Find the word definition

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dragonnade

Dragonnade \Drag`on*nade"\ (dr[a^]g`[o^]n*n[=a]d"), n. [F., fr. dragon dragoon, because Louis XIV., in persecuting the Protestants of his kingdom, quartered dragoons upon them.] The severe persecution of French Protestants under Louis XIV., by an armed force, usually of dragoons; hence, a rapid and devastating incursion; dragoonade.

He learnt it as he watched the dragonnades, the tortures, the massacres of the Netherlands.
--C. Kingsley.

Wiktionary
dragonnade

n. a policy by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis%20XIV to intimidate Huguenots to reconvert to Roman Catholicism

Usage examples of "dragonnade".

Saint Bartholomew and the Dragonnades are explained by religion, the Sicilian Vespers and the butcheries of September are explained by patriotism.

Thus, alongside of the church militant with its prisons, dragonnades, and inquisition methods, we have the church fugient, as one might call it, with its hermitages, monasteries, and sectarian organizations, both churches pursuing the same object—to unify the life,11 and simplify the spectacle presented to the soul.