Camisard

The war of Camisards or War of the Cevennes (actually a Guerilla), opposed the partisans of the reform (Protestants) of certain provinces of the north of Languedoc located in Gévaudan and in the the Cevennes (current departments of the Lozere and the Gard), with the troops (Catholiques) of the king (Dragons) between 1702 (a few years after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes) and 1704 - 1705 (but in the facts, repression lasted until the reign of Louis XVI).

Simple craftsmen and peasants held head with two marshals of France and reflect in failure during nearly three years the troops of Louis XIV come to force them to convert or exterminate them. Troops which however formed one of best armed with Europe. Here are which was incomprehensible for the king and the foreign powers.

The word “camisard”

The rebels are initially designated like barbet spaniels, the name given to the Vaudois of the Moyen-âge, practically exterminated at the 16th century; they are also indicated like “ossards” or " osards" , word perhaps coming from hussard. Their enemies call them “fanatics”. The word “camisard” given to risen of the the Cevennes retained finally by the collective memory can have three origins:

  • camise , i.e. shirt which the combatants wore over their clothing. It is the most probable assumption: the expression " is found; chemisard" in a text ardéchois of the beginning of 1703).
  • camins , (the occitan nasalise very little and one hears “camiss”), i.e. “ways”. Thanks to a good knowledge of the ground, the camisards took by-paths and surprised the royal troops.
  • a derivative of the term camisade , attacks night, that one finds as of the fifteenth century to indicate a night attack in dispersed order, to sow confusion, and to disappear at once; it is always applied to certain troops mercenaries of Cevennes or Catalan origin, the miquelets, the best troops of light infantry of Marguerite of Angouleme, queen of Navarre, which sing the psalms of Marot by attacking the troops of Charles Quint in the valley of the Rhone, engaged in the war of gueux at the sides of the Belgian and Batavian insurrectionists, at a rate of 2000 men in 1580, then in the war of Rohan who mobilized the large fathers of the camisards.

But the insurrectionists themselves indicated themselves by the name: “Children of God”, or quite simply " frères". Catholic , and those of the Protestant opposed to the armed revolt, also called them: “fanatic”. The the Cevennes at that time extend to the plain from Low-Languedoc, and at the 18th century one speaks about “war of the the Cevennes” and not about “war of the camisards”.

Who are Camisards?

The camisards are for 31% of the Cevennes peasants and 58% of the rural craftsmen of which the three-quarter work wool as carders, wool combers, tisserands. The classes " aisées" are represented very little in the troops camisardes. No gentleman appears among the camisards, i.e. no man trained with soldiering. This absence of noble with the head of the rebellion so much astonished the contemporaries whom they supposed, wrongly, that Protestant gentlemen of the Refuge had returned in the Cevennes to take the head of the operations. Riding Jean, one of the most prestigious chiefs, was apprentice-baker. But one finds nevertheless a certain number of former soldiers who will play a big role in the formation of the troops to the combat. There is no single army nor of single chief, but of small troops by area with permanent executives and occasional soldiers.

High places of Camisards

The camisards chiefs

The majority of the chiefs are very young. Cavalier has 21 years when it takes the command of a troop and Roland 22 years.

Jean Cavalier, which ordered the bands of the plain or from the country of Went, was hardly a butcher's assistant twenty years old. Burning and courageous, it passed for a prophet and had on his companions an absolute capacity. It had to fight the marshal of Montrevel, which it did successfully; but it went to Villars. It is said that the large king being made present, the young hero, with the sight of his weak air and his small size, it raised the shoulders and the back turned to him.

The chiefs practice the dispersion of their troop in small units and are distributed inside the the Cevennes and of the plain of low Languedoc by area. The Bulges and the Mount Lozere, points starting of the insurrection were held by Gédéon Laporte then Solomon Couderc with Abraham Mazel (1677 - 1710). The Mont Aigoual had as a chief Henri Castanet (1674 - 1705), old forester of the Aigoual. Pierre Laporte known as Roland (1680 - 1704) carried out the operations in the Low-Cevennes, the area of Mialet and Lasalle (Gard). Jean Cavalier (1681 - 1740) fought battle in the plain of Low-Languedoc between Uzès and Sauve.

The troops were independent, but could meet for an action, to separate then. The camisards passed easily from one troop to the other. The flexibility of the organization and the decentralization of revolted were their force, like their perfect knowledge of the ground. As of the battle or the finished ambush, they disappeared being based in the population. The camisards practiced the shape of guerilla. But they fought not for a political ideology but for their religious convictions. Nevertheless, impossibility for the royal troops of destroying the guerilla, although average extremes were used, like the depopulation and sets fire to houses of most of the Cevennes, imposes a negotiation. The marshal of Villars, which replaces the marshal of Montrevel discredited by his nonchalance and the defeat of Martignargues, negotiates with Cavalier in May 1704, and the camisards thus divided will end up going gradually.

The camisards did not obtain the freedom of worship which they asked, and religious repression will continue until in the years 1770, with their procession of executions, imprisonments, galères, etc Cependant, as from 1715, and under the impulse of old Antoine Court helped camisards like Bonbonnoux, Gaubert or Corteiz, the Protestant church will be reconstituted on non-violent bases. The capacity will learn the lesson from the insurrection of the camisards, and will be able to limit repression to the threshold beyond whose despair could push the Protestants with the armed revolt.

