Camisards (redirected from Camisard)

Camisards (kăm`ĭsärdz, Fr. kämēsär`), Protestant peasants of the Cévennes region of France who in 1702 rebelled against the persecutions that followed the revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes (see Nantes, Edict of). The name was probably given them because of the shirts they wore in night raids. Led by the young Jean Cavalier and Roland Laporte, the Camisards met the ravages of the royal army with guerrilla methods and withstood superior forces in several battles. In 1704, Marshal Villars, the royal commander, offered Cavalier vague concessions to the Protestants and the promise of a command in the royal army. Cavalier's acceptance broke the revolt, although others, including Laporte, refused to submit unless the Edict of Nantes was restored; scattered fighting went on until 1710.

Bibliography

See A. E. Bray, The Revolt of the Protestants of the Cévennes (1870), H. M. Baird, Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1895).

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Camisards

Protestant militants in southern France who opposed Louis XIV's persecution of Protestantism. The armed insurrection, which began in 1702, came in response to Louis's revocation of the Edict of Nantes, ending religious toleration. The well-organized Camisards, so named for their white shirts (in French dialect, camisa), fought successfully and even held royal armies in check. In response, the government burned hundreds of villages and massacred their populations. By 1705, with many of the Camisard leaders captured and executed, the revolt had lost its force.

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Camisards

uprising of Protestant peasantry after the revocation of Edict of Nantes in 1685 was brutally suppressed by the royal army. [Fr. Hist.: NCE, 434]

See : Persecution