The Social Constituency of the Jacquerie Revolt of 1358

Abstract

Named for the sobriquet Jacques Bonhommes given to its participants, the Jacquerie Revolt of 1358 began on the 28 th of May in a village called Saint-Leu d'Esserent situated just north of Paris on the Oise River. 1 Lasting at least until the end of June, it eventually encompassed most of the Île-de-France, Picardy, the Vexin, and parts of Normandy and Champagne. Its violence primarily consisted of destroying or stealing nobles' possessions and of attacking noble houses and fortresses, over 100 of which were destroyed or damaged during the revolt. 2 At least two dozen nobles were killed, but despite the Jacquerie's reputation for violence against women, all but one of the identifiable victims was male and there is almost no evidence of rape. 3 The revolt was suppressed by a coalition of noblemen, acting in concert with the French and Navarrese crowns, who defeated the rebels in pitched battles at Meaux and Mello and who then rode across the countryside, exacting retribution from those whom they suspected of participation.The Jacquerie is famous. It is mentioned in school textbooks, popular histories, and specialist works alike. Along with the Florentine Ciompi Revolt of 1378 and the English Rising (or Peasants' Revolt) of 1381, the Jacquerie featured centrally in the spate of works devoted to the phenomenon of medieval rebellion that appeared in the 1970s. 4 The Ciompi and the English Rising have been extensively studied, for they fit well with the aims of broader national historiography focused on the communal struggles of northern Italy and the role of the common people in English politics. 5 The Jacquerie, on the other hand, has received less attention, perhaps because the political historiography of France is primarily focused on royal developments, while its strongly annaliste regional histories eschewed histoire évenémentielle. 6 The only scholarly monograph devoted to the Jacquerie, Siméon Luce's Histoire de la Jacquerie d'après des documents inédits, is over a century and a half old. 7 Over the course of the twentieth century, there were a handful of historical articles and