Popular revolts in late medieval Europe were uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the bourgeois in towns, against nobles and kings during the upheavals of the 14th through early 16th centuries. Categories: 1911 Britannica | Historical stubs | Feudalism ... Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ...

Background

Before the 14th century, popular uprisings were not unknown, for example uprisings at a manor house against an unpleasant overlord, however they were local in scope. This changed in the 14th and 15th centuries when new downward pressures on the poor resulted in mass movements of popular uprisings across Europe. To provide an example of how common and widespread these movements became, in Germany between 1336 and 1525 there were no less than sixty phases of militant peasant unrest.¹

Most of the revolts were an expression of those below who desired to share in the wealth, status and well being of those more fortunate. In the end they were almost always defeated and the nobles ruled the day. A new attitude emerged in Europe, that "peasant" was a pejorative concept, it was something separate, and seen in a negative light, from those who had wealth and status. This was an entirely new social stratification from earlier times when society had been based on the three orders, those who work, pray and fight, when being a peasant meant being next to God, just as the other orders, now peasants were seen as almost sub-human.

Causes

There were five main reasons for these mass uprisings including 1) an increasing gap between the wealthy and poor, 2) declining incomes of the wealthy, 3) rising inflation and taxation, 4) the external crises of famine, plague and war, and 5) religious backlashes.

Rich and poor

The first reason was because the social gap between rich and poor had become more extreme, the origins of which can be traced to the 12th century with the rise of the concept of "nobility". How one dressed, behaved, manners, courtesy, how one spoke, what one ate, education, all became a part of the noble class making them distinct from others. By the 14th century the nobles had indeed become very different in their behavior, appearance and values from those "beneath". Noble can refer to a member of the nobility a Noble gas or Noble is a British automobile manufacturer. ... Court of Love in Provence in the 14th Century (after a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris). ... Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, allegorical Scene. ... Book of the Civilized Man by Daniel of Beccles (Latin: Urbanus Magnus Danielis Becclesiensis). ...

Inflation

The second reason was a crisis for the nobles with declining income. By 1285 inflation had become rampant (in part due to population pressures) and nobles charged rent based on customary fixed rates, based on the Feudal system, so as the price of goods and services rose (from inflation), the income of nobles remained stagnant (effectively dropping). To make matters worse, the nobles had become accustomed to a more luxurious lifestyle that required more money. To address this nobles illegally raised rents, cheated, stole, and sometimes resorted to outright violence to take what they wanted. Medieval demography is demography in the Middle Ages. ... Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum, itself borrowed from a Germanic root *fehu, a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held under certain obligations by feodati. ...

Taxation

Thirdly, kings needed money to finance wars and resorted to devaluing currency, by cutting silver and gold coins with less precious metal, which resulted in increased inflation and in the end, increased taxations.

External crisis

Fourth, the 14th century crisis of famine, plague and war put additional pressures on those on the bottom. The Great Famine of 1315-1317 (or to 1322) was the first of a series of large-scale crisis that struck Europe early in the 14th century, causing millions of deaths over an extended number of years and marking a clear end to an earlier period of growth and prosperity... The Black Death (more recently known as the Black Plague) was a devastating epidemic that first struck Europe in the mid-14th century (1347-1350), when it was estimated to have killed about a third of Europes population. ... A map of Europe in the 1430s, at the height of the Hundred Years War The Hundred Years War was a 116-year-long armed conflict between the Kingdom of England and France, beginning in 1337 and ending in 1453. ...

Religion

Finally, layered on top of this was a popular ideological view of the time that property, wealth and inequality was against the teachings of God, as expressed through the teachings of the Franciscans. The sentiment of the time was probably best expressed by preacher John Ball during the English Peasant Revolt when he said "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?". In other words, "gentleman" are nobles, all men are equal before God. It was a cry for a leveling of society where no man is above any other. Franciscans is the common name used to designate a variety of mendicant religious orders of men or women tracing their origin to Francis of Assisi and following the Rule of St. ... John Ball (d. ...

Notable rural revolts

The Peasant revolt in Flanders 1323-1328. Beginning as a series of scattered rural riots in late 1323, peasant insurrection escalated into a full-scale rebellion that dominated public affairs in Flanders for nearly five years. This article is in need of attention. ...

The Jacquerie was a peasant revolt that took place in northern France in 1356-1358, during the Hundred Years' War. Categories: France-related stubs | Medieval popular revolt | Middle Ages ... Events January 20 - Edward Balliol surrenders title as King of Scotland to Edward III of England September 19 - Battle of Poitiers The English defeat the French in the Hundred Years War, capturing the King John II of France in the process. ... Events Births August 24 - King John I of Castile September 25 - Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Ashikaga shogun Deaths 25 January - Isabella of France (wife of King Edward II of England) June 7 - Ashikaga Takauji, Ashikaga shogun August 16 - Duke Albert II of Austria Categories: 1358 ...

The Peasants' Revolt or Great Rising of 1381 is a major event in the history of England. It is the best documented and most well known of all the revolts of this period. The Peasants Revolt or Great Rising of 1381 was one of a number of popular revolts in late medieval Europe and is a major event in the history of England. ... Events June 12 - Peasants Revolt: In England rebels arrive at Blackheath. ...

The Bobalna revolt began in the village of Bobâlna, Transylvania, in 1437. The Bob lna revolt, a popular revolt in late medieval Europe, began in the village of Bob lna, Transylvania, in 1437 when a group of Romanian peasants unhappy with serfdom revolted against the feudal nobility and built a camp on the Bob lna hill. ... Events foundation of All Souls College, University of Oxford. ...

