Editing Camisards

{{For|the war they participated in|War of the Camisards}}{{Short description|18th century Huguenot bands}}

'''Camisards''' were [[Huguenot]]s (French [[Protestantism|Protestant]]s) of the rugged and isolated [[Cévennes]] region and the neighbouring [[Vaunage]] in [[southern France]]. In the early 1700s, they raised a resistance against the persecutions which followed [[Louis XIV]]'s [[Edict of Fontainebleau|Revocation of the Edict of Nantes]], making Protestantism illegal. The Camisards operated throughout the mainly Protestant Cévennes and Vaunage regions including parts of the [[Camargue]] around [[Aigues Mortes]]. [[War of the Camisards|The revolt broke out in 1702]], with the worst of the fighting continuing until 1704, then skirmishes until 1710 and a final peace by 1715. The [[Edict of Versailles|Edict of Tolerance]] was not finally signed until 1787.

==Etymology==
The name {{lang|oc|camisard}} in the [[Occitan language]] may derive from a type of linen smock or shirt known as a ''camisa'' (chemise) that peasants wear in lieu of any sort of uniform. Alternatively, it might come from the {{langx|oc|camus}}, meaning paths (chemins). {{lang|oc|Camisada}}, in the sense of "night attack", is derived from a feature of their tactics.{{sfn|Bersier|2016}}

==History==
[[File:Protestant France.svg|300px|thumb|16th-century religious geopolitics.
{{legend|#800080|Controlled by Huguenot nobility}}
{{legend|#AA87DE|Contested between Huguenots and Catholics}}
{{legend|#B3B3B3|Controlled by Catholic nobility}}
{{legend|MediumSlateBlue|Lutheran-majority area}}]]
In April 1598, [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]] had signed the [[Edict of Nantes]] and the religious wars that had ravaged France ended. Protestants had been given limited civic rights and the liberty to worship according to their convictions. This "fundamental and irrevocable law" was maintained by Henry's son, [[Louis XIII]]. In October 1685, Henry's grandson, [[Louis XIV]] (The Sun king), revoked the Edict of Nantes, issuing his own [[Edict of Fontainebleau]]. Louis was determined to impose a single religion on France: that of Rome. As early as 1681 he instituted the [[dragonnade]]s which were conversions enforced by [[dragoon]]s, labelled "missionaries in boots". They were [[billet]]ed in the homes of Protestants to help them decide to convert back to the official church or alternatively to emigrate. The Cévennes was a centre of resistance, and the policy did not work.{{sfn|Schlegel|2008}}

The Edict of Fontainebleau removed all rights and protections from the Huguenots. There followed about twenty years of persecutions. Reformed worship and private Bible readings were outlawed. Within weeks of the new edict over 2000 Protestant churches were burned, under the direction of [[Nicolas de Lamoignon|Nicholas Lamoignon de Basville]], the royal administrator of Languedoc, and entire villages were massacred and burnt to the ground in a series of stunning atrocities. The pastors and worshippers were captured and later exiled, sent to the galleys, tortured or killed. Seventy-five missionary priests under the command of [[François Langlade|Abbot François Langlade]] were sent to the Cévennes. Soldiers carrying crosses on their muskets forced the peasants to sign papers to say they were converting, and forced them to attend mass. The peasants continued to attend illicit meetings. Huguenots with a trade fled to neighboring countries. The King responded by closing the borders.{{sfn|Schlegel|2008}}

The Protestant peasants of the Vaunage and the Cévennes, led by a number of teachers known as "prophets", notably François Vivent and [[:fr:Claude Brousson|Claude Brousson]], resisted. Vivent encouraged his followers to arm themselves in case they were set upon by Royalist soldiers. Several leading prophets were tortured and executed, François Vivent in 1692 and Claude Brousson in 1698. Many more were exiled, leaving the abandoned congregations to the leadership of less educated and more mystically oriented preachers, such as the [[combing|wool-comber]] [[Abraham Mazel]]. The Catholic church was likened to the [[The Beast (Revelation)|Beast of the Apocalypse]] and the clandestine prophets claimed to have seen it in the prophetic dreams. Mazel, in a dream, saw black oxen in his garden and heard a voice telling him  to chase them away. From 1700 the clandestine prophets and their armed followers were hidden in houses and caves in the mountains.{{sfn|Schlegel|2008}}
<ref>Antoine Court de Gébelin (2009), ''Histoire des troubles des Cévennes ou de la guerre des camisards sous le règne de Louis le Grand'', reprint of the original text printed in 1760. Editions Lacour-Ollé, Nîmes (in French).[https://archive.org/details/histoiredestrou02courgoog]</ref>

