A policy, commonly called in French "dragonnades", was instituted by Louis XIV in order to intimidate Huguenot families to reconvert to Roman Catholicism. It involved billeting particularly obnoxious and difficult soldiers known as dragons (dragoons) within the Protestant households where they were encouraged to wreak havoc. The policy caused great numbers of Protestants to flee France even before the religious rights granted them by the Edict of Nantes were removed in 1685.