DRAGONADES (Fr.. from tirngon, dra goon, so called either from their firearm, which was ornamented with the head of a dragon, or from their standard, which lute a dragon). The name applied to a series of religious persecutions in France, which was inaugurated sh•artly be fore the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1683), and rontititied for some thne. Louis :%linister of 'War, the Due de Lotavois. was responsible for the cruel measures taken to compel the l'rotestant- to renounce their faith and enter the Boman Cluueh. .\ meal expeditions marched through (lie provinces de manding of the Iluguenots in the towns and villages that they should ab jure their faith. Foremost among the armed forty rode dragitam., who, on ameount of their barbarity, had the unenviable honor of giving a name to the persecutions. It was the custom to quarter the dragoons in the lion-es of those who showed thetnsel••.; particularly obstinate in denying the doetrine. of Catholi cism. The ontraoe. committed by a brutal sol
diery free front all restraint, and. in fact• en couraged in their lieention. conduct, made life with honor impossible for the and drove thousands of families out of the country or into the bosom of the Louis ryas delighted to find that front two hundred and tiny to four hundred Protestants were being converted daily. anal in consequence, on 2•. 16s.1. a ten month- after the date of the first of the perseeut hots. he revoked the Edict oaf Notate. that the good work might be fully accomplished. Under Lotlis NV. the &apt nada.. were rch.wetl by the chief minister, the Due ale Bourbon. Consult: Roussel, Ilisioire Loiteois t I vols., ('aris, 1563) ; Tylor, 'The Huguenots in the Serenteenth Century ( London, 18a12) ; Perkins, France Under the Rewney (Boston, 1892) ; Baird, The Huguenots and the Rerora!iun of the Edict of antes (New York, 18951.