[[File:Le Dragon missionnaire.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Protestant satirical drawing of a "dragoon missionary" converting a "heretic", 1686]]

===Abraham Mazel===
Open hostilities began on 24 July 1702, with the assassination at [[le Pont-de-Montvert]] of a local embodiment of royal oppression, [[François Langlade]], the Abbé of Chaila. Langlade had recently arrested and tortured a group of seven Protestants accused of attempting to flee France.<ref name=".net">{{cite web|last1=Rolland|first1=Pierre|title=La Guerre des Camisards|url=http://www.camisards.net/guerrecami-fr.htm|website=Camisards.net|publisher=Association d'étude et de recherche sur les camisards|access-date=30 August 2016|location=48160 St-Martin-de-Boubaux|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110141730/http://www.camisards.net/guerrecami-fr.htm|archive-date=2016-11-10|url-status=dead}}</ref> The band of Camisards were led by Abraham Mazel, who peacefully asked for the release of the prisoners, but when this was refused, they commenced the killing.<ref name=Ruff>Pierre-Jean Ruff, 2008. Le Temple du Rouve: lieu de mémoire des Camisards. Editions Lacour-Ollé, Nîmes.</ref> The abbé was quickly lionized in print by the Catholic State as a martyr of his faith.

The Camisards worked independently of each other and during the day most merged back into their village communities. They were predominantly agricultural workers or artisans and had no aristocratic leaders. They knew the paths and the sheep tracks intimately. They called themselves the Children of God – they were inspired by religion, not by patronage or politics.

===Jean Cavalier===
{{main|Jean Cavalier}}
Led by the young [[Jean Cavalier]] and [[Roland Laporte|Pierre Laporte (Rolland)]], the Camisards met the ravages of the royal army with [[irregular warfare]] methods and withstood superior forces in several pitched battles.<ref>Ana Eliza Bray (1870), ''The Revolt of the Protestants of the Cevennes, with some account of the Huguenots in the seventeenth century''. John Murray, London.[https://books.google.com/books?id=VR5MDn0i69AC&oe=UTF-8]</ref>

Violence increased as atrocities were committed on both sides: massacres in Catholic villages such as [[Fraissinet-de-Fourques]], [[Saint-André-d'Olérargues|Valsauve]] and [[Potelières]] by camisards. Basville, a government administrator with a reputation founded on torture, deported the entire populations of [[Mialet, Gard|Mialet]] and [[Saumane, Gard|Saumane]]. Then in the autumn of 1703, with the king's consent, the systematic "Burning of the Cévennes" destroyed 466 hamlets and exiled their populations.{{sfn|Bersier|2016}}

Other Protestants, like those of [[Fraissinet-de-Lozère]], under the influence of village elites, chose a loyalist attitude and fought the Camisards. They were nevertheless equally victims, losing their homes during the "Burning of the Cévennes".<ref>Ghislain Baury, ''La dynastie Rouvière de Fraissinet-de-Lozère. Les élites villageoises dans les Cévennes protestantes d'après un fonds d'archives inédit (1403-1908)'', t. 1: ''La chronique'', t. 2: ''L'inventaire'', Sète, Les Nouvelles Presses du Languedoc, 2011, http://sites.google.com/site/dynastierouviere/</ref>

White Camisards, also known as "Cadets of the Cross" ("Cadets de la Croix", from a small white cross which they wore on their coats), were Catholics from neighboring communities such as [[Saint-Florent-sur-Auzonnet|St. Florent]], [[Senechas]] and [[Rousson, Gard|Rousson]] who, on seeing their old enemies on the run, organized into companies to loot and to hunt the rebels down.{{sfn|Bersier|2016}} They committed atrocities, such as killing 52 people at the village of [[Brenoux]], including pregnant women and children.

Other opponents of the Protestants included six hundred [[Miquelet (militia)|miquelet]] marksmen from [[Roussillon]] hired as [[mercenary|mercenaries]] by the King.

In 1704, [[Claude Louis Hector de Villars]], the royal commander, offered vague concessions to the Protestants and the promise to Cavalier of a command in the royal army. Cavalier's acceptance of the offer broke the revolt, although others, including Laporte, refused to submit unless the [[Edict of Nantes]] was restored. Scattered fighting went on until 1710, but the true end of the uprising was the arrival in the Cévennes of the Protestant minister [[Antoine Court (Huguenot)|Antoine Court]] and the reestablishment of a small Protestant community that was largely left in peace, especially after the death of [[Louis XIV]] in 1715.

