founding fathers John Jay and Paul Revere were of Huguenot descent.

Francis Marion, American Revolutionary War guerilla fighter in South Carolina, was of predominantly Huguenot heritage.

Four-term Republican United States Representative Howard Homan Buffett was of Huguenot descent.

In 1924 a commemorative half dollar, known as the "Huguenot-Walloon Half Dollar", was coined to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Huguenots' initial settlement in what is now the United States.

A neighbourhood in New York City's borough of Staten Island is named ''Huguenot'', and the city of New Rochelle, New York, is named after La Rochelle, a former Huguenot stronghold in France. Also in the town of Huguenot on Staten Island there is a street named Huguenot Avenue.

In Richmond, Virginia and the neighbouring Chesterfield County, there is a Huguenot Road. There is also a Huguenot High School in Richmond and Huguenot Park in Chesterfield County, along with several other uses of the name throughout the region.

Prussia

Huguenot refugees in Prussia are thought to have contributed significantly to the development of the textile industry in that country.

Ireland

Sean Francis Lemass, Taoiseach of Ireland from 1959–1966, was of Huguenot immigrants who settled in Dublin.

South Africa

A large number of people in South Africa are descended from Huguenots. Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony, but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans population, thanks to sharing a similar religion to the Dutch colonists, and there are now many Afrikaners with French surnames given Afrikaans pronunciation. Many of them settled in ''Franschhoek'' ("French Corner") near Cape Town. The wine industry in South Africa was greatly influenced by the Huguenots

Symbol

The Huguenot cross is the distinctive emblem of the Huguenots (''croix huguenote''). It is now an official symbol of the ''Eglise des Protestants reformé'' (French Protestant church). Huguenot descendants sometimes display this symbol as a sign of ''reconnaissance'' (recognition) between them.

See also

List of Huguenots

Huguenot, Staten Island

Huguenot Street Historic District

Industrial Revolution

Notes

Further reading

Baird, Charles W. "History of the Huguenot Emigration to America." Genealogical Publishing Company, Published: 1885, Reprinted: 1998, ISBN 978-0-8063-0554-7

Butler, Jon. ''The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society'' (1992)

Diefendorf, Barbara B. ''Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth-Century Paris'' (1991) excerpt and text search

Gilman, C. Malcolm. ''The Huguenot Migration in Europe and America, its Cause and Effect'' (1962)

Glozier, Matthew and David Onnekink, eds. ''War, Religion and Service. Huguenot Soldiering, 1685-1713'' (2007)

Kamil, Neil. ''Fortress of the Soul: Violence, Metaphysics, and Material Life in the Huguenots' New World, 1517-1751'' Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2005. 1058 pp.

Lachenicht, Susanne. "Huguenot Immigrants and the Formation of National Identities, 1548-1787," ''Historical Journal'' 2007 50(2): 309-331,

McClain, Molly. "A Letter from Carolina, 1688: French Huguenots in the New World." William and Mary Quarterly. 3rd. ser., 64 (April 2007): 377-394.

Mentzer, Raymond A. and Andrew Spicer. ''Society and Culture in the Huguenot World, 1559-1685'' (2007) excerpt and text search

Ruymbeke, Bertrand Van. ''New Babylon to Eden: The Huguenots and Their Migration to Colonial South Carolina.'' U. of South Carolina Press, 2006. 396 pp

Soman, Alfred. ''The Massacre of St. Bartholomew: Reappraisals and Documents'' (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974)

VanRuymbeke, Bertrand and Sparks, Randy J., eds. ''Memory and Identity: The Huguenots in France and the Atlantic Diaspora,'' U. of South Carolina Press, 2003. 352 pp.

Wijsenbeek, Thera. "Identity Lost: Huguenot Refugees In The Dutch Republic and its Former Colonies in North America and South Africa, 1650 To 1750: A Comparison," ''South African Historical Journal'' 2007 (59): 79-102

Wolfe, Michael. ''The Conversion of Henri IV: Politics, Power, and Religious Belief in Early Modern France'' (1993).

External links

Who were the Huguenots?

The Huguenot Cross

The Méreau

Historic Huguenot Street

Historic Huguenot Street Digital Collections

The National Huguenot Society

The Huguenot Society of America

The Huguenot Society of Australia

Library for Huguenot History, Germany

Huguenot Fellowship

The Huguenots, the Jews, and Me, essay by Armand Laferrere in Azure magazine.

