Camisard Camisards were Huguenots ( French Protestants ) of the rugged and isolated Cévennes region of south - central France , who raised an insurrection against the persecutions which followed the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 . The revolt by the Camisards broke out in 1702 , with the worst of the fighting through 1704 , then scattered fighting until 1710 and a final peace by 1715 . The name " camisard " in the Occitan language is variously attributed to a type of linen smock or shirt known as a " camisa " that peasants wear in lieu of any sort of uniform ; " camisada " , in the sense of " night attack " , is derived from a feature of their tactics . Eventually the name " Black Camisard " came to refer to Protestants , while " White Camisards " ( also known as " Cadets of the Cross " ) were Catholics organized to check the blacks . Both groups were known for committing atrocities . History . The revolt of the Protestants followed about twenty years of persecutions . Protestant peasants of the region , led by a number of teachers known as " prophets " , rebelled against the officially sanctioned dragonnade s ( conversions enforced by dragoon s , labeled " missionaries in boots " ) that followed the Edict of Fontainebleau , in which soldiers were billet ed in the homes of Protestants to make them convert or emigrate . Clandestine prophets and their armed followers were hidden in houses and caves in the mountains ; Protestants were arrested , deported to America or turned into galley slave s ; entire villages were massacred and burnt to the ground in a series of stunning atrocities . Several leading prophets were tortured and executed and many more were exiled , leaving the abandoned congregations to the leadership of less educated and more mystically - oriented preachers known as " prophets " , such as the wool - comber 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 , who had recently arrested and tortured a group of Protestants accused of attempting to flee France . The abbé was quickly lionized in print as a martyr of his faith . Led by the young Jean Cavalier and Roland Laporte , the Camisards met the ravages of the royal army with irregular warfare methods and withstood superior forces in several pitched battles . 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 of the destruction of their houses during the " Great Burning of the Cévennes " ordered in late 1703 . 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 St . Florent , Senechas and Rousson who , on seeing their old enemies on the run , organized into companies to hunt the rebels down . 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 marksmen from Roussillon hired as mercenaries by the King . In 1704 , Claude Louis Hector de Villars , the royal commander , offered Cavalier vague concessions to the Protestants and the promise 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 and the reestablishment of a small Protestant community that was largely left in peace , especially after the death of Louis XIV in 1715 . Cavalier later went over to the British , who made him Governor of the island of Jersey . A 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 " . 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 Shaker movement . Further reading . Although most of the sources are in French and remain untranslated there are a number of excellent sources available in English :