Besançon Hugues (French pronunciation: [bəzɑ̃sɔ̃ yɡ]; 1487 – 1532) was a Swiss political and religious leader who was a member of the Grand Council of Geneva. He participated in the rebellion against the rule of the Savoy dynasty, which led to the independence of Geneva in 1526.
He entered the powerful lesser council (Petit Conseil) in 1515, taking over the leadership of the pro-independence faction in the Grand Council of Geneva from Philibert Berthelier in 1517.
The Huguenots (/ˈhjuːɡənɒts/ HEW-gə-nots, UK also /-noʊz/ -nohz; French: [yɡ(ə)no]) are a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Besançon Hugues, was in common use by the mid-16th century. Huguenot was frequently used in reference to those of the Reformed Church of France from the time of the Protestant Reformation. By contrast, the Protestant populations of eastern France, in Alsace, Moselle, and Montbéliard, were mainly Lutherans.
In his Encyclopedia of Protestantism, Hans Hillerbrand wrote that on the eve of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572, the Huguenot community made up as much as 10% of the French population. By 1600, it declined to 7–8%, and was reduced further late in the century after the return of persecution under Louis XIV, who instituted the Dragonnades to forcibly convert Protestants, and then finally revoked all Protestant rights in his Edict of Fontainebleau of 1685. In 1686, the Protestant population sat at 1% of the population.
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