Jacquerie (1358): The French Peasants' Revolt After Poitiers

The Jacquerie was a peasant uprising that broke out in northern France in late May 1358 and was crushed within about a month. It began in the Beauvaisis, north of Paris, two years after the French defeat at the Battle of Poitiers, and was aimed above all at the nobility. Its name became a byword for peasant revolt across Europe.

Causes

France in 1358 was in deep crisis. The Black Death of 1348–1350 had killed a large share of the population. King John II had been captured at Poitiers in 1356 and was a prisoner in England, and his son Charles, the Dauphin, struggled to govern.

Many people blamed the nobility for the disaster at Poitiers, accusing knights of cowardice and greed. Taxes were raised to pay for war and for the king’s ransom. Meanwhile, bands of discharged soldiers, known as companies, plundered the countryside.

In Paris, the merchant leader Étienne Marcel led a reform movement that challenged the Dauphin’s authority. In spring 1358 the Dauphin left the capital and ordered nobles to strengthen and supply their castles, which in practice meant new demands on peasants for labour and goods. Charles II of Navarre, a rival of the royal family, added to the confusion.

The rising

The revolt began on 28 May 1358 at Saint-Leu-d’Esserent in the valley of the Oise, where local people attacked and killed a group of nobles. The movement spread rapidly across the Beauvaisis and into the regions around Paris, including the Île-de-France, Picardy and Champagne.

The rebels attacked and burned manor houses and castles. Chroniclers hostile to them, notably Jean Froissart, described terrible atrocities against noble families. Modern historians accept that serious violence took place but note that these accounts were written from the nobles’ point of view and probably exaggerated.

The rebels were not only poor labourers. Recent research, notably by Justine Firnhaber-Baker, shows that many were village notables, artisans and even some clerics and minor officials. They chose leaders, among whom Guillaume Cale was the most prominent, and tried to give the movement a military organisation.

Étienne Marcel and the Parisians made common cause with some of the rebels, sending men to help attack noble strongholds, though the alliance was uneasy.

Meaux and Mello

The rising was defeated in two decisive episodes in June 1358.

At Meaux, east of Paris, the wife of the Dauphin and many noblewomen had taken refuge in the fortified Market, an island district of the town. On 9 June a force of rebels and Parisians attacked it. A small group of knights led by Gaston Fébus, Count of Foix, and Jean de Grailly, Captal de Buch, who were returning from a crusade in Prussia, charged out and slaughtered the attackers. The town of Meaux was then burned.

Around the same time, Charles of Navarre, though himself at odds with the Dauphin, led nobles against the main rebel army near Mello. He invited Guillaume Cale to negotiate, seized him and then attacked the leaderless peasants, who were routed. Cale was executed, reportedly at Clermont-en-Beauvaisis.

Repression

The nobles’ revenge was savage. For weeks, armed bands roamed the countryside killing peasants, whether or not they had taken part in the revolt, and burning villages. No reliable figures exist, but estimates commonly range from several thousand to around 20,000 dead.

In August 1358 the Dauphin issued a general amnesty to try to end the violence. By then Étienne Marcel had been killed in Paris on 31 July 1358, and the Dauphin had regained control of the capital.

Legacy

The Jacquerie left a deep mark on medieval memory. Most of what is known comes from chroniclers such as Jean Froissart and Jean de Venette, and from royal letters of pardon issued to individuals after the revolt. These pardons, studied by modern historians, give a more detailed picture of who took part and why, and suggest that the rebels often targeted specific nobles and properties rather than acting in blind fury. The word jacquerie entered French as a general term for a peasant uprising. It was one of a series of popular revolts in late medieval Europe, followed by the Revolt of the Ciompi in Florence in 1378 and the Peasants’ Revolt in England in 1381.

Timeline

• 1356, 19 September: John II is captured at Poitiers.
• 1358, February: Étienne Marcel’s followers kill two of the Dauphin’s marshals in Paris.
• 1358, 28 May: The Jacquerie begins at Saint-Leu-d’Esserent.
• 1358, 9 June: Rebels are massacred at the Market of Meaux.
• 1358, June: Charles of Navarre defeats the rebels near Mello; Guillaume Cale is executed.
• 1358, 31 July: Étienne Marcel is killed in Paris.
• 1358, August: The Dauphin issues a general amnesty.

Why it matters

The Jacquerie revealed the strain that war, plague and heavy taxation placed on medieval society. Although it failed, it showed that ordinary people could organise to challenge the nobility, and it shaped how later rulers feared and responded to popular revolt.