Jean Cavalier

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Jean Cavalier (born November 28, 1681 in Ribaute-les-Tavernes in the Gard department , † May 17, 1740 in Chelsea near London ) was one of the main leaders of the Camisards in the Cevennes War , French colonel and later English governor of Jersey .

Live and act

Jean Cavalier was born in 1681, according to other sources as early as 1679, and was the son of the farmer Antoine Cavalier and his wife Élisabeth Granier. As a young man he first worked as a farmhand on his uncle Lacombe's farm in Vézénobres , then as a baker boy in Anduze . In 1701 he fled to Geneva because he had attended the forbidden Reformed meetings, had been recognized and had to fear a galley penalty.

After the murder of the Abbé du Chayla, the uprising broke out in the Cevennes in 1702 . He returned to the south of France, and with Pierre Roland Laporte and Abraham Mazel he took over the leadership of the Huguenot camisards. He disciplined the disorderly troops of around 3,000 men and directed their operations against the superior royal army of 25,000 soldiers with great care, skill and success. With his small army he inflicted serious defeats on the royal troops in December 1702 in the battle of Mas de Cauvi in front of the city of Alès and in March 1704 in Devois de Martignargues near Vézenobres. In April 1704 his troops were defeated at Nages and his camp in the cave of Euzet was discovered, looted and blown up by royal soldiers. So he had to start peace negotiations with Marshal Villars , who made him suggestions for settlement. Cavalier laid down his arms in the same year on condition of half tolerance . Louis XIV himself granted him the patent of a colonel , which was provided with a salary of 1,200 livres . He also received permission to set up his own regiment from the camisards in royal wages , which served under the Duke of Savoy. In this, however, only a small number of his former comrades followed him.

Cavalier was viewed with suspicion by the government and could not be persuaded to become a Catholic . So after some time he fled to Holland and then to England , then commanded a regiment of escaped camisards in Spain and distinguished himself with these troops in the murderous battles for Almansa in New Castile in 1707 , but he himself was wounded.

In 1710 he settled in Ireland, where he lived under Huguenots and on a small pension. In 1735 he was promoted to English major general and in 1738 appointed governor of Jersey .

Fonts

  • Mémoires sur la Guerre des Cévennes , 1726, new editions: 1918, 1979 and 2011

literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eberhard Gresch: The Huguenots. History, Belief and Impact. 4th, revised edition. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-374-02260-1 , pp. 75 to 76
  2. ↑ Article on Jean Cavalier (1681-1740) , Musée virtuel du protestantisme
personal data
SURNAME Cavalier, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chief leader of the Camisards in the Cevennes War and English governor of Jersey
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1681
PLACE OF BIRTH Ribaute-les-Tavernes , Gard department
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1740
Place of death Chelsea , London