Huguenots and an Eccentric King in Seventeenth Century France by Kerry Chaput
The Defying the Crown trilogy tells the story of struggling seventeenth-century Huguenot Isabelle Colette. Through the course of the series, Isabelle fights battle after battle against her Catholic oppressors. She flees to Canada to take part in the King of France’s Fille du Roi (Daughters of the King) program, where money, freedom, and opportunity abound, but to save herself from the Catholics, she must become one of them.
Book three in this trilogy will release on March 21, 2024. Daughter of Snow and Secrets is the culmination of twenty years of fight for our Huguenot (French Protestant) heroine Isabelle. She has grown, matured, and hardened. Her final struggle is one of identity and purpose, where she must decide if she can morally tolerate another twenty years of fighting in the name of freedom.
Throughout this series, my historical research has taken me to new and exciting places. As usual, I was drawn to stories of women I had never heard before: The Filles du Roi who held husband interviews and could break marriage contracts, the women who poisoned abusive men at King Louis’s court, the mistress who held Black Mass to remain in the king’s favor. This trilogy gave me a chance to showcase women characters in an action-adventure setting, and I loved taking Isabelle on her journey from helpless Huguenot to powerful fighter.
When you’re writing a story set in the seventeenth century, finding primary sources can prove nearly impossible. Luckily, Daughter of Snow and Secrets takes place in one of the most well documented, well researched places in the world—Versailles.
As I wrote a chase scene through the gardens, I realized right away that the layout, design, and names for King Louis XIV’s gardens is vastly different than what we know today. The Versailles website came to my rescue. With 3-D videos of Versailles over the years, I was able to track building progress as well as the layout and names of the gardens. What began as a hunting lodge grew to outlandish proportions at the hands of the eccentric King Louis XIV.
One can find endless articles on the grandeur of Versailles, but I needed the gritty, taboo details. I discovered the prostitutes in the woods surrounding the palace, the off-putting personal hygiene of courtiers, and the king’s sweating affliction. The strange and unexpected add so much texture to a story, and the research for Versailles did not disappoint. I included the menagerie of exotic animals and the king’s ballet performances; fireworks shows and themed gardens.
Although this trilogy is high action, the beating heart of the story is freedom. My characters, a trio of Huguenot women, all come to the Protestant resistance for their own reasons. From revenge to hope, they share a common goal, led by my main character Isabelle who’s on a righteous journey to save everyone who didn’t escape France as she did. Her deep desire for goodness is constantly challenged in a world that requires survival. She struggles with survivor guilt, and as the series moves along, her family grows, and so does the complication of leading the resistance.
As I began to write this final book in the trilogy, I knew the time period needed to align with The Dragonnades (https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-dragonnades-1681-1685/). Between 1681 and 1685, French authorities carried out a cruel program aimed at converting every Huguenot through any means necessary. As my main character lives and breathes Protestant resistance, this program had to be the culmination of her story arc.
The Huguenot struggle is a heartbreaking one, yet very important to understand, as their artisan skills and education contributed greatly to France’s economy. During the mid-1500’s, the reformed ideas of Protestantism had spread through Europe, and the leaders in France immediately attempted to harass and intimidate those that opposed their Catholic ideals. As the movement spread through written text, their followers ended up being highly educated and in positions of power, some even marrying into the Royal Family. French leaders enacted laws, carried out massacres, and empowered local authorities to torture “heretics” to force conversion. All this did was drive Huguenots underground and force them to flee their homeland. The Dragonnades was a desperate attempt to force an already failing mission to convert all of France to the king’s religion.
During their torture and harassment, Huguenots were denied exile, forced to remain in France with an expectation of conversion to Catholicism. Many fought for their right to exist, secretly escaping to friendlier countries like England, Geneva, or Germany. Many settled in the American colonies. The Huguenot diaspora, around 200,000 strong, decimated France’s economy, contributing to eventual revolution.
Many people have asked me if I am Catholic or Protestant. I am neither. I’m not certain why I chose to write about this religious conflict when I discovered the story of the Filles du Roi during an ancestry search for my husband. I think the idea of a young girl sentenced to a life of torture unless she stood up to change the system appealed to me. I’ve always been drawn to stories that show the power of young women, and I so rarely see that in historical fiction books. In book one of the trilogy, Isabelle is forced to convert to save herself, a decision that haunts her for the rest of her life. I loved exploring the idea that we can’t ever change who we believe to be on the inside. Isabelle is a fighter. She believes in deep unwavering goodness, and she needs those two things to thrive. Living the safe life of a Catholic wife was her own kind of torture.
In Daughter of Snow and Secrets, you will find chase scenes, fighting, revenge, and details of life at Versailles. But deeper than that, you’ll find the redemption of a woman who let the world dictate who she would be. Historical fiction, for me, is not about the facts and the clothing and the immersive setting. It’s about the slow, thousands-of years-long process of teaching women to rise up and take ownership of their lives. One girl at a time, we can change. One story at a time, we shift our consciousness and encourage every woman out there to stay true to who they were before the world tried to break them.
Resources used in my research:
One of my favorite websites is Party Like its 1660. The content is just as wild as its name! Here are the 3D videos of Versailles through the years: http://www.versailles3d.com/en/in-video/from-louis-xiii-to-the-french-revolution.html
Did you know you can still hike the trails Huguenots once used to flee their homeland? It took everything in me not to book a direct flight to the countryside of France and hike those hills to Geneva.
Want more background on the Protestant struggle? Check out the online Protestant Museum.
Versailles: A Biography of a Palace by Tony Spawforth
Kerry Chaput is an award-winning historical fiction author. Her love of the past inspires her action-adventure stories which focus on young women from history, first love, found family, and a touch of magic. Born and raised in California, she now lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, a common setting for her novels. Connect with her at www.kerrywrites.com
Buy link for Daughter of Snow and Secrets
https://www.amzn.com/B09CJG99S2/
I confess I’m not really sure what a Huguenot is. Named for a region?
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The Huguenots were Protestants in France in the 16th and 17th centuries during the period of the Reformation. They followed the teachings of John Calvin, and so, were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church. Eventually the majority of the Huguenots left France for other countries including the New World French holding that would become Canada and the English colonies. They also dispersed to England, the Netherlands, Germany, and other Protestant majority nations. Their departure created a significant financial problem for France because the Huguenots were particularly adept in the textiles crafts, were fairly well educated for their time, and known as reliable workers.
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These novels sound fabulous.
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