Jacquerie

In 1358 French peasants in the Beauvaisis rose against nobles in the Jacquerie, the great medieval revolt whose name became a byword for peasant fury.

Overview

The Black Death, English chevauchees during the Hundred Years War, and crushing taxes to fund the ransom of King John II pushed rural society to breaking point after the defeat at Poitiers. Peasants burned castles and manorial records around Paris, briefly allying with the Parisian rebels of Etienne Marcel. The movement lacked coordination, arms, and a unified command. Noble forces under Charles the Bad of Navarre crushed the Jacquerie at the battle of Mello, and reprisals killed thousands. Though defeated within weeks, the revolt exposed the fragility of the feudal order, terrified the aristocracy, and echoed through French memory down to the revolution of 1789.