Who they were
From about 1536 until 1789 French Protestants were a persecuted minority in France, they were given the name 'Huguenots' in the time of the Reformation. The word may come from the German word Eidgenossen, or "confederates," a term once applied to Swiss Protestants.
Struggle
By the middle of the 16th century, the Huguenots by their numbers and influence had become a threat to the French establishment, in their struggles for religious freedom, the Huguenots were driven to become a political party and even a "state within the state," headed by some of the greatest French nobles.
The wars
Eight separate wars followed, the last ending in 1598 when Henry IV--who had been a Huguenot himself but had agreed to conform to the Roman Catholic Church--issued the Edict of Nantes which gave French Protestants political rights, religious freedom, and the possession of certain fortified towns.
Flight
The continuing tensions erupted once more when Louis XIV (1643-1715) revoked the Edict of Nantes In 1685 removing all protection of law from the Huguenots, he used his soldiers to persecute and inflict dragonnades on the Huguenots, he forbade them to leave France, but their lives had become so intolerable that hundreds of thousands fled to the surrounding Protestant Countries.
Spitalfields
The Huguenot refugees fleeing France virtually wiped out the great silk mills of Tours, many flocked to East London in large numbers, bringing their French arts, manufacturing skills, and culture with them, most settled in and around Spitalfields where they established a major weaving industry.
