| rdfs:comment | - The rebellion in the Beauvais was a major part of the Peasant Jacquerie which exploded into life in the spring and summer of 1358. Although the head of the rebellion was centred on Paris, the body was focused in the region to the north-east, and there peasants, frustrated by the failures of the nobility to protect them from English raiders and heavy taxation had risen up, forming village councils to rule regions and small armed forces of young men to maintain order. These peasant bands also attacked surrounding noble houses, many of which were only occupied by women and children, the men being with the armies fighting the English. The occupants were frequently massacred, the houses looted and burnt in an orgy of violence which shocked France and ravaged this once prosperous region.
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| abstract | - The rebellion in the Beauvais was a major part of the Peasant Jacquerie which exploded into life in the spring and summer of 1358. Although the head of the rebellion was centred on Paris, the body was focused in the region to the north-east, and there peasants, frustrated by the failures of the nobility to protect them from English raiders and heavy taxation had risen up, forming village councils to rule regions and small armed forces of young men to maintain order. These peasant bands also attacked surrounding noble houses, many of which were only occupied by women and children, the men being with the armies fighting the English. The occupants were frequently massacred, the houses looted and burnt in an orgy of violence which shocked France and ravaged this once prosperous region. The nobles’ response was furious. Aristocracy from across France united together and formed an army in Normandy which was joined by English and foreign mercenaries, sensing payment and a chance to loot the defeated peasants. This army moved into the Beauvais, preparing to strike at the peasants who had set up camp at the plateau above Mello near Silly-le-Long. The peasants had arrived there three days before, many ragged bands united under a leader from Paris. Another army, 800-strong under Jean Vaillant and Pierre Gilles, was dispatched to Meaux, where they besieged the castle of Marché which contained Lady Jeanne de Bourbon, the wife of the Dauphin Charles and his daughter Jeanne, along with a large number of nobles returning from crusading with the Teutonic Knights, including Count Gaston Phoebus and Lord Jean de Grailly. The armies were composed very differently, the peasant army under the leadership of Guillaume Cale was several thousand Beauvais peasants with a core of 400 Parisians, sent by Etienne Marcel, the leader of the Paris commune following a simultaneous uprising in the city. The force was poorly armed and untrained, though a few mercenaries and members of the lesser nobility provided limited leadership. The motives of the latter for joining the uprising were mixed. Some were subsequently to claim that they acted under duress, while others may have been convinced that the Jacquerie were acting on behalf of the imprisoned king. Opposed to the peasants was a smaller force of French nobles eked out by English mercenaries, routiers and a few Royal troops. They were led by a pretender to the throne of France, King Charles II of Navarre, who brought a substantial body of his own men with him. The noble-led army was between 1,500 and 2,500 strong, the peasants probably double this size.
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