Facing the Revocation

Facing the Revocation tells the story of one French Protestant (Huguenot) family, the Champagns, as they faced the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which criminalized their religion in 1685. In this sweeping family saga, Carolyn Chappell Lougee narrates how the Champagn family's persecution and Protestant devotion unsettled their economic advantages and social standing. The family provides a window onto the choices that individuals and their kin had to make in these trying circumstances, the agency of women within families, and the consequences of their choices. Lougee traces the lives of the family members who escaped; the kin and community members who decided to stay, both complying with and resisting the king's will; and those who resettled in Britain and Prussia, where they adapted culturally and became influential members of society. It challenges the way Huguenot history has been told for 300 years and thereby offers new insights into the reign of Louis XIV.