==The people==
Of the Camisards, 42% were Cévennes peasants, and 58% were rural craftsmen, of whom 75% worked as wool-combers, wool-carders and weavers. All spoke Occitan. There were no noblemen involved, none had been trained in the art of war. There was no concept of a single army, there was no single leader but every region had its permanent organisers and occasional soldiers.{{Sfn|Bersier|2016}}

The leaders of note were:

* Gédéon Laporte
* Salomon Couderc with Abraham Mazel in [[Saint-André-de-Lancize|Le Bougès]] and [[Mont Lozère]].
* Henri Castanet (1674–1705) in charge of [[Mont Aigoual]].
* Pierre Laporte (Rolland) (1680–1704) in the Basses-Cévennes, Mialet and [[Lassalle]]. 
* Jean Cavalier (1681–1704) in the plains of Bas-Languedoc between [[Uzès]] and [[Sauve, Gard|Sauve]].{{sfn|Bersier|2016}}

Religiously, ordained pastors were rounded up, and a series of prophets ministered secretly.{{Explain|date=August 2017}} Notable among them{{According to whom|date=August 2017}} were:

* Esprit Séguier
* Abraham Mazel
* Elie Marion
* Jean Cavalier

The visions of the prophets inspired the operations of the war, and encouraged the peasants to feel invincible. The peasants marched singing [[Psalm 68|Psalms]] — which unnerved the opposition.{{Sfn|Bersier|2016}}
==Chronology of the Camisards==
===1701===
* June: the [[Vallérargues]] affair, when people seized back captured prophets from priests.<ref name=".net"/>

===1702===
* 24 July: assassination of François Langlade, Abbé du Chayla, two priests and Catholic family at Dévèze.
* 12 August: Execution of [[:fr:Esprit Séguier|Esprit Séguier]]. Traditional start of the War.
* 11 September: Battle at [[Champdomergue]], a hill near ([[Le Collet-de-Dèze]]) with no clear outcome.
* 22 October: Battle at [[Saint-Laurent-de-Trèves|Témélac]]. Gédéon Laporte killed and his head displayed at [[Barre-des-Cévennes]], [[Anduze]], Saint-Hippolyte and [[Montpellier]].
* 24 December: Jean Cavalier took the 700 strong garrison town of [[Alès]]. He led 70 Camisards. 
* 28 December: The Camisards took [[Sauve, Gard|Sauve]].<ref name=".net"/><ref name="Progress">{{cite web|last1=Bersier|first1=Eugène|title=The progress of the war 1702-1704|url=http://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-progress-of-the-war-1702-1704/?parc=21739|website=Virtual Museum of Protestantism|publisher=Fondation pasteur Eugène Bersier|access-date=30 August 2016}}</ref>

===1703===
* 12 January: Jean Cavalier took [[Val de Barre]] ([[Nîmes]]) from royalist [[Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie|Count de Broglie]].
* February: Count de Broglie relieved of his duties and replaced by [[Nicolas Auguste de La Baume|Field-Marshal de Montrevel]]. More troops deployed.
* 26 February: The Camisards under Castenet massacred the inhabitants of [[Fraissinet-de-Fourques]].
* 6 March: [[:fr:Pompignan (Gard)#Épisode de la guerre des Camisards|Battle of Pompignan]] – the Camisards lost.
* 1 April: The royalist [[:fr:Massacre du moulin de l'Agau|Moulin de l'Agau]] massacre.
* April: the deportation of [[Mialet, Gard|Mialet]] and [[Saumane, Gard|Saumane]] to [[Perpignan]] in [[Roussillon]].
* 29 April: Jean Cavalier defeated at [[:fr:Bataille de la tour de Billot|Tour de Billot]] (Alès).
* 18 May: Battle of Bruyès.
* 12 September: massacre of Catholics at [[Potelières]].
* 20 September: massacre of Catholics at [[Saturargues]] (Lunel) and [[Saint-Sériès]] .
* Autumn: The Burning of the Cévennes policy-villagers were deported from 466 villages which were then torched.
* Autumn: emergence of the Catholic Cadets of the Cross (White Camisards) who looted and pillaged.
* 20 December: Battle of the Madeleines ([[Tornac]]).<ref name=".net"/><ref name="Progress"/>

===1704===
[[File:Martignargues monument des camisards combats du Devés.jpg|thumb|upright|Monument at Devès de Martignargues]]
*15 March: the battle of [[:fr:Martignargues#Époque moderne|Devès de Martignargues]] ([[Vézénobres]]). Jean Cavalier defeated a Catholic regiment
*March: Field-marshal de Montrevel was relieved of his duties and replaced by [[Claude Louis Hector de Villars|Field-marshal de Villars]].
*16 April: de Montrevel defeated Cavalier at the Battle of [[Nages]] (while waiting for de Villars arrival)
*19 April: Cavalier's stores discovered in caves at [[Euzet]]
*20 April: de Villars assumes command and suggests negotiation
*May: negotiations start, Cavalier accepts unconditional surrender and a command in the royal army
*13 August: Pierre Laporte (Rolland) dies at [[Castelnau-Valence|Castelnau-les-Valence]]
*October: Other leaders leave France.<ref name=".net"/><ref name="Progress"/>

== Heritage ==
Jean Cavalier later went over to the British, who made him governor of the island of [[Jersey]].

