In 1685 King Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, revoked the Edict of Nantes which had since 1598 granted religious and civil rights to Protestants. This affected some of the Waldensian Valleys in Northern Italy. (At the time, France governed the Val Chisone down to Pinerolo, but the remaining valleys were under the duchy of Savoy, and the king of France put pressure on the duke of Savoy to follow his example.)
Overwhelming numbers of French troops invaded the valleys killing or rounding up every Waldensian. 8500 men, women, and children were imprisoned. In six months, more than half of those imprisoned had starved to death or died of disease and exposure. A band of resistance fighters negotiated the freedom of the remaining prisoners, and they were forced to travel across the Alps in the dead of winter, starving and barefoot, more than 130 miles to Geneva, Switzerland. Hundreds died enroute, but more than two thousand emaciated survivors were welcomed as refugees in Geneva in late January, 1687.
Two years later in August, 1689, a band of 900 Waldensian and Huguenot men led by the preacher and former military man, Henri Arnaud, began their return to their homeland. Armed with weapons supplied by William of Orange, they fought many skirmishes and battles along the way. Arriving at the edge of their homelands, many of the Huguenot fighters split off returning to France.
By the time they arrived at the defensible mountain stronghold called Balsiglia, they had less than 400 men. There they faced the army of France and the Savoyard troops totaling 15,000 to 20,000 men and endured an eight-month siege.
By May of 1690, there were less than 250 survivors. Totally surrounded and facing execution, the small band of men escaped under the cover of darkness and heavy fog to reclaim their homelands. For hundreds of years this event has been referred to as “the Glorious Return.”