Roland Laporte
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Roland Laporte (1675 – 14 August 1704), better known as Roland, was a Camisard leader who was born at Mas Soubeyran (
Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;Jean Cavalier. Both leaders in 1702 secured entrance to the town of Sauve under the pretence of being royal officers, burnt the church and carried off provisions and ammunition for their forces. Roland, who called himself general of the children of God, terrorized the country between Nîmes and Alais, burning churches and houses, and slaying those suspected of hostility against the
Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
, though without personally taking any part of the spoil. Cavalier was already in negotiation with Marshal Villars when Roland cut to pieces a Catholic regiment at Fontmorte in May 1704. He refused to lay down his arms without definite assurance of the restoration of the privileges accorded by the Edict of Nantes. Villars then sought to negotiate, offering Roland the command of a regiment on foreign service and liberty of conscience, though not the free exercise of their religion, for his co-religionists. This parley had no results, but Roland was betrayed to his enemies, and on 14 August 1704 was shot while defending himself against his captors. The five officers who were with him surrendered, and were broken on the wheel at Nîmes. Roland's death put an end to the effective resistance of the Cévenois.


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* * See A Court, ''Histoire des troubles des Cévennes'' (Villefranche, 1760); HM Baird, ''The Huguenots and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes'' (2 vols., London, 1895), and other literature dealing with the Camisards. {{DEFAULTSORT:Laporte, Roland 1675 births 1704 deaths French revolutionaries