Stand up, Jacques Bonhomme!! ---- Here is a term situated in time that has become commonplace to describe a somewhat vigorous social movement: the Jacquerie. Words have meaning, a history, and Gaëtan Bonnot retraces the events and social interpretations in his book, *The Jacquerie: The Evolution of Terrors from 1358 to the Present Day*. On the cover, soldiers in helmets, armor, and shields, slaughtering common people, beggars, and Jacques with their swords-signs of nobility. As Patrick Boucheron points out in his preface: "We thought we knew the history of the Jacquerie, but we only had the chronicle: that which the narrative sources of the 14th century have transmitted to us, and with them the tenacious prejudices they carried." ---- What is a Jacquerie? Patrick Boucheron again: "a revolt of peasant poverty, possibly violent but always doomed from the start, and whose impotence is inscribed in the contempt it inspires." Guillaume Calle, initiator of the 1358 revolt in the Oise region, is said to be the figure of this Jacques Bonhomme portrayed in history books. Gaëtan Bonnot revisits the events up to the recent actions of the Breton Red Caps in 2013 and the Yellow Vests of 2018. He dismantles hasty assertions by relying on meticulous archival analysis using digital text analysis and political lexicometry techniques. Is it a discord, a conspiracy, a plot? The terms are essential for understanding the legal classification of the crime. The term "terror" is often used.
A Century of Crisis
The century was turbulent, a century of crisis between the common people and the monarchy, between various claimants to the French throne. The figure of Étienne Marcel would rise to prominence until his assassination on July 31, 1358. The Jacquerie was short-lived, beginning around May 28 with the murder of several nobles in Saint-Leu-d'Esserent, and ending with two simultaneous battles on June 9-10. The main events took place in the Oise region, with some hotspots near Vitry-le-François, in the Essonne department, and extending into the Creuse. These were very localized and sporadic. Alongside the peasants, there were merchants, bourgeois, and clerics. It is also interesting to identify the sites of the revolts, often peaceful villages or towns today.
In the chronicles, the political dimension is erased, and collective action is reduced to mere agitation (commotion), to unrest (emotion). Occasionally, an excessive and uncontrolled defensive reaction to aristocratic and seigneurial abuses is noted. Contrary to the traditional view, the rural Jacquerie was integrated into towns like Senlis and Beauvais. And this Guillaume Calle, described as a "knowledgeable and eloquent man," commands respect but will be beheaded at the Battle of Mello. And after this revolt, how to restore order? Victory over the rebels, but also the granting of pardons. Gaëtan Bonnot analyzes the content of these pardons with great precision, allowing us to go beyond the schematic chronicles. However, the repression was ferocious, as the testimonies show by distinguishing between the world of the towns and that of the countryside. The vanquished will experience a kind of reversed terror. The victors will be distributed land, farms, and fairs, like the one in Dormans along the Marne. The judgments recounting the alleged offenses are fascinating.
Contempt for the Jacques
The reader is immersed in the life of the century. In the memoirs of the nobility and among the political right, contempt for the Jacques, often perceived as alcoholics, rapists, and destroyers, remains undiminished. These are the same labels attributed to the Communards by the Versailles government. Over time, they are periodically mentioned, notably during the French Revolution of 1789, in novels such as Eugène Le Roy's *Jacquou le Croquant*, Émile Guillaumin's *La Vie d'un simple*, and Gaëtan Bonnot, who draws a connection with more recent tax revolts. Towns like Nointel and Montataire name a street or public building after Guillaume Calle. It is up to each of us to take up the staff again, the simple club raised by the peasants throughout our history, shouting their protest.
* Gaëtan Bonnot
The Peasant Revolt,
The Evolution of Terrors from 1358 to the Present Day
PUF Publishing, 2026
https://monde-libertaire.net/?articlen=9158
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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