ABOUT THIS BOOK

This volume provides an English translation of firsthand testimonies by three early modern French women. It illustrates the Huguenot experience of persecution and exile during the bloodiest times in the history of Protestantism: the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, the dragonnades, and the Huguenot exodus following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The selections given here feature these women’s experiences of escape, the effects of religious strife on their families, and their reliance on other women amid the terrors of war.

Edited by Colette H. Winn. Translated by Lauren King and Colette H. Winn
The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, Vol. 68

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Colette H. Winn, professor of French at Washington University, specializes in the edition and the study of early modern writings by women.

Lauren King is completing a PhD in French literature at Washington University. Her doctoral dissertation examines conceptualizations of the Other in seventeenth-century French literature.

REVIEWS

"Three Women’s Stories of the Huguenot experience in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France is a fine addition to The Other Voice series. Lively and interesting translations accurately reflect the different styles of the originals. Charlotte Duplessis-Mornay’s Memoir of her husband records her own escape during the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, and the death of her son in the religious wars that would follow. Anne de Chaufepié’s Journal, 'based on what I wrote in France as those things were happening,' is a fascinatingly detailed account of her own experiences, and those of the women who suffered imprisonment and exile with her. Anne Marguerite Petit Du Noyer, writing nearly twenty years after her own adventurous flight, describes her journey from Lyon to Geneva and on to The Hague."

— Jane Couchman, York University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
The Other Voice 1
Charlotte Arbaleste Duplessis-Mornay (1548–1606) 3
Anne de Chaufepié (February 20, 1640–?) 7
Anne Marguerite Petit Du Noyer (1663–1719) 10
A Brief History of the Huguenots 14
Calvinist Theology and Human History 18
Tales of Survival 23
Women Crossing Borders 24
Families in Crisis 28
Women’s Friendship and Solidarity 32
Note on the Translation 38
Madame de Mornay, Memoirs (1584–1606) 43
Part One: The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre 43
Part Two: The Death of Her Son Philippe 53
Anne de Chaufepié, Journal (1689) 59
Madame Du Noyer, Memoirs (1703–1710) 81
Appendices
Glossary of Places 105
Table of Currencies and Values 111
Chronology 113
Testimonial Literature by Huguenot Women 123
Bibliography 127
Index 139