A [[millenarianism|millenarian]] group of ex-Camisards under the guidance of Elie Marion emigrated to [[London]] in 1706, and were said to have links with the [[Alumbrados]]. They were generally treated with scorn and some official repression as the "French Prophets".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-109707 |title=French Prophets |last=Laborie |first=Lionel |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.109707 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=6 September 2019|quote= French Prophets (act. 1706–c.1750) were a controversial millenarian movement that appeared in England in 1706 and anticipated the evangelical awakening of the 1730s.}}</ref> Their example and their writings had some influence later, both on the spiritual outlook of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] and on [[Ann Lee]], founder of the [[Shakers|Shaker]] movement.

[[File:Pillory-french-prophets1.jpg|thumb|250px|Title and illustration of an anonymous handbill printed in London in 1707.  The picture shows Élie Marion, Jean Daudé, and [[Nicolas Fatio de Duillier]], leaders of the so-called French prophets, standing on the scaffold at Charing Cross after being sentenced to the pillory for sedition.]]

=== Role in the survival of Protestantism in France ===
After the main active Camisard groups had been subdued in various ways, the French authorities were keen not to re-ignite the revolt and took a more moderate approach to anti-Protestant repression. Many former Camisards came back to a more peaceful approach and from 1715 onwards helped re-establish a still illegal but now much better organised Protestantism. They were under the leadership of [[Antoine Court]] and of the numerous travelling pastors who were permitted to re-enter the country.<ref>Philippe Joutard, Les Camisards, Gallimard 1976, rédité en coll. Folio Histoire en 1994, pp.217-219</ref>

=== "The Camisards' legend" ===
In his book with the title ''La légende des Camisards'', Philippe Joutard, a professor of history, registered the very lively oral tradition about the Camisards which has prevailed to this day in the Cévennes region. He also observed the "attractive power" of this striking period of history where many unrelated episodes have been integrated through the oral tradition. As this oral transmission is mainly done through the families, it often highlights more of their own ancestors who were faithful to their convictions than the heroic leaders of the revolt. In so doing it develops beyond the original religious question to a general attitude of resistance and non-conformity which determines a whole philosophical, political and human culture and way of life.<ref name=Joutard>Philippe Joutard, La légende des Camisards, NRF Gallimard, 1977, p. 355</ref> Philippe Joutard also noted that even the minority of [[Catholics]] living in this Protestant part of the country tend to reconstruct their history in the same way as their former religious opponents.<ref name=Joutard/> The footprint of the Camisards in Cévennes is thus particularly deep and lasting.

==See also==
* [[Marie Durand]]
* [[Pierre Durand, Huguenot]]
* [[Paul Rabaut]]

