11. Savage Reprisals and Repression
The Jacquerie burned hot, but it also burned out quickly. The undisciplined and untrained peasants were soon routed once the militarily trained and better-armed nobles organized and set out to suppress the revolt. The Paris uprising collapsed after its leader was assassinated, while Guillaume Cale, with his peasant army assembled to meet that of the nobles, unwisely accepted an invitation for truce talks with the armed nobles’ leader, Charles the Bad of Navarre.
Cale was treacherously seized when he showed up, tortured, and beheaded. The now-leaderless peasant army was then ridden down by knights and routed. The peasants were then subjected to massive collective reprisals, and a reign of terror in which roughly 20,000 were killed.