Jacquerie, Insurrection of the

The name given to the war of the French peasantry, which broke out in 1358. The immediate occasion of it was the enormities perpetrated by Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, and his adherents; but it was really caused by long-continued oppre ion on the part of the nobles. Suddenly rising against their lords, the peasants laid hundreds of castles in ruins, murdered the nobles, and violated their wives and daughters, practicing every enormity, and acting, as they said, on the principle of doing as had been done to them. For some weeks they were succe ful; but the magnitude of the danger induced the nobles to make common cause against them, and on June 9 the peasants were defeated with great slaughter near Meaux by Captal de Buch and Count of Foix. This put an end to the insurrection.