“From the outset,” Geoffrey Treasure tells us in this impressive history, “the Huguenot story, essentially about faith, is also to be one of politics and personalities.” The Reformed religion first gained ground in France under Francis I, the contemporary of England’s Henry VIII. With no marital problems to bring him into conflict with the Pope, Francis had Protestants burned, “their tongues cut out first to prevent a scaffold speech”. This failed to prevent their spread, thanks partly to the genius of John Calvin who, from the safety of the free city of Geneva, sent missionaries to save the souls of his fellow countrymen in France. This Calvinist evangelisation was remarkably successful: by 1598 there were around a million Huguenots (the origin