Reassessing what we collect website – Huguenot London History of Huguenot London with objects and images

Huguenot Society of Great Britain & Ireland

Category:Calvinism Category:Christianity in France Category:Anti-Catholicism Category:Anti-Catholicism in France Category:French diaspora Category:French Wars of Religion Category:Religion in the Ancien Régime

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Marilyn Horne (born January 16, 1934, Bradford, Pennsylvania) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages.

Biography

Horne was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, but moved with her parents to Long Beach, California, when she was 11. At the age of 13, she became part of the newly formed Los Angeles Concert Youth Chorus. She attended the University of Southern California where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi fraternity for women. She is an alumna of Long Beach Polytechnic High School and returned in 1989 in a performance to benefit its music program. As a high school student, Marilyn was part of the St. Luke's Choir of Long Beach under the direction of William Ripley Dorr. This prestigious choir often worked for the movie studios and recorded on Capitol Records. Marilyn and her sister Gloria were part of St. Luke's Quartet along with tenor, Bob James and baritone, Philip D. Haynes.

She studied voice under William Vennard at the University of Southern California School of Music and participated in Lotte Lehmann's vocal master classes.

Career

Horne's first major professional engagement was in 1954, when she dubbed the singing voice of Dorothy Dandridge in the film ''Carmen Jones''. Until that point, she had worked as a background singer for several TV sitcoms, as well as recorded covers of popular songs of the early 1950s, which were sold in dimestores around the country for $1.98. She made an appearance on ''The Odd Couple'' as a character named "Jackie," her own nickname, a meek and nervous would-be singer who develops into a full-blown diva and essays the role of Carmen with brilliant results; she also sang on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''. She made her Los Angeles debut the same year when she performed the role of Hata in ''The Bartered Bride'' with the Los Angeles Guild Opera.

Her first major breakthrough came when her singing ability was recognized by Igor Stravinsky; her operatic career began when he invited her to perform in the 1956 Venice festival. She remained in Europe for three seasons singing for the Gelsenkirchen Opera.

She was highly acclaimed for her performance as Marie in Alban Berg's ''Wozzeck'' at the inauguration of Gelsenkirchen's new opera house on May 22, 1960. In 1964, she returned to the United States to appear in ''Wozzeck'' at the San Francisco Opera.

For many years, Horne was associated with the Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland in their performances of the bel canto repertoire. They first performed together in a concert version of Vincenzo Bellini's ''Beatrice di Tenda'' at The Town Hall in Manhattan in February 1961. This performance was so successful, it was repeated twice at Carnegie Hall. In 1965, they were paired again in a performance of Rossini's ''Semiramide'' with the Opera Company of Boston, and sang in a joint concert on October 15, 1979, which was telecasted as "Live from Lincoln Center".

Horne made her debut at the Royal Opera House in October 1964 as Marie in ''Wozzeck''. Her La Scala debut was as Jocasta in Stravinsky's opéra-oratorio ''Œdipus rex'' on March 13, 1969. Another of Horne's breakthroughs occurred that same year during a performance of Rossini's ''Le siège de Corinthe'' at La Scala, when Horne received a remarkable mid-act seven-minute ovation. Horne made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 as Adalgisa in Bellini's ''Norma'' with Sutherland in the title role. She thereafter appeared regularly at the Met, opening the 1972/1973 season as Carmen. A great success there was in Meyerbeer's ''Le prophète'', in John Dexter's production. In 1984, she sang the title role of Handel's opera seria ''Rinaldo'' (directed by Frank Corsaro), the first Handel opera ever performed at the Met.

Although best known for her bel canto and opera seria roles, Horne also sang much American music, both contemporary music by composers such as William Bolcom, and traditional popular songs. She can be heard on the soundtrack of ''Flower Drum Song'' singing "Love, Look Away" and sings the role of Lady Thiang on the Philips recording of ''The King and I'' starring Julie Andrews and Ben Kingsley. She had previously sung in the women's chorus for the 1956 film version of ''The King and I''.

Horne was married from 1960 to 1979 (separated 1974) to the conductor Henry Lewis, with whom she maintained a home in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles for many years, and with whom she had a daughter, Angela. Horne's mother initially had misgivings that the interracial marriage would have a negative impact on Horne's career, saying, "Be his mistress, for God's sake, not his wife," but soon reconciled with the couple.

