Religious persecution

Huguenots sought protection from religious persecution; settlers in Ulster pursued opportunities within a Crown-backed scheme that dispossessed Irish landowners; Highland tenants were displaced by estate reorganisation and hardship. In each case, migration altered the livelihoods, cultures and identities of both departing and receiving communities.

Religious persecution helped drive these migrations. Flemish and Walloon Protestants fled Catholic persecution and conflict in the Low Countries during the sixteenth century. Huguenots were French Protestants who sought safety in England, particularly after the French government revoked the Edict of Nantes, removing their religious protection.