Jacquerie

 

(zhäk'ərē') [Fr.,=collection of Jacques, which is, like Jacques Bonhomme, a nickname for the French peasant], 1358, revolt of the French peasantry. The uprising was in part a reaction to widespread poverty during the Hundred Years War. Peasants revolted against the écorcheurs (mercenaries who fought in the war), who pillaged their land, and the nobles, who made extortionate demands but did not protect them. Beginning around Beauvais, north of Paris, the revolt spread over a wide area; castles were demolished, provisions stolen, and other violent acts committed. The leader, Guillaume Karle (or Cale), was captured and beheaded by Charles II of Navarre, and the mob was easily dispersed. The nobles took revenge by massacring thousands of the insurgents.

The Jacquerie was a popular revolt in late medieval Europe that took place in northern France in 1358, during the Hundred Years' War. The revolt centered in the Oise valley north of Paris. This rebellion was known as the Jacquerie after its peasant revolutionary leader Guillaume Cale, popularly known as Jacques Bonhomme ("Jim Goodfellow") or Callet. The word "Jacquerie" later became a synonym for French peasant uprisings.

After the capture of the French King John II the Good by the English during the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, power in France devolved to the States General, Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, and John's son, the Dauphin, Charles V. However, the States General were too divided to provide effective government and the disputes between the two rulers provided disunity amongst the nobles. 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) and to repair their war-damaged properties without compensation. This was particularly problematic as many common people already blamed the nobility's corruption for the defeat at Poitiers. The chronicle of Jean de Venette 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, mercenaries and bandits employed by the English during outbreaks of the Hundred Years' War, were left untouched 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. This combination of problems resulted in a series of bloody rebellions in several regions beginning in 1358. The account of the rising by the contemporary chronicler Jean le Bel 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 is consistent throughout all of the medieval sources, including Jean Froissart and Jean de Vanette.

The peasants involved in the rebellion seem to have lacked any real organization, instead coming together as a shapeless 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 revolt 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 them 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 and Rheims, while Senlis and Montdidier were sacked by the peasant army.

The Jacquerie must be seen in the context of this period of internal instability. In this period of personal government the absence of the king was detrimental to the 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 Étienne Marcel in July 1358. Marcel had joined Cale's rebellion somewhat inadvisedly, and it cost him the city and his life, with his wealthy supporters deserting his cause in response.

The revolt was suppressed by French nobles led by Charles the Bad of Navarre. Guillaume Cale, the leader of the rebellion, was invited to truce talks near the town of Mello on the 10th July. He was seized by the French nobles (who apparently believed that the rules of chivalry and truce did not apply to one of such low birth) and decapitated. His army, which some contemporaries claimed was 20,000 strong, was ridden down by divisions of knight's cavalry in the ensuing Battle of Mello, which was followed by a campaign of terror throughout the Beauvais region where soldiers roamed door to door in the countryside murdering countless peasants by hanging.

References

• J. B. Bury, The Cambridge Medieval History: Decline of Empire and Papacy, Vol. VII. New York: Macmillan Company, 1932.
• Samuel K. Cohn, Jr., Popular Protest in Late Medieval Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Jean Froissart. Chronicles. London: Penguin Books, 1978.
• Professor de Vericour. “The Jacquerie.” The Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Vol. 1 1872: 296-310.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

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