The English word “refugee” would come about due to Huguenots exile and escape from France which amounted to some 1/4th million out of France’s 20 million citizens, and during the years 1572-1690, most of which were concentrated in the West and in the South.
After over 50,000 had fled to England, they made up 5% of London town at a time when the London population was 10% of England. Genetically, the statistical probability that the next English person you meet in England will have at least some Huguenot ancestry is 75%. Refer to
From: Bernard Cottret’s The Huguenot in England and to Peter Steven Gannon’s volume on Refugees in the Settling of Colonial America.
[NOTE: This movement of refugees is said to have been the "largest forced migration of Europeans in the early modern period." Refer to Jon Butler's The Huguenot in America: A Refugee People in New World Society. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1983.
Huguenot descendant short list:
Robert Duvall, Warren Buffet, Johnny Depp, Steve Forbes, Lawrence Olivier, Charlize Theron, Winston Churchill,Tyrone Power, Megan Fox, John Rockefeller, George Patton, George Will, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Tiffany, A.I. Dupont, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Jay, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Francis Marion, Davy Crockett, John Sevier, Peter Mark Roget, James Bayard, Jean Belmain--French scholar,French-language tutor to King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I. George Washington and over a dozen American Presidents also have documented Huguenot ancestry. Many more world citizens,knowingly and unknowingly, share this legacy of honor.
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THE EXILE FROM FRANCE...
Your sunny shores,
Your rugged peaks,
Your vineyards, fields, and forests,
Your flowery gardens in bloom,
With red, yellow, lavender, pink, and blue,
Your meandering rivers,
Your flowing streams,
Your roads that lead everywhere,
Your humble hamlets,
Your teeming towns,
Your courtly cities ablaze,
Your toiling farmers,
Your masterful merchants,
Your artful artisans and would-be scholars,
Your poor, pious, pampered, and princely,
Men and women of all nuances and shades,
Your lives so colorful,
Vivaciously vibrant,
But oppressive,
Struggling to be free,
To break the shackles of an ancient age,
Blood of my fathers,
Tears of my mothers,
Roots of my branches,
All intertwined in your soil so deep,
My mother earth,
My father land,
How my heart weeps for you,
From whom I was so cruelly exiled,
In leaking boats,
Over frightful borders,
Hurried journeys in the darkened nights,
Leaving behind so much of me,
Embittered, impoverished, but free,
Angered by the fearful tyrant,
The betraying countrymen,
The yoke of intolerance,
Saddened by the theft of freedom,
The rupture of dreams,
The hopeful hope of a speedy return,
A new beginning,
In a strange new land,
Different, engulfing, demanding,
But flexible, sensitive, and free,
This land that welcomed me,
Exhausted, lonely, afraid,
Sadder, but wiser,
Stronger and prouder,
Reaffirmed in honor,
From a life torn asunder,
This exile that became me,
Days turned into years,
And years into decades,
And generations multiply and divide,
A new language,
A new name,
A new home,
New loves to love,
In this no longer strange new land,
But, your sunny shores,
Your rugged peaks,
Your vineyards, fields, and forests,
Your flowery gardens in bloom,
With red, yellow, lavender, pink, and blue,
My colorfully vibrant memories,
That my mind cannot repress,
My meandering gazes ablaze,
That go with me everywhere,
My mother earth,
My father land,
How my soul dreams of you,
I am a part of you,
And you are a part of me,
The dreams,
The hope,
The faith,
That neither tyranny,
Nor time,
Can ever erase.
Abraham D. Lavender
In 1985 French President Mitterrand would issue an official apology to the Huguenots, on behalf of the French government and the French people, for Louis XIV's diktat revoking the Edict of Nantes, and a commemorative postage stamp would be issued characterizing this our modern era as under the suasion of "Tolerance, Pluralism, Brotherhood."]
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