Jacquerie
Encyclopedia
Popular revolt in late medieval Europe
Popular revolts in late medieval Europe were uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the bourgeois in towns, against nobles, abbots and kings during the upheavals of the 14th through early 16th centuries, part of a larger "Crisis of the Late Middle Ages"...
by peasants that took place in northern France in the summer of 1358, during the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
. The revolt, which was violently suppressed after a few weeks of violence, centered in the Oise valley
Oise River
The River Oise is a right tributary of the River Seine, flowing for 302 km in Belgium and France. Its source is in the Belgian province Hainaut, south of the town Chimay. It crosses the border with France after about 20 km. It flows into the Seine in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris...
north of Paris. This rebellion became known as the Jacquerie because the nobles derided peasants as "Jacques" or "Jacques Bonhomme" for their padded surplice
Surplice
A surplice is a liturgical vestment of the Western Christian Church...
called "jacque
Jack of plate
A jack or jack of plate is a type of armour comprising small iron plates sewn between layers of felt and canvas.The jack is similar to the brigandine, the main difference is in the method of construction: a brigandine is riveted whereas a jack is sewn.Jacks of plate were created by stitching small...
". Their revolutionary leader Guillaume Cale
Guillaume Cale
Guillaume Cale was a wealthy peasant from the town of Mello in the Beauvais north of Paris, who rose to fame as the leader of the Peasant Jacquerie which exploded into violence in May 1358 and rampaged for a month...
was referred to by the aristocratic chronicler Froissart as Jacques Bonhomme ("Jack Goodfellow") or Callet. The word jacquerie became synonymous with peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
uprisings in general in both English and French.
Background
After the capture of the French King John II, Froissart's bon roi Jean "John the Good"John II of France
John II , called John the Good , was the King of France from 1350 until his death. He was the second sovereign of the House of Valois and is perhaps best remembered as the king who was vanquished at the Battle of Poitiers and taken as a captive to England.The son of Philip VI and Joan the Lame,...
by the English during the Battle of Poitiers
Battle of Poitiers (1356)
The Battle of Poitiers was fought between the Kingdoms of England and France on 19 September 1356 near Poitiers, resulting in the second of the three great English victories of the Hundred Years' War: Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt....
in September 1356, power in France devolved fruitlessly among the States General
French States-General
In France under the Old Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...
, Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, and John's son, the Dauphin, later Charles V
Charles V of France
Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...
. However, the Estates General was too divided to provide effective government and the disputes between the two rulers provoked disunity amongst the nobles. Consequently the prestige of the French nobility – which had begun the century at Courtrai (the "Battle of the Golden Spurs
Battle of the Golden Spurs
The Battle of the Golden Spurs, known also as the Battle of Courtrai was fought on July 11, 1302, near Kortrijk in Flanders...
") by fleeing the field and leaving their infantry to be hacked to pieces, and had given up their king at Poitiers – had sunk to a new low. To secure their rights, the French privileged classes, the nobility, the merchant elite, and the clergy, forced the peasantry to pay ever-increasing taxes (for example, the taille
Taille
The taille was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien Régime France. The tax was imposed on each household and based on how much land it held.-History:Originally only an "exceptional" tax The taille was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien...
) and to repair their war-damaged properties under corvée
Corvée
Corvée is unfree labour, often unpaid, that is required of people of lower social standing and imposed on them by the state or a superior . The corvée was the earliest and most widespread form of taxation, which can be traced back to the beginning of civilization...
— without compensation. The passage of a law that required the peasants to defend the château
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
x that were emblems of their oppression was the immediate cause of the spontaneous uprising; it was particularly onerous as many common people already blamed the nobility's corruption for the defeat at Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...
. The chronicle of Jean de Venette
Jean de Venette
Jean de Venette was a French chronicler and a Carmelite friar born at Venette, near Compiègne. He was referred to as a "Fillions", author or translator of a long poem circa 1357. In 1339, he became prior of the Carmelite convent in the Place Maubert, Paris, and was provincial of France from 1341...
articulates the perceived problems between the nobility and the peasants, yet some historians, Samuel K. Cohn being one of them, see the Jacquerie revolts as a reaction to a combination of short and long-term effects dating as early as the grain crisis and famine of 1315.
