By issuing the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Louis XIV ended religious freedom in France, outlawing the Calvanist Protestantism of the Hugenots. Some five hundred thousand chose to flee the country, including many merchants and textile workers, while those who remained were subjected to oppression; some feigned conversion, some were deported to the colonies, and others fled to the "desert" – the wild and isolated hills of the Cèvennes. It was here that they staged the Camisard revolt, so-called for the shirts they wore as a sign of recognition (from "chemise," French for "shirt").In July 1702, the parish priest of Chayla arrested a small group of fugitive Protestants, and was killed in the ensuing struggle. Knowing that retribution would be swift and cruel, Protestants across the Cèvennes began a guerrilla war which pitted their forces, numbering between three and five thousand, against some thirty thousand royal troops. Unable to conclude the struggle militarily against the rebel guerrillas, the French army succeeded in bribing one of the leaders to change sides, precipitating the defeat of the movement in 1704.
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