==Further reading==
Although most of the sources are in French and remain untranslated, there are a number of sources available in English:
*[[Alexandre Dumas, père|Alexandre Dumas]], ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2743 Massacres of the South (1551-1815): Celebrated Crimes, Full text (ebook) 192pp, Retrieved 21 September 2016 ]'' {{ISBN|1-40695-136-6}}
*{{cite book|author=Henry Martyn Baird|title=The Camisard Uprising of the French Protestants|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VPxCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13|year=1890|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons|location=New York}} [reprint of article in: ''Papers of the American Society of Church History'' (1889)]
*H. M. Baird (1895), ''Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes'' {{ISBN|1-59244-636-1}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baird |first1=Henry Martyn |title=The Huguenots and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes |date=1895 |publisher=C. Scribner's sons |location=New York |page=450 |url=https://archive.org/stream/huguenotsrevocat02bairuoft#page/n21/search/camisard |access-date=14 September 2018}}</ref>
* Christian Mühling: ''Die europäische Debatte über den Religionskrieg (1679-1714). Konfessionelle Memoria und internationale Politik im Zeitalter Ludwigs XIV.'' (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz, 250) Göttingen, Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht, {{ISBN|9783525310540}}, 2018.
*{{cite book|last=Eugène Bonnemère|title=Les dragonnades: Histoire des Camisards|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TIQ_AQAAMAAJ|year=1882|publisher=E. Dentu|location=Paris|language=fr}}
*{{cite book|author=Philippe Joutard|title=Les Camisards|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bfOICgAAQBAJ|date=2015|publisher=Editions Gallimard|location=Paris|language=fr|isbn=978-2-07-258367-4}}
*[[Napoléon Peyrat]] (1842). ''History of the Desert Fathers: from the revolution of the Edict of Nantes to the French Revolution, 1685-1789''.{{full citation needed|date=August 2017}}
*[[Robert Louis Stevenson]] (1879), ''[[Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes]]''. Travel literature.{{better source needed|date=August 2017}}
*{{cite book|author=Brian Eugene Strayer|title=Huguenots and Camisards as Aliens in France, 1598-1789: The Struggle for Religious Toleration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DiKFQgAACAAJ|year=2001|publisher=E. Mellen Press|location=Lewiston, N.Y.|isbn=978-0-7734-7370-6}}
*[[Samuel Rutherford Crockett]] (1903), ''Flower-o'-the-Corn''. Historical fiction.† {{better source needed|date=August 2017}}
*The revolt of the Protestants of the Cevennes, with some account of the Huguenots in the seventeenth century by Bray, Mrs. (Anna Eliza), 1790-1883<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bray |first1=Anna Eliza |title=The revolt of the Protestants of the Cevennes, with some account of the Huguenots in the seventeenth century |date=1870 |publisher=J. Murray |location=London |url=https://archive.org/stream/revoltprotestan00braygoog#page/n27/search/camisard |access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref>
*Memoirs of the wars of the Cevennes, under Col. Cavallier, : in defence of the Protestants persecuted in that country. : And of the peace concluded between him and the Mareschal D. of Villars. : Of his conference with the King of France, after the conclusion of the peace. : With letters relating thereto, from Mareschal Villars, and Chamillard secretary of state: : As also, a map describing the places mentioned in the book. by Cavalier, Jean, 1681-1740<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cavalier |first1=Jean |title=Memoirs of the wars of the Cevennes, under Col. Cavallier, : in defence of the Protestants persecuted in that country. : And of the peace concluded between him and the Mareschal D. of Villars. : Of his conference with the King of France, after the conclusion of the peace. : With letters relating thereto, from Mareschal Villars, and Chamillard secretary of state: : As also, a map describing the places mentioned in the book |date=1726 |publisher=Printed for J. Stephens ... |location=London |url=https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofwarsofc00cava#page/n33 |access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref>
*Cavallier and the Camisards<ref>{{cite journal |title=Cavallier and the Camisards |journal=The Edinburgh Review or Critical Journal |date=July–October 1856 |volume=104 |pages=123–160 |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.21031/2015.21031.The-Edinburgh-Review-Or-Critical-Journal-Vol104july-october-1856#page/n135/search/The+Pastors+of+the+Wilderness |access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref>

<small>† The story begins with the allied armies at [[Namur]] following the 1704 [[Battle of Blenheim]], before the scene shifts to the [[Larzac|Causse du Larzac]] (Chapter IV).</small>

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|Camisard}}
{{Commons category|Camisards}}
*[https://camisards.info A full history of the Camisards] (in French with some sections also in English).
<!--*[http://les.cevennes.free.fr/en/gevaudan6.htm The Story of the Gevaudan and the War of the Camisards in the Cevennes] dead link-->
*[http://www.regordane.info  Regordane Info - The independent portal for The Regordane Way or St Gilles Trail] (in English and French)

== Notes and references ==
;Notes
{{reflist}}
;References
*{{cite web|last1=Bersier|first1=Eugène|title=The Camisards|url=http://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-camisards/|website=Virtual Museum of Protestantism|publisher=Fondation pasteur Eugène Bersier|access-date=29 August 2016|ref={{sfnref|Bersier|2016}}}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Schlegel|first1=Doug|title=The Camisards|journal=Leben: A Journal of Reformation Life|date=2008|volume=4|issue=4|url=http://www.leben.us/volume-4-volume-4-issue-4/264-the-camisards|access-date=21 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827172556/http://leben.us/volume-4-volume-4-issue-4/264-the-camisards|archive-date=2016-08-27|url-status=dead}}

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[[Category:1700s conflicts]]
[[Category:1700s in France]]
[[Category:18th-century Reformed Christianity]]
[[Category:Wars involving France]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in France]]
[[Category:Huguenots]]
[[Category:Religion and politics]]
[[Category:Ardèche]]
[[Category:Gard]]
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[[Category:History of Occitania (administrative region)]]
[[Category:Camisards| ]]
[[Category:Louis XIV]]