The Medieval Peasants Who Ate Their Oppressors
The French defeat at Poitiers was particularly humiliating because the nobility allowed the king’s capture. Its aftermath was particularly onerous upon the peasantry, because the English demanded a huge ransom for the king’s release. Naturally, it was squeezed from the peasants. Finally, the French nobility failed in their basic raison d’etre that justified their high status: protection of the populace from enemy depredations. Unchecked by the peasants’ aristocratic overlords and supposed protectors, English and Gascon mercenaries roamed the countryside, to pillage and assault at will. Matters came to a head on May 21st, 1358, when peasants from a village near the Oise River killed a knight, then roasted him on a spit and forced his children to eat his flesh. The revolt spread quickly, as peasants razed local castles and slaughtered their inhabitants.
Eventually, disparate rebel bands combined under the leadership of Guillaume Cale, who then joined forces with Parisian rebels under Etienne Marcel. The revolt burned hot, but it also burned out quick. The undisciplined and untrained rebels were soon routed once the militarily trained and better armed nobles organized and fell upon them. The Paris uprising collapsed after its leader was assassinated. Guillaume Cale, with his peasant army assembled for battle, 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. Afterwards, the peasants were subjected to massive collective reprisals and a reign of terror in which around 20,000 were killed.