In 1983, she published (with co-writer Jane Scovell) a candid autobiography, ''My Life'', and a continuation volume, ''Marilyn Horne, The Song Continues'', appeared in 2004.

Horne received many honors during her career. A ''New York Times'' article by Robert Jacobson, editor of ''Opera News'', in celebration of the Met's 100th anniversary in 1983, listed the hundred greatest singers who had ever performed at the house and included Horne, the only one still actively singing at the time. She was awarded Yale University's Sanford Medal. In 1992 she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

In January 1993, Horne sang "Make A Rainbow", by American singer and songwriter Portia Nelson, and the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" at the inauguration of US President Bill Clinton.

Horne retired from the concert stage in 1999 with a recital at the Chicago Symphony Center. She still occasionally performs at pop concerts (most recently with Broadway star Barbara Cook), her voice undimmed by age. Horne has also established the Marilyn Horne Foundation to help preserve the art of vocal recitals. She teaches a series of annual Master Classes at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music; the University of Maryland, College Park; the Manhattan School of Music; and the University of Oklahoma.

In December 2005, shortly before Horne's 72nd birthday, she was diagnosed with localized pancreatic cancer. In January 2007, she appeared at a public function for her Foundation. Interviewed by Norman Lebrecht on BBC Radio 3 on July 26, 2010, she spoke briefly about her cancer and cheerfully said, "I'm still here!"

Horne has directed the Voice Program at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, since 1997.

Abridged discography

Bellini: ''Norma'' (Sutherland, J. Alexander, Cross; Bonynge, 1964) Decca

Bernstein: ''West Side Story'' (Te Kanawa, Troyanos, Carreras; Bernstein, 1984) Deutsche Grammophon

Bizet: ''Carmen'' (Maliponte, McCracken, Krause; Bernstein, 1972) Deutsche Grammophon

Donizetti: ''Anna Bolena'' (Souliotis, J. Alexander, Ghiaurov; Varviso, 1968/69) Decca

Donizetti: ''Lucrezia Borgia'' (Sutherland, Aragall, Wixell; Bonynge, 1977) Decca

Gluck: ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' (Lorengar, Donath; Solti, 1970) Decca

Handel: ''Semele'' (Battle, Ramey; Nelson, 1990) Deutsche Grammophon

Massenet: ''La navarraise'' (Domingo, Milnes, Zaccaria; Lewis, 1975) RCA

Meyerbeer: ''Le prophète'' (Scotto, McCracken, Hines; Lewis, c1976) Sony

Mozart: ''Don Giovanni'' (Sutherland, Lorengar, Krenn, Bacquier, Gramm; Bonynge, 1968) Decca

Ponchielli: ''La Gioconda'' (Tebaldi, Dominguez, Bergonzi, Merrill; Gardelli, 1967) Decca

Puccini: ''Suor Angelica'' (Scotto, Cotrubas; Maazel, 1976) Sony

Rossini: ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' (Barbacini, Nucci, Dara, Ramey; R.Chailly, 1982) Sony

Rossini: ''Bianca e Falliero'' (Ricciarelli, Merritt; Renzetti, 1986) [live] Fonit Cetra

Rossini: ''L'italiana in Algeri'' (Battle, Ramey; Scimone, 1980) Erato

Rossini: ''Semiramide'' (Sutherland, Rouleau; Bonynge, 1965/66) Decca

Rossini: ''Tancredi'' (Cuberli, Zaccaria; Weikert, 1982) Sony

Roussel: ''Padmâvatî'' (Gedda, van Dam; Plasson, 1982/83) EMI

Thomas: ''Mignon'' (Welting, von Stade, Vanzo, Zaccaria; de Almeida, 1977) Sony

Verdi: ''Falstaff'' (Sweet, Lopardo, Panerai, Titus; C.Davis, 1991) RCA

Verdi: ''Requiem'' (Sutherland, Horne, Pavarotti, Talvela; Solti, 1967) Decca

Verdi: ''Il trovatore'' (Sutherland, Pavarotti, Wixell, Ghiaurov; Bonynge, 1976) Decca

Vivaldi: ''Orlando furioso'' (de los Ángeles, Valentini Terrani; Scimone, 1977) Erato

Abridged videography

Corigliano: ''The Ghosts of Versailles'' (Stratas, Fleming; Levine, Graham, 1992) [live] Deutsche Grammophon