In addition, bands of English, Gascon, German and Spanish routiers
Routiers
The routiers were mercenaries associated with free companies who terrorized the French countryside during the Hundred Years War. The word routier is French for "road-man", referring to their travelling nature. -Background:Routiers were a product of their time...
— unemployed mercenaries and bandits employed by the English during outbreaks of the Hundred Years' War— were left uncontrolled, to loot, rape and plunder the lands of Northern France almost at will, the States General powerless to stop them. Many peasants questioned why they should work for a government that clearly could not protect its citizens.
The uprising
This combination of problems set the stage for a brief series of bloody rebellions in northern France in 1358. The uprisings began in a village of St. Leu near the OiseOise
Oise is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise.-History:Oise is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
river, where a group of peasants met in a cemetery to discuss their perception that the nobles had abandoned the King at Poitiers. "They shamed and despoiled the realm, and it would be a good thing to destroy them all."
The account of the rising by the contemporary chronicler Jean le Bel
Jean Le Bel
Jean Le Bel was a Medieval Flemish chronicler. His father, Gilles le Beal des Changes, was an alderman of Liege, where Jean himself was active....
includes a description of horrifying violence. According to him, peasants
"killed a knight, put him on a spit, and roasted him with his wife and children looking on. After ten or twelve of them raped the lady, they wished to force feed them the roasted flesh of their father and husband and made them then die by a miserable death."
Examples of violence on this scale by the hands of French peasants are offered throughout all of the medieval sources, including Jean de Venette, in general sympathetic to the peasants' plight, and the particularly unsympathetic aristocrat Jean Froissart
Jean Froissart
Jean Froissart , often referred to in English as John Froissart, was one of the most important chroniclers of medieval France. For centuries, Froissart's Chronicles have been recognized as the chief expression of the chivalric revival of the 14th century Kingdom of England and France...
. Among the chroniclers, the one sympathetic to the plight of the peasants is the anonymous monk who continued the chronicle of Guillaume de Nangis
Guillaume de Nangis
Guillaume de Nangis , also known as William of Nangis, was a French chronicler.William was a monk in the Abbey of St.-Denis. About 1285 he was placed in charge of the abbey library as custos cartarum, and he died in June or July 1300...
.
The peasants involved in the rebellion seem to have lacked any real organization, instead rising up locally as an unstructured mass. It is speculated by Jean le Bel that evil governors and tax collectors spread the word of rebellion from village to village to inspire the peasants to rebel against the nobility. When asked as to the cause of their discontent they apparently replied that they were just doing what they had witnessed others doing. Additionally it seems that the rebellion contained some idea that it was possible to rid the world of nobles. Froissart's account portrays the rebels as mindless thugs bent on destruction, which they wreaked on over 150 noble houses and castles, murdering the families in horrendous ways. Outbreaks occurred in Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
and Rheims, while Senlis
Senlis, Oise
Senlis is a French commune located in the Oise department near Paris. It has a long and rich heritage, having traversed centuries of history. This medieval town has welcomed some of the most renowned figures in French history, including Hugh Capet, Louis IX, the Marshall of France, Anne of Kiev and...
and Montdidier
Montdidier
Montdidier is the name of several communes in France:* Montdidier, in the Moselle département* Montdidier, in the Somme département...
were sacked by the peasant army. The bourgeoisie of Beauvais
Beauvais
Beauvais is a city approximately by highway north of central Paris, in the northern French region of Picardie. It currently has a population of over 60,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, Senlis
Senlis, Oise
Senlis is a French commune located in the Oise department near Paris. It has a long and rich heritage, having traversed centuries of history. This medieval town has welcomed some of the most renowned figures in French history, including Hugh Capet, Louis IX, the Marshall of France, Anne of Kiev and...
