The rise in the number of French Protestants excited the alarm and hatred of the French Roman Catholics. The religious hatred was intensified by political rivalry between the house of Valois, then in possession of the French throne, and the house of Guise. Catherine de Médicis, widow of Henry II, who governed in the name of her son, King Charles IX, at times, allied herself with the Huguenots for political reasons, but generally sided against them. The Huguenots were persecuted severely in Charles's reign, and they in turn made reprisals upon the Roman Catholics. Finally, open civil war broke out. Between 1562 and 1598 eight bitter wars were fought between French Roman Catholics and Protestants.

The Huguenot leaders in the first of the nearly four decades of conflict were Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé, and the French admiral Gaspard de Coligny; subsequently they were led by Henry of Navarre, later Henry IV, king of France.

The principal Roman Catholic leaders were Henri I de Lorraine, 3rd duc de Guise; Catherine de Médicis; and King Henry III. Each side from time to time called on foreign help. The Huguenots obtained troops from England, Germany, and Switzerland; the Roman Catholics, from Spain. The treaties that concluded the wars usually granted the Huguenots some measure of tolerance, but the government's subsequent ignoring or outright repudiation of the terms of the treaties led to a renewal of hostilities. The greatest act of treachery of the period took place in 1572. Two years previously, Catherine and Charles IX had signed a treaty with the Huguenots granting them freedom of worship; they had remained on friendly terms with the Huguenots, calling Coligny to court, where he enjoyed great influence. Having lulled the Huguenots into a feeling of security, on August 25, 1572, St. Bartholomew's Day, the queen mother and the king caused thousands of them to be massacred in Paris and elsewhere in France. Coligny was found and killed by the duc de Guise himself.

The eighth civil war took place during the reign of Henry III, successor to Charles IX. The Huguenots, now led by Henry of Navarre, inflicted (1587) a crushing defeat upon the Roman Catholics at Coutras. Strife among the Catholics themselves, which resulted in the assassinations of the duc de Guise in 1588 and Henry III in 1589, helped the Huguenot cause. With the death of Henry III the house of Valois became extinct, and Henry of Navarre, the first of the Bourbon line, became king of France as Henry IV. To avoid further civil strife, he conciliated the Roman Catholics by converting to Catholicism in 1593. In 1598 Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes, by which the Huguenots received almost complete religious freedom.

Under Henry IV the Huguenots became a strong power in France. To break this power, which stood in the way of the absolutist type of government that the next two kings of France, Louis XIII and, particularly, Louis XIV, wished to impose on the country, both monarchs instigated new persecutions of the Huguenots, and new civil wars took place. The French statesman Cardinal Richelieu caused the political downfall of the Huguenots with the capture (1628), after a long siege, of their principal stronghold, La Rochelle. Thereafter he sought to conciliate the Protestants. Louis XIV, however, persecuted them mercilessly, and on 18th October, 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes. Finding life in France intolerable under the ensuing persecutions and evaporation of religious liberty, hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled to England, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the English colonies in North America, including Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina. The total emigration is believed to have been from 400,000 to 1 million, with about 1 million Protestants remaining in France. Thousands of Protestants settled in the Cévennes mountain region of France and became known as Camisards; the attempt of the government to extirpate them resulted in the Camisard War (1702-05). The enlightened and religiously sceptical spirit of the 18th century, however, was opposed to religious persecution, and during this time the French Protestants gradually regained many of their rights. Although Louis XV issued an edict in 1752 declaring marriages and baptisms by Protestant clergymen null and void, under Louis XVI the edict was recalled. After 1787, Protestant marriages were declared legal, and Protestants were granted other rights as well. Several laws passed later in the 19th century gave full religious freedom to all French sects, including the Protestants. In the 19th and 20th centuries French Protestants, although comparatively few in number, have been influential in French life, playing an important part in education, law, and finance, and in general taking a liberal stand on social reform.

Immediately after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, one William Rosamond, a Huguenot, fled from France. He was married to a lady whose maiden name had been Anne d’Orr . (French ‘of gold’).

There are a number of researchers looking into the family history.The findings of some are as follows:

1. In 1925 William Sam Rosamond did a relatively complete genealogy. His research indicated that we were descended from a Huguenot born in France sometime in the mid to late 1600s. He discovered that his earliest traceable ancestor was a "Sergeant" Rosamond who left France following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes on 22nd October 1685. He found that Sergeant Rosamond supposedly travelled to Holland where he joined the army of William III, went to England, and from there went with William's army to Ireland. He fought in the Battle of the Boyne on 1st July 1690 (by the old calendar – 12th July by the new calendar) and then remained in County Leitrim, Ireland. (There is still a family of Rosamonds in County Leitrim.) He had three sons, two of whom went to the American colonies and settled in the mid-Atlantic region. One of the sons’ names was either John or Thomas Rosamond. Current researchers have not been able to confirm this connection. It appears probable that the American branch of the family are descended from John "The Highwayman" Rosamond who arrived in Annapolis, Maryland in 1725. He was sentenced to be transported into 14 years servitude for robbery from the Oxford Assizes. This John could be the son of Sergeant William Rosamond, and the mix up in names likely stems from the fact that his father-in-law's name was Thomas Wilson.

2. Mary Jane Loya of California, whose mother was born in County Leitrim, Ireland, still has cousins living in England, some of whom are also researching the family history. Her family there has the same story of Sergeant Rosamond except that they show his name as James, and say that he took part in the Battle of the Boyne on 1st July 1690. He distinguished himself during the battle and William III, following the battle, knighted him. The family in England, specifically her cousin Jane, has a Coat of Arms for the family name, which is supposed to date back to that date.

3. Tom Rosamond, one of the current researchers in the US, had a Heraldry House in Boston do research on a family crest, and a crest was discovered that originated in Ireland. This crest exactly matches the one that Mary Jane Loya has. 4. My father, Robert Henry Rosamond (1909 – 1987), did a great deal of research into the family history. He told me (how I wish I had paid more attention) that we were descended from the Huguenots and that the he had managed to trace as far back as a William Rosamond, a Huguenot who left France in the late 17th century. He said that one of the sons of William Rosamond had settled in Sandwich and started a silk weaving business that had later been moved to Bethnal Green. He had discovered that one member of the family had been deported from Oxford Assizes for Highway Robbery in the 18th century.

I have looked with considerable interest at all the available data and I have come to the following conclusions with some confidence:

1. Sergeant William Rosamond was married to a woman called Anne d’Orr (1) and had at least two or three sons, possibly more. There was a John, a Nathaniel and at least one other son, probably more, as it is thought that one stayed in Ireland.

2. There is no doubt at all, as it is on public record, that John Rosamond was deported having committed either highway robbery or a robbery of some description (both very serious offences for which the perpetrator was usually hanged) in Oxfordshire. He landed in Annapolis, Maryland in 1725 on a ship called the ‘Forward’. He was probably very young and had sufficient money to pay his fare to America and was therefore sent for transportation for life indentured for 14 years labour.

3. It is probable that one of the sons, probably Nathaniel, died in the American War of Independence. There is also little doubt that one of the other sons, I am not sure which, finished up in Sandwich which was then a very important port on the South coast of England (one of the Cinque Ports (2) ) where he started a silk weaving business. No doubt silk would have been imported into Sandwich. Eventually the business moved to Bethnal Green (then known as Bednal Green) a small village that was situated about a mile to the East of the City of London boundary wall. As London grew so Bethnal Green was eventually incorporated as a London Borough of which my father was one time Mayor. There is quite a large family of Rosamonds in London, including my eldest son and his family but after I remarried and moved North I lost touch with them.