A Dragonnade Scene in France, circa 1681-1685

This Dutch print illustrates the dragonnades, a policy of forced conversion implemented from 1681 in Poitou and later extended across the kingdom. Dragoons of the royal army were forcibly billeted with Protestant families, with implicit permission to mistreat inhabitants and plunder their belongings, only new converts being exempt from this burden. This practice, which forced tens of thousands of conversions, provoked lasting indignation throughout Protestant Europe and paved the way for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.