, Paris, Amiens
Amiens
Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...
and Meaux
Meaux
Meaux is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located east-northeast from the center of Paris. Meaux is a sub-prefecture of the department and the seat of an arondissement...
, sorely pressed by the court party, accepted the Jacquerie, and the urban underclass were sympathetic.
The Jacquerie must be seen in the context of this period of internal instability. At a time of personal government, the absence of a charismatic king was detrimental to the still-feudal state. The Dauphin had to contend with roaming free companies of out-of-work mercenaries, the plotting of Charles the Bad, and the possibility of another English invasion. The Dauphin gained effective control of the realm only after the supposed surrender of the city of Paris under the high bourgeois Étienne Marcel
Étienne Marcel
Etienne Marcel was provost of the merchants of Paris under King John II, called John the Good .Etienne Marcel was born into the wealthy Parisian bourgeoisie, being the son of the clothier Simon Marcel and his wife Isabelle Barbou...
, prevôt des marchands in July 1358. Marcel had joined Cale's rebellion somewhat inadvisedly, and, when his wealthy supporters deserted his cause it cost him the city and his life, in September. It is notable that churches were not the targets of peasant fury.
Suppression
The revolt was suppressed by French nobles led by Charles the BadCharles II of Navarre
Charles II , called "Charles the Bad", was King of Navarre 1349-1387 and Count of Évreux 1343-1387....
of Navarre, cousin, brother-in-law and mortal enemy of the Regent, whose throne he was attempting to usurp. His and the peasant army opposed each other near Mello
Mello, Oise
Mello is a small village in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise....
on 10 June 1358 when Guillaume Cale
Guillaume Cale
Guillaume Cale was a wealthy peasant from the town of Mello in the Beauvais north of Paris, who rose to fame as the leader of the Peasant Jacquerie which exploded into violence in May 1358 and rampaged for a month...
, the leader of the rebellion, was invited to truce talks by Charles. Foolishly, he went to the enemy camp, where he was seized by the French nobles, who considered that as he was of low birth, the customs and standards of chivalry did not apply to him; he was tortured and decapitated. His now leaderless army, which only Froissart's account, heavily influenced by the conventions of Romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
, claimed was 20,000 strong, was ridden down by divisions of knights' cavalry in the ensuing Battle of Mello
Battle of Mello
The Battle of Mello was the decisive and largest engagement of the Peasant Jacquerie of 1358, a rebellion of peasants in the Beauvais region of France, which caused an enormous amount of damage to this wealthy region at the height of the Hundred Years War with England...
, which was followed by a campaign of terror throughout the Beauvais
Beauvais
Beauvais is a city approximately by highway north of central Paris, in the northern French region of Picardie. It currently has a population of over 60,000 inhabitants.- History :...
region, where soldiers roamed door to door in the countryside lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
countless peasants. Maurice Dommaget notes that the few hundred aristocratic victims of the Jacquerie were known to the chroniclers, who detailed the outrages practiced upon them; some 20,000 anonymous peasants were killed in the fury that followed.
The final events transpired at Meaux
Meaux
Meaux is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located east-northeast from the center of Paris. Meaux is a sub-prefecture of the department and the seat of an arondissement...
, where the impregnable citadel was crowded with knights and their ladies. A large armed band of some 800 men-at-arms from Paris, not the 10,000 Jacques of Froissart's account, under the leadership of Etienne Marcel, departed from Paris 9 June; when they appeared before Meaux they were taken in hospitably by the disaffected townspeople and fed. The fortress, somewhat apart from the town, remained unassailable. Two captain adventurers returned from crusade against the pagans of Prussia, were at Châlons, Gaston Phebus, comte de Foix
Gaston III of Foix-Béarn
Gaston III/X of Foix-Béarn, also Gaston Fébus or Gaston Phoebus was the 11th count of Foix, and viscount of Béarn . Officially, he was Gaston III of Foix and Gaston X of Béarn.-Early life:...
and his noble Gascon cousin the Captal de Buch
Jean III de Grailly, captal de Buch
Sir Jean III de Grailly, Captal de Buch KG , son of Jean II de Grailly, Captal de Buch, Vicomte de Benauges, and Blanch de Foix...