The role of the Prophet S

It is the prophecy of Abraham Mazel which started the Insurrection. It is still the prophecy which ensures the control of the war and the development of the operations. The attacks are led by the inspiration and the exhortations of a prophet. The role of the prophet is essential in this war. The principal prophets are: - Esprit Séguier, - Abraham Mazel, - Elie Marion, - Jean Cavalier, at the same time prophet and chief of troop, which ensures a great prestige to him. Feeling led by the Spirit of God, of the peasants without military formation believe themselves invincible. They forget their sense of inferiority vis-a-vis the royal troops. They precipitate on their adversaries instead of fleeing like that occurs in the majority of the popular revolts. They sink on them by entonnant with conceal-head a psalm, in particular psalm 68, known as also the " Psalm of the batailles": “That God only shows himself…”.

In front of this determination, in fact the royal troops are relaxed.

Rise of violence

As of XVIe and the XVIIe century, the dioceses of Nimes, from Went (Alès) and of Uzès were agitated by the religious wars. Although unceasingly persecuted (as of 1660 with the Dragonnade S), the Protestants were numerous there when the revocation of the edict of Nantes (October 18th 1685) struck them of a general proscription.

The king prohibits the practice of the reformed worship, orders the demolition of the temples, obliges to baptize in the catholic faith all the children to be born, orders to the pastors to leave France but prohibited with simple faithful to do as much of it, under penalty of galères.

In spite of the prohibition which is made to them flee, nearly 300.000 “Religionnaire S” French (certain historians say that this number is exaggerated), find average to leave the France for refuges such as Berlin, London, Geneva, Amsterdam. These exiled resulting from the hard middle-class will make the fortune of their host country and their departure will impoverish France by depriving it of many talents. They also outside will nourish the resentments against France and its monarch.

The Protestants remained in France (but constant of outside by those which left) do not have any more any freedom of worship and must hide to maintain (sometimes to begin again) their activity religious. It is the “Désert”, by allusion to the time of test of the Hebrews under the control of Moïse, or rather of God alone, without other tallies making safe.

They were only reversed temples, pastors put at death, men sent to the galères, old men, women and children thrown in prison (as with the Tower of Constancy to Acute-Dead where the Protestant woman Marie Durand remained 38 years of her life there and had engraved there on the walls the word " résistez").

For the “prédicants”, it is the maquis, in particular in the Cevennes. But the priests and the soldiers oblige the Cevennes Protestants to convert under penalty of galère, of prison, or of death, oblige the “new converts” with going to the mass in the Roman churches and denounce the recalcitrant ones near the Basville intendant. What involves bloody repressions against the Protestants.

Despaired, some Cevennes mountain dwellers and peasants (approximately 2.000) armed themselves, the ones of forgery, the others of forks, others of swords or rifles; and, of the mountains of the Gard, the revolt was propagated in the country of Went. Exasperated by the Dragonnade S, they took the weapons; guided by intrepid chiefs, among which one notices Jean Cavalier, Roland.

Soon, these " Camisards" do not hesitate to burn certain churches (catholic) and sometimes to kill the most repressive priests: The assassination of the Abbot of Chayla (July 24th 1702), which plays a leading role in repression, by a troop directed by Esprit Séguier, with the Bridge-with-Montvert in the High Cevennes, will start the armed revolt.

But Basville answers by the torment of the chiefs camisards and a pressure even more increased on the population. It is the escalation of violence: violent attacks of catholic villages (Fraissinet de Fourques, Valsauve and Potelières) by the camisards, deportation by Basville of the inhabitants of Mialet and Saumane, suspected of helping the troop of Roland, multiple assassinations of the Huguenots (Protestant). One sent against Camisards, in February 1703, the Maréchal of Montrevel, which could not reduce them, and in 1704 the Maréchal of Villars, which subjected them only by detaching from their party one their main leaders, Jean Cavalier. The majority perished in the torments.

Then, with the agreement of the king, the “ Brûlement of the Cevennes ” (destruction of 466 hamlets which will make thousands of victims, and displacement of the population in autumn 1703).

Moreover of the catholics wearied by the inefficiency of the royal troops, or simply benefitting from this disturbed period, bands of partisans called “ camisards white ” or “ juniors by the cross forms”. These bands are delivered quickly to the armed robbery, which adds to confusion.

On the geographical level, if the theater of the war is located primarily in the Cevennes and in the plain of Low-Languedoc, it should not be forgotten that the camisards on several occasions tried to raise the Protestant populations of the close areas: the Vivarais (current Department of Ardeche), even the Dauphine (current departments of the Isere, the Drome and the Hautes-Alpes), and the Rouergue (current Department of Aveyron). The various prisons where camisards were locked up are sometimes located well far from the Cevennes: Perpignan, the castle of Carcassonne, Marseilles and its galères.

The country is with fire and blood.

The marshal of Montrevel, sent against them, made some perish by the wheel or on the bracket several thousands, without being able to reduce them. Lastly, Louis XIV charged with this war, in 1704, celebrates it Villars, which succeeds as much by persuasion and leniency that by the force of the weapons to choke the rebellion.

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