Rossini: ''L'italiana in Algeri'' (M.Merritt, Ahlstedt; Levine, Ponnelle, 1986) [live] Deutsche Grammophon

Rossini: ''Semiramide'' (Anderson, Ramey; Conlon, Copley, 1990) [live] Kultur

Verdi: ''Falstaff'' (Freni, Bonney, Lopardo, Plishka; Levine, Zeffirelli, 1992) [live] Deutsche Grammophon

Vivaldi: ''Orlando furioso'' (Behr, Pizzi, 1989) [live] Kultur

Works

''Marilyn Horne: The Song Continues'' by Marilyn Horne and Jane Scovell, Baskerville Publishers; ISBN 1880909715

''Marilyn Horne: My Life'' by Marilyn Horne and Jane Scovell, Atheneum Books; ISBN 068911401X

Sources

External links

The Marilyn Horne Foundation

Discography (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)

Category:1934 births Category:American female singers Category:American opera singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Operatic mezzo-sopranos Category:Pancreatic cancer survivors Category:People from Echo Park, Los Angeles Category:People from Bradford, Pennsylvania Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:University of Southern California alumni Category:American mezzo-sopranos

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Giacomo Meyerbeer (5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.

Biography

Early years

He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf (now a part of Rüdersdorf), near Berlin with the name Jacob Liebmann Beer. His father was the enormously wealthy financier Jacob Judah Herz Beer (1769-1825) and his much-beloved mother, Amalia Liebmann Meyer Wulff (1767-1854) also came from the wealthy elite. Their other children included the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the poet Michael Beer.

thumb|left|Statue of Meyerbeer in the Belgian town of [[Spa,_Belgium|Spa, where he stayed many times]] Beer's first keyboard instructor was Franz Lauska, a pupil of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and a favoured teacher at the Berlin court. Beer also became one of Muzio Clementi's pupils while Clementi was in Berlin, and old Clementi himself, although he had long given up teaching, was so much struck, during a visit to Berlin, with the promise displayed in the boy's performance as to consent to give Beer lessons. Beer made his public debut in 1801 playing Mozart's D minor Piano Concerto in Berlin. The ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' reported: 'The amazing keyboard playing of young Bär (a Jewish lad of 9), who carried off the difficult passages and other solo parts with aplomb, and has fine powers of rendition even more rarely found in one of his age, made the concert even more interesting'.

Throughout his youth, although he was determined to become a musician, Beer found it difficult to decide between playing and composition. Certainly other professionals in the decade 1810-1820, including Moscheles, considered him amongst the greatest virtuosi of his period.

Study in Italy and change of name

Beer, as he still was, studied with Antonio Salieri and the German master and friend of Goethe, Carl Friedrich Zelter. Realizing that a full understanding of Italian opera was essential for his musical development, however, he went to study in Italy for some years, during which time he adopted the first name "Giacomo." The "Meyer" in his surname he adopted after the death of his great-grandfather. It was during these years in Italy that he became acquainted with, and impressed by, the works of his contemporary Gioachino Rossini.

Recognition

thumb|right|Meyerbeer's grave in BerlinThe name Giacomo Meyerbeer first became known internationally with his opera ''Il crociato in Egitto'' — premiered in Venice in 1824 and produced in London and Paris in 1825; incidentally the last opera ever to feature a castrato. But Meyerbeer became virtually a superstar with ''Robert le diable'' (with libretto by Eugène Scribe and Casimir Delavigne), produced in Paris in 1831, one of the earliest grand operas.

The fusion of dramatic music, melodramatic plot, and sumptuous staging proved a sure-fire formula, which Meyerbeer would go on to repeat in ''Les Huguenots'' (1836), ''Le prophète'' (1849), and ''L'Africaine'', (produced posthumously, 1865). All of these operas held the international stage throughout the 19th century, as did the more pastoral ''Dinorah'' (1859).

Meyerbeer, who had settled in Paris, left for Berlin in 1842 to take the post of court music director, but he returned to Paris in 1849.

Wealth and faith

Meyerbeer's immense wealth (increased by the success of his operas) and his continuing adherence to his Jewish religion set him apart somewhat from many of his musical contemporaries. They also gave rise to malicious rumours that his success was due to his bribing musical critics. Richard Wagner (see below) accused him of being interested only in money, not music.