; the approach of their well-armed lancers encouraged the besieged nobles in the fortress, and a general rout of the Parisian force ensued. The nobles then fired the suburb nearest the fortress, entrapping the burghers in the flames. The mayor of Meaux and other prominent men of the city were hanged. There was a pause, then the nobles plundered the city and churches and set fire to Meaux, which burned for two weeks, overrunning the countryside, burning cottages and barns and slaughtering all the peasants they could find.
The reprisals continued through July and August. There was a massacre at Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....
, steadfast in the Royal cause though it had remained. Senlis
Senlis, Oise
Senlis is a French commune located in the Oise department near Paris. It has a long and rich heritage, having traversed centuries of history. This medieval town has welcomed some of the most renowned figures in French history, including Hugh Capet, Louis IX, the Marshall of France, Anne of Kiev and...
defended itself. Knights of Hainault
Hainault
Hainault is an area in the London Borough of Redbridge in north east London. It is a suburban development located north east of Charing Cross...
Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and Brabant
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...
joined in the carnage. Following the declaration of amnesty, issued by the Regent, 10 August 1358, such heavy fines were assessed the regions that had supported the Jacquerie that a general flight of peasantry ensued. Historian Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman was an American historian and author. She became known for her best-selling book The Guns of August, a history of the prelude to and first month of World War I, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1963....
says: "Like every insurrection of the century, it was smashed, as soon as the rulers recovered their nerve, by weight of steel, and the advantages of the man on horseback, and the psychological inferiority of the insurgents".
The slanted but vivid and quotable account of Froissart can be balanced by the Regent's letters of amnesty, a document that comments more severely on the nobles' reaction than on the peasants' rising and omits the atrocities detailed by Froissant: "it represents the men of the open country assembling spontaneously in various localities, in order to deliberate on the means of resisting the English, and suddenly, as with a mutual agreement, turning fiercely on the nobles".
The Jacquerie traumatized the aristocracy. In 1872 Louis Raymond de Vericour remarked to the Royal Historical Society, "To this very day the word 'Jacquerie' does not generally give rise to any other idea than that of a bloodthirsty, iniquitous, groundless revolt of a mass of savages. Whenever, on the Continent, any agitation takes place, however slight and legitimate it may be, among the humbler classes, innumerable voices, in higher, privileged, wealthy classes, proclaim that society is threatened with a Jacquerie"
In the arts
The contemporary literary chronicles were influenced by other medieval genres: romanceRomance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
, satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, and complaint.
The subject of the Jacquerie engaged the Romantic historical imagination
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, resulting in numerous nineteenth-century historical novels with somewhat operatic plots set against the backdrop of the Jacquerie—The Jacquerie, or, The Lady and the Page: An Historical Romance by G. P. R James (1842) and the like— and even an opera, by Alberto Donaudy
Stefano Donaudy
Stephano Donaudy , son of a French father and an Italian mother, was a minor Italian composer active in the 1890s and early 20th century, at a time when Palermo, his native city, was enjoying a period of relative splendour under the influx of rich Anglo-Sicilian families such as the Florios and the...
.
In more modern literature, the 1961 novel A Walk with Love and Death
A Walk with Love and Death
A Walk with Love and Death is a 1969 romantic/drama film directed by John Huston.The story is based the novel by Hans Koningsberger. The film marked the screen debut of Huston's daughter Anjelica Huston...
by Hans Koningsberger
Hans Koning
Hans Koning , author of over 40 fiction and non-fiction books, was also a prolific journalist, contributing for almost 60 years to many periodicals including The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, Harper's, The New Yorker, and De Groene Amsterdammer.-...
takes place in France during the Jacquerie.