Protestant peasants in France's Cévennes mountains revolted against Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes and subsequent persecution of Huguenots. The Camisards waged guerrilla warfare against royal troops, motivated by religious freedom demands but also resisting increased taxation and royal authority's intrusion into local mountain communities that had maintained relative autonomy.

The Camisard Revolt inspired Protestant martyr literature and prophetic writings, with participants claiming divine inspiration for their resistance. This apocalyptic religious poetry influenced later Romantic interest in visionary experience and popular religious enthusiasm, while the revolt's combination of religious conviction and local autonomy defense prefigured themes in nineteenth-century literature about individual conscience against state power.