Meyerbeer was, however, a deeply serious musician and a sensitive personality. He philosophically resigned himself to being a victim of his own success: his extensive diaries and correspondence — which survived the turmoil of 20th century Europe and have now been published in seven volumes — are an invaluable source for the history of music and theatre in the composer's time. Meyerbeer was interred in the Berlin Jewish cemetery in Schönhauser Allee, amongst other members of the Beer family.

Meyerbeer and Richard Wagner

The vitriolic campaign of Richard Wagner against Meyerbeer was to a great extent responsible for the decline of Meyerbeer's popularity after his death in 1864. This campaign was as much a matter of personal spite as of racism - Wagner had learnt a great deal from Meyerbeer and indeed Wagner's early opera ''Rienzi'' (1842) has, facetiously, been called 'Meyerbeer's most successful work'. Meyerbeer supported the young Wagner, both financially and in obtaining a production of ''Rienzi'' at Dresden.

However, Wagner resented Meyerbeer's continuing success at a time when his own vision of German opera had little chance of prospering. After the May Uprising in Dresden of 1849, Wagner was for some years a political refugee facing a prison sentence or worse in Saxony. During this period when he was gestating his Ring cycle, he had few sources of income apart from journalism and benefactors, and little opportunity of getting his own works performed. The success of ''Le prophète'' sent Wagner over the edge, and he was also deeply envious of Meyerbeer's wealth. After Meyerbeer's death Wagner reissued his 1850 essay ''Das Judenthum in der Musik (Judaism in Music)'', in 1868, in an extended form, with a far more explicit attack on Meyerbeer. This version was under Wagner's own name - for the first version he had sheltered behind a pseudonym - and as Wagner had by now a far greater reputation, his views obtained far wider publicity.

These attacks on Meyerbeer (which also included a swipe at Felix Mendelssohn) are regarded by Paul Lawrence Rose as a significant milestone in the growth of German anti-Semitism.

Vernon Dobtcheff played Giacomo Meyerbeer, (a relatively minor role), in the 1983 film ''Wagner''.

Modern productions of Meyerbeer

Meyerbeer's costly operas, requiring grand casts of leading singers, were gradually dropped from the repertoire in the early 20th century. They were banned by the Nazi regime because the composer was Jewish, and this was a major factor in their further disappearance from the repertory. However, the operas are now beginning to be regularly revived and recorded, although (despite the efforts of such champions as Dame Joan Sutherland, who took part in performances of, and recorded, ''Les Huguenots'') they have yet to achieve anything like the huge popular following they attracted during their creator's lifetime.

Amongst reasons often adduced for the dearth of modern productions are the scale of Meyerbeer's more ambitious works and the cost of mounting them, as well as the alleged lack of virtuoso singers capable of doing justice to Meyerbeer's demanding music. However, recent successful productions of some of the major operas at relatively small centres such as Strasbourg (''L'Africaine'', 2004) and Metz (''Les Huguenots'', 2004) show that this conventional wisdom is not unchallengeable.

List of operas

{|class="wikitable" ! Title||First performance||Location||Notes |- |''Jephtas Gelübde'' ||23 December 1812|| Munich || |- |''Wirth und Gast, oder Aus Scherz Ernst''|| 6 January 1813 ||Stuttgart || |- |''Das Brandenburger Tor'' ||1814 || Berlin || |- |''Romilda e Costanza'' ||19 July 1817 || Padua || |- |''Semiramide riconosciuta''||March 1819 ||Teatro Regio, Turin || Libretto by Gaetano Rossi, after Pietro Metastasio. |- |''Emma di Resburgo'' ||26 June 1819|| Venice, San Benedetto || |- |''Margherita d’Anjou'' || 14 November 1820 ||Milan || |- |''L'Almanzore'' || || || Probably composed 1820-21 intended for Rome but unperformed there. While it is believed to have been unfinished it is also possible that it is an earlier version of ''L'esule di Granata'' |- |''L'esule di Granata''||12 March 1822||Milan|| |- |''Il crociato in Egitto'' ||7 March 1824 || La Fenice, Venice ||Frequently revised by Meyerbeer |- |''Robert le diable'' ||21 November 1831 || Paris Opéra, Salle Le Peletier || |- |''Les Huguenots'' ||29 February 1836 || Paris Opéra, Salle Le Peletier ||Sometimes staged during the 19th century under other titles such as ''The Guelfs and the Ghibellines'' or ''The Anglicans and the Puritans'' (see the Wikipedia article on the opera) |- |''Ein Feldlager in Schlesien''||7 December 1844 ||Hofoper, Berlin ||Revised as ''Vielka'', Vienna, 1847-02-18 |- |''Le prophète''|| 16 April 1849 ||Paris Opéra, Salle Le Peletier|| |- |''L'étoile du nord'' ||16 February 1854 ||Opéra-Comique, Paris||Partly based on the earlier ''Feldlager in Schlesien'', revised in Italian, London, Covent Garden, 19 July 1855 |- |''Le pardon de Ploërmel'' (or ''Dinorah'') ||4 April 1859 ||Opéra-Comique, Paris||Revised in Italian as ''Dinorah'', Covent Garden, London, 26 July 1859 |- ||''L'Africaine''||28 April 1865 ||Paris Opéra, Salle Le Peletier||Posthumous |}

