Louvois sent a cavalry regiment to Poitou to go into winter quarters. The Kings quarter master, Marcillac, housed them in Huguenot homes: he allowed them to pillage and ruin their hosts if they did not wish to convert. Recalcitrants were ill-treated and even tortured. A wave of conversions followed. This first dragonnade was the prelude to the general dragonnade of 1685 in the southern Loire, which was followed shortly after by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Article : The “Dragonnades” (1681-1685)