Justine Firnhaber-Baker
Guillaume Calle, who they elected after the first incident, was known as the general captain of the countryside — the captain of the area around the city of Beauvais, which was the Jacquerie’s heartland. Calle seems to have had some top lieutenants who rode with him, gave him advice, and were available to bring messages to other areas involved in the Jacquerie.
Underneath that top level, you had a layer of village captains. There is some evidence that each village had its captain and that the captain also had a subordinate, so there was probably a captain and a lieutenant in each village. There was a sort of hierarchy with two levels — though not a very strict hierarchy. We have a lot of evidence that people could just go and talk to Calle, and that they did not necessarily always do what he told them to do.
It was a grassroots movement, because Calle was chosen from the bottom up rather than being imposed upon the movement. Those village captains were mostly chosen by their own villages. That was a strength of the revolt, but it also led to a tug of war over authority.
There is some evidence that each village had its captain and that the captain also had a subordinate, so there was probably a captain and a lieutenant in each village.
There was a sense in which leaders would say, “I am the captain, we should pursue my objectives,” but the rank and file would reply, “We made you our captain so that you would do the things we want to do.” There was a degree of push and pull there.
When it comes to some revolts in medieval Europe, we know a lot about specific demands because the rebels left behind a list of them. However, we don’t have anything like that for the Jacquerie. We know that at one point, there were written documents being passed back and forth, with letters sent to cities that the Jacques wanted to be…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Justine Firnhaber-Baker
