From the 16th to the 18th century the name Huguenot was describing a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. They are sometimes known as the French Calvinists.
After the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 and the French Wars of Religion hundreds of thousands of French Protestants fled France, some to the East End of London, specifically Soho and Spitalfields. The Treaty of Nantes allowed them to stay in France without being massacred
