Camisards

Camisards (from O. Fr. camise-chemise, a shirt), the name given to a sect of French Protestants who rose against Louis XIV., as a consequence of the Edict of Nantes (q.v.) in 1685. They acquired their names from the fact of their wearing their blouses outside their armour. The insurrection was not finally suppressed until 1705, after much bloodshed, and the almost complete devastation of the Cevennes, the scene of the rising.