When we study the Middle Ages European history teacher usually presents us with a didactic division of the medieval period between the High Middle Ages and the low middle age. The first part covers the period from the 5th to the 10th century d. Ç.; the second part goes from the 11th to the 15th century. In the centuries of transition from the Low Middle Ages to the Modern Age, many events composed a turbulent atmosphere in some regions of Europe, especially where the countries of the France and of the Germany. Among these events, one of the most expressive were the Peasant Revolts.
The so-called peasant revolts took place, above all, in the region of present-day France. Social chaos was driven by several factors. Among these factors was the Black Plague, which arrived in Europe in mid 1348 and, due to poor hygiene conditions, spread rapidly, claiming the lives of thousands of people. In the years that followed the devastating effects of the Black Death, there was still the incidence of drought and the consequent decrease in agricultural production. The situation of the peasants became increasingly critical.
Peasants who still managed to maintain their production began to come into permanent conflict with the feudal lords who leased the land to them through the relationship of suzerainty and vassalage. The peasants sought to receive a greater share of the production and leave the condition of vassals. The revolts took place in 1358. The organization of the peasants assumed a character of extreme violence, which also resulted in an equal response from lords and kings.
The revolting organization of the peasants became known as the Jacqueries. As the historian Ricardo da Costa well emphasized, the revolt took place in a context of conflicts between social orders, and not between classes:
“In 1358, the kingdom of France was the scene of a violent social war between the orders, the Jacquerie, a peasant uprising which, despite having lasted only a month, it was incredibly brutal, with equal response from the nobles - the society of orders was based on a principle of inequality, characteristic of the structure of the Cosmos. It implied a hierarchy, which, in turn, was structured according to the doctrine of the mystical body, adapted to royalty (the king, the head, and the orders, the members).” [1]
This ordering of medieval society began to be challenged at this time. For at least two centuries (century. XV and XVI), these conflicts became recurrent – as was the case with the peasant war in Germany, motivated by Luther's Reformation.
GRADES
[1] COSTA, Ricardo da. Peasant Revolts in the Middle Ages, 1358: Jacquerie's Violence in Jean Froissant's View. In: NISHIKAWA, Taise Ferreira da Conceição. Medieval History: History II. São Paulo: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009, p. 59.
[2] Idem. P. 59.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