The Kent rebellion of 1450 led by Jack Cade. Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... Events March - French troops under Guy de Richemont besiege the English commander in France, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, in Caen April 15 - Battle of Formigny. ... Jack Cade was the leader of a popular revolt in late medieval Europe in the 1450 Kent rebellion which took place in the time of King Henry VI in England. ...

The Rebellion of the Remences in Catalonia in 1462 and 1485. Remença was a Catalan mode of serfdom; the equivalent Spanish word is remensa. ... Capital Barcelona Official languages Spanish and Catalan In Val dAran, also Aranese. ... Events Settlers from Portugal begin to settle the Cape Verde islands. ... Events August 22 - Battle of Bosworth Field is fought between the armies of King Richard III of England and rival claimant to the throne of England Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. ...

The 1514 György Dózsa in Transylvania. Events March - Louis XII of France makes peace with Emperor Maximilian. ... George Dozsa (Romanian: Gheorghe Doja, Hungarian: Dózsa György) (died 1514) was a Szekler squire (by some accounts a nobleman) from Transylvania who led a so-called peasants revolt against the nobility. ... Transylvania ( Romanian: Transilvania or Ardeal, Hungarian: Erdély, German: Siebenbürgen, Serbian: Transilvanija, Turkish: Erdel, Slovak: Sedmohradsko or Transylvania, Polish: Siedmiogród) is a historic region that forms the western and the central parts of Romania. ...

The Peasants' War of 1524-1526 in the Holy Roman Empire. expanding insurgences The Peasants War (in German, der Deutsche Bauernkrieg) was a popular revolt in Europe, specifically in the Holy Roman Empire between 1524- 1526 and consisted, like the preceding Bundschuh movement and the Hussite Wars, of a mass of economic as well as religious revolts by peasants, townsfolk and... Events March 1, 1524/5 - Giovanni da Verrazano lands near Cape Fear (approx. ... Events January 14 - Treaty of Madrid. ... The crown of the Holy Roman Empire (2nd half of the 10th century), now held in the Vienna Schatzkammer. ...

The Croatian and Slovenian peasant revolt of 1573 was a large peasant revolt in Croatia. The Croatian and Slovenian peasant revolt of 1573 was a large peasant revolt in Croatia and what is now Slovenia. ... Events January - articles of Warsaw Confederation signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland. ...

The Slovenian peasant revolt of 1515 was a peasant revolt which engulfed most of what is now Slovenia. The Slovenian peasant revolt of 1515 was a peasant revolt which engulfed most of what is now Slovenia. ... Events June - Invasion of Persia by Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Empire. ...

The peasant wars of Ivan Bolotnikov and Stenka Razin in the 17th-century Russia. Stepan (Stenka) Timofeyevich Razin (Степан (Стенька) Тимофеевич Разин in Russian) (1630 - 6. ...

Notable urban revolts

The unusual uprising in 1196 by William Fitz Osbern demonstrates how rare, and easily succumbed, revolts were before the 14th century. Events Spring, London, popular uprising of the poor against the rich led by William Fitz Osbern. ... William Fitz Osbern was a citizen of London who took up the role of the advocate of the poor in a popular uprising in the spring of 1196. ...

The revolt of Cola di Rienzi in 1354. Cola di Rienzi (c. ... Events End of reign of John VI Cantacuzenus, as Byzantine emperor. ...

The Revolt of the Ciompi in 1378. ... Events March - John Wyclif tried to gain public favour by laying his theses before parliament, and then made them public in a tract. ...

Terminology

Different historians will use different terms to describe these events.

Peasant

The word peasant, since the 14th century (or even before), has a pejorative meaning and is not a neutral term. However, it was not always that way; peasants were once viewed as pious and seen with respect and pride. Life was hard for peasants, but life was hard for everyone. As nobles increasingly lived better quality lives, there arose a new consciousness of those on top and those on bottom, and the sense that being a peasant was not a position of equality. This new consciousness coincided with the popular uprisings of the 14th century.

Recent research by R.H. Hilton in the 1990s showed that the English Peasant Revolt of 1381 (or Great Rising) was led not by peasants, but by those who would be the most affected by increased taxation: the merchants who were neither wealthy, but not poor either. Indeed, these revolts were often accompanied by landless knights, excommunicated clerics and other members of society who might find gain or have reason to rebel. Although these were popular revolts, they were often organized and led by people who would not have considered themselves peasants.

Peasants is typically a term used for rural agrarian poor while many uprisings occurred within towns and cities by tradesmen, thus the term is not fully encompassing of events as a whole for the period.

For historical writing purposes, many modern historians will use the word peasant with care and respect, choosing other phrases such as "Popular" or "from below" or "grassroots", although in some countries in central and eastern Europe where serfdom continued up to the 19th century in places, the word peasant is still used by some historians as the main description of these events.

References

• Mollat and Wolff, The Popular Revolutions of the Late Middle Ages, 1973 ISBN 004940041X
• Froissart, Chronicles
• Fourquin, The Anatomy of Popular Rebellion, 1978 ISBN 0444850066

Jean Froissart (~1337 - ~1405) was one of the most important of the chroniclers of medieval France. ...

Notes

Note 1: Peter Blickle, Unruhen in der ständischen Gesellschaft 1300-1800, 1988