This was a very conflicting and confusing era for France and Paris. King John had been captured at Poitiers and was being held by the English. This image is an anonymous contemporary painting.* His son, Charles, was ruling as regent (Dauphin). King John's withdrawal from active governing was not really a loss to France. Guizot (v. II: 106) describes him as “A valiant and loyal knight, but a frivolous, hare-brained, thoughtless, prodigal and obstinate as well as imperious prince, even more incapable than Philip of Valois in the practice of government.”

The challenge facing France was ransoming the king and maintaining the fight against the English. With the king captive and his son young and inexperienced, power was shifting away from the royals. The states general, made up of “the three orders of clergy, the nobility and the deputies of the towns” met in 1355 to respond to a request for financial support of the war effort. They approved a levy to support an army, based on a salt tax. This triggered revolt in the country, a repeal of the tax and the substitution of an income tax.

In Paris Etienne Marcel emerged as a leader of the burgers and was able to press a series of reform demands on the Dauphin, given his weak position and need for funds. Charles, realizing the unlikelihood of the new tax generating what he needed, proposed a debasement of the currency as a way of siphoning resources to the royal treasury. This was vehemently opposed and Charles withdrew the plan. At the same time (we're now about 1356) Marcel engineered the release of Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, who had been held as a royal prisoner. He appeared to be looking for a noble counterweight to the Dauphin in seeking legitimacy. This drama played out with shifting alliances among these three principals.

By 1357 the estates general had been authorized to meet as they wanted, and the Dauphin was powerless to suppress it. Charles the Bad had generally allied himself with Etienne Marcel, to pursue his own interests and recapture territories he had previously lost. Marcel’s power was such that by February 1358 Marcel was able to confront the Dauphin and his advisers and murder three of the king's senior advisors in the king's presence, all the time saying the king was safe. Marcel effectively controlled Paris at this point. Charles fled the city, and Navarre remained allied with Marcel.

Outside Paris, peasants struggling under conditions of high taxes, roving bands of plunderers and a breakdown of civil order rose against their masters. Led by William Karl (a peasant) they ravaged the countryside, killing nobles and their families and destroying castles. The sense at the time was that this revolt was encouraged by Marcel in Paris.

From Guizot (v.II:125) “The reaction against Jacquerie was speedy and shockingly bloody. The nobles, the Dauphin and the king of Navarre, a prince and noble at the same time he was a scoundrel, made common cause against…” the Jacquerie. The revolt was suppressed in the countryside. One instance occurred at Beaux, where a group of nobles confronted a Jacquerie mob. This image of the event is from Froissart.** He describes it like this: "When those evil men (the Jacqueries) saw them (the nobility) drawn up in this warlike order -- although their numbers were comparatively small -- they became less resolute than before. The foremost began to fall back as the noblemen came after them, striking at them with their lances and swords and beating them down. Those who felt the blows, or feared to feel them, turned back in such panic that they fell over each other. Then men-at-arms of every kind burst out of the gates and ran into the square to attack those evil men. They mowed them down in heaps and slaughtered them like cattle; and they drove all the rest out of the town, for none of the villeins attempted to take up any sort of fighting order. They went on killing until they were stiff and weary and flung many into the River Marne. In all, they exterminated more than seven thousand Jacques on that day. Not one would have escaped if they had not grown tired of pursuing them. When the noblemen returned, they set fire to the mutinous town of Meaux and burnt it to ashes, together with all the villeins of the town whom they could pen up inside."

In Paris, Marcel saw the writing on the wall. He turned to the English, letting some into the city to defend against Charles who was marshaling a force outside the walls. The Dauphin Charles was in communication with people in the city, urging them to turn against Marcel. On July 31, 1358, as Marcel was planning to open a gate to allow in English relief, he was confronted by a former colleague who had gone over to Charles, and Marcel, along with several companions were killed. This image is from Froissart.**

Guizot describes Marcel as a reformer who lost site of reform and sought to substitute his rule for that of the king. The Dauphin Charles went on to become Charles V