Late Middle Ages · Europe · War

1358

Jacquerie: peasants of the Beauvaisis rise

May 1358

Crushed by raids, taxes, and ransom levies, the peasants of the Ile-de-France attacked the country chateaux of nobles they accused of cowardice at Poitiers. Manor houses burned, women and children were murdered on both sides, atrocity met atrocity in a spiral of class hatred. Within three weeks royal and Navarrese troops slaughtered the rebels by the thousands.