The Jacquerie Was a Great Popular Rebellion Against the Rich Nobles of France
In the 14th century, France experienced the biggest popular revolt in its history before 1789. Historians have often denounced or derided the rebels, but they mounted a sophisticated, well-organized challenge to noble power that was brutally repressed.
Fifteenth-century illustration of peasant rebels being surprised by aristocratic forces during the Jacquerie in 1358. (Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons)
In the summer of 1358, thousands of peasants rose up in the largest rebellion France had ever known. The heartlands of the revolt lay outside Paris, but the uprising eventually encompassed almost all northern France.
During the two months that it lasted, rebels destroyed over a hundred noble castles and manors and killed several dozen noblemen. One group may even have spit-roasted a nobleman and force-fed his flesh to his violated widow, or so a noble chronicler claimed.
The revolt soon became known as the Jacquerie, after the nickname “Jacques Bonhomme” that was given to soldiers of nonnoble birth. It was put down by a ferocious noble counterinsurgency.
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