Media

Recordings

A Meyerbeer discography (updated whenever an additional opera by Meyerbeer is issued on CD)

Recordings of Meyerbeer's operas as listed on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/

References

;Notes ;Sources

David Conway, ''Jewry in Music - Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner'', Cambridge, 2011. ISBN 978-1-107-01538-8

External links

Meyerbeer Fan Club site at meyerbeer.com

Article by David Conway on 'Meyerbeer the Jew' on his site dedicated to Jewish musicians

Meyerbeer cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library

Category:German Jews Category:Opera composers Category:Romantic composers Category:German composers Category:Musicians from Berlin Category:Burials in Berlin Category:Jewish classical musicians Category:Jewish composers and songwriters Category:Jewish German history Category:People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg Category:1791 births Category:1864 deaths Category:People from Märkisch-Oderland Category:19th-century German people Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Category:Music directors of the Berlin State Opera Category:General directors of the Berlin State Opera Category:Members of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art

be:Джакома Меербер bg:Джакомо Майербер bs:Giacomo Meyerbeer ca:Giacomo Meyerbeer cs:Giacomo Meyerbeer da:Giacomo Meyerbeer de:Giacomo Meyerbeer es:Giacomo Meyerbeer eo:Giacomo Meyerbeer eu:Giacomo Meyerbeer fr:Giacomo Meyerbeer ko:자코모 마이어베어 hy:Ջակոմո Մեյերբեր hr:Giacomo Meyerbeer id:Giacomo Meyerbeer it:Giacomo Meyerbeer he:ג'אקומו מאיירבר ka:ჯაკომო მეიერბერი la:Iacobus Meyerbeer hu:Giacomo Meyerbeer ms:Giacomo Meyerbeer nl:Giacomo Meyerbeer ja:ジャーコモ・マイアーベーア no:Giacomo Meyerbeer oc:Giacomo Meyerbeer pl:Giacomo Meyerbeer pt:Giacomo Meyerbeer ro:Giacomo Meyerbeer ru:Мейербер, Джакомо simple:Giacomo Meyerbeer sk:Giacomo Meyerbeer sl:Giacomo Meyerbeer sh:Giacomo Meyerbeer fi:Giacomo Meyerbeer sv:Giacomo Meyerbeer tr:Giacomo Meyerbeer uk:Джакомо Мейєрбер zh:贾科莫·梅耶贝尔

Gohar Gasparyan (; December 14, 1924, Cairo, Egypt – May 16, 2007, Yerevan, Armenia) also known as the ''"Armenian nightingale"'', was an Armenian opera singer.

Born in an Armenian family in Cairo, Gasparyan studied at a Music Academy in the city. In 1948 she migrated to Soviet Armenia along with hundreds of thousands of other Armenians from the Middle East.

From 1949 she performed at the Armenian Opera Theater in 23 operas during her long career, as well as performing at concerts. She also taught at Yerevan State Musical Conservatory.

Gasparyan was a People's Artist of the USSR, Socialist Work hero and Mesrop Mashtots order-bearer.

See also

Armenian opera

Literature

Davt'yan, R. G.: Hayots' sokhake: Gohar Gasparyan. Vol. 1. Erevan 2008. ISBN 978-99941-42-87-3 (In Armenian)

External links

Gohar Gasparyan deceased, A1+ News

Gohar Gasparyan died, PanArmenian.Net

Category:1924 births Category:2007 deaths Category:People from Cairo Category:Egyptian Armenians Category:People's Artists of the USSR Category:Armenian opera singers Category:Operatic sopranos

hy:Գոհար Գասպարյան ka:გოჰარ გასპარიანი ru:Гаспарян, Гоар Микаэловна

Name	George Wythe
Birth date	1726
Birth place	Elizabeth City County, Virginia
Death date	June 08, 1806
Death place	Virginia
Known for	signer of the United States Declaration of Independence
Signature	George Wythe signature.png }}

George Wythe (1726 – June 8, 1806) was an American lawyer, a judge, a prominent law professor and "Virginia's foremost classical scholar." He was a teacher and mentor of Thomas Jefferson. Wythe's signature is positioned at the head of the list of seven Virginia signatories on the United States Declaration of Independence. Wythe served as a representative of Virginia and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention—though he left the Convention early and did not sign the final version of the Constitution.

Wythe is believed to have been murdered in June 1806 by arsenic poisoning by his grandnephew George Wythe Sweeney. He was likely targeting Lydia Broadnax, Wythe's housekeeper, and Michael Brown, a 16-year-old mixed-race boy who lived in the household, to whom Wythe had made bequests in his will. Brown died a week before Wythe but Broadnax survived. As blacks were prevented by law from testifying at trials against whites, Broadnax and other servants could not tell about having seen Sweeney's suspicious actions, and he was acquitted.

Some historians have suggested that Broadnax was Wythe's concubine, or common-law wife, and Brown their son, but Philip D. Morgan disagrees and suggests Brown was not related to either Broadnax or Wythe.

Early life and education

Wythe was born in 1726 in Hampton, Virginia. His mother, a learned woman, had taught him at home, and started Wythe on extensive study. After the early deaths of both his parents, Wythe lost his way for a while, but had the benefit of a patrimony from his father.

Career

At about age 30, Wythe started "reading the law" with John Lewis, and was admitted to the bar. He made law and learning his life.

In turn, Wythe later had numerous students assist in his law office, including Thomas Jefferson, his law clerk for five years; Henry Clay, and John Breckinridge. Of these men, Wythe was closest to Thomas Jefferson, whom he first met as his student at William and Mary College. In their friendship, together the two men read all sorts of other material, from English literary works, to political philosophy, to the ancient classics.

Wythe served as mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia, from 1768 to 1769. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, voting in favor of the resolution for independence and signing the Declaration of Independence. He helped form the new government of Virginia, and was elected Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1777. As part of a committee, he designed the Seal of Virginia, inscribed with the motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis", which is still in use today.

In 1779 he was appointed to the newly created Chair of Law at William and Mary, becoming the first law professor in the United States. During his decade there, Wythe taught many students, including the future presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, and future Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Marshall.

In 1787, George Washington appointed Wythe, along with Alexander Hamilton and Charles Pinckney, to draw up rules and procedures for the Constitutional Convention. In 1789 Wythe was appointed a Judge of the Chancery Court of Virginia.

Marriage and family

Wythe married Elizabeth Taliaferro. They had 1 child. Her father, Richard Taliaferro, built the Wythe home in Williamsburg, Virginia.

After her death, he married again and was widowed again. He had no children with his second wife.

Move to Richmond

After the death of his second wife in 1787, Wythe moved to Richmond from Williamsburg in 1791. He took with him his housemaid and cook Lydia Broadnax (1740-after 1806), whom he had freed on 15 September 1787, a month after the death of his second wife. She was about 45 at the time. A young mixed-race son Michael Brown, born free in 1790, lived with her in Wythe's household in Richmond. Wythe took an interest in Brown's education. He had freed another adult slave, Benjamin, on 29 January 1797, as well as others after that. Benjamin worked as Wythe's servant in Richmond and was named in his will.

By 1805, Wythes' grandnephew George Wythe Sweeney had come to live with him, but the judge found the young man had trouble with alcohol and gambling, even at age 17. He stole some of his uncle's books for sales and tried to cash a forged check to get funds.

Manumission of slaves

A planter and slaveholder, Wythe became an abolitionist after the Revolutionary War. After his second wife's death, he divested himself of most of his slaves. He freed his housemaid Lydia Broadnax, as well as Benjamin, a house servant, and other slaves. He also provided them with support for their transitions to freedom. During the first two decades after the war, so many Virginians freed slaves that the percentage of free blacks in the state rose from less than 1 percent to nearly 10 percent by 1810. As noted, Broadnax accompanied Wythe and continued to work for him, but by 1797 Broadnax owned her own home in Richmond and took in boarders. The historian Philip D. Morgan suggests Brown may have been the son of another woman, whom, Broadnax took in.

Wythe provided a settlement in his will for Broadnax and Michael Brown, by then 16 years old. Broadnax had worked for decades as his cook. Wythe also provided in his will money for the boy Brown's education. He had taken interest in Michael, taught him Greek and shared his library with him.

The Jefferson biographer Fawn M. Brodie and others have suggested that Broadnax was Wythe's concubine and Brown was their son. In her book of 1973, she was the first to write seriously that Thomas Jefferson likely had a relationship with Sally Hemings, 25 years before much historiography was reevaluated, and a DNA study showed a match between the Jefferson male line and a Hemings descendant. The historian Philip D. Morgan believes that the fact that Wythe fathered no children with his two wives, and his and Broadnax's ages at the time of Brown's birth, suggest that he was not the son of either person. He also noted in his 1999 essay on interracial relations in the Chesapeake Bay area, that there had been no gossip about them at the time.

Murder and trial

On May 25, Wythe, Broadnax and Brown all became violently ill. Two days later, Wythe's other heir, his 18-year-old grand-nephew, George Wythe Sweeney, tried to cash a $100 check drawn on his great-uncle's account. Although gravely ill, Wythe contended that Sweeney had tried to murder him, but doctors at first diagnosed the three with cholera. Broadnax said she had seen Sweeney put a powder in their morning coffee.

Sweeney was charged with poisoning Wythe, Broadnax and Brown with arsenic. The judge at age 80 lingered long enough to change his will and eliminate his bequest to Sweeney. Brown died on June 1, 1806, and Wythe on June 8, but Broadnax survived the poisoning. The Virginia race laws prohibited her as a black from testifying at the trial.

At trial in Virginia, Sweeney was acquitted of murder. Historians believe this was primarily because of a law forbidding testimony by black witnesses, whether free or enslaved. Sweeney was tried for forgery of the check and convicted. With his conviction overruled on appeal, Sweeney was said to have gone to Tennessee. There he reportedly stole a horse, was convicted and served a term in a penitentiary. Afterward he was lost to history.

In his will, Wythe left his extraordinary book collection to Thomas Jefferson. This became part of Jefferson's own sale to create the Library of Congress. He described Wythe as "... my ancient master, my earliest and best friend, and to him I am indebted for first impressions which have [been] the most salutary on the course of my life."

Wythe's funeral was the largest in state history until that time. Richmond businesses closed for the day, and thousands lined the funeral route. The service was conducted at the state capitol. Wythe was buried at St. John's Church in Richmond, where Patrick Henry had given his "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" speech.

Legacy and honors

Wythe's home in Williamsburg, Virginia stands next to Bruton Parish Church, of which Wythe was a vestryman. It was acquired by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 1938. Today it serves as a museum, the Wythe House.

Several places in Virginia were named for him: Wythe County, Virginia, its county seat Wytheville; high schools in Wytheville and Richmond; an elementary school in Hampton; a section of US-301 named Wythe Street in Petersburg; and the Olde Wythe Neighborhood in Hampton.

The Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

George Wythe College of Cedar City, Utah was named for him.

George Wythe Randolph, the Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America was named after him.

See also

George Wythe House

Founding Fathers of the United States

U.S. Constitution, nationalist organizer in Convention.

Notes

External links

Philosophy and Biography on Wythe, George Wythe University website

Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, "Biography of George Wythe", 1856, at Colonial Hall Website

Category:1726 births Category:1806 deaths Category:American abolitionists Category:American Episcopalians Category:American legal scholars Category:American murder victims Category:American people of English descent Category:Continental Congressmen from Virginia Category:Deaths by poisoning Category:House of Burgesses members Category:Murdered politicians Category:People from Elizabeth City County, Virginia Category:People murdered in Virginia Category:People of Virginia in the American Revolution Category:Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence Category:Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates Category:The College of William & Mary alumni Category:The College of William & Mary faculty Category:Virginia Supreme Court justices

de:George Wythe fr:George Wythe la:Georgius Wythe ja:ジョージ・ワイス (独立宣言署名者) pl:George Wythe simple:George Wythe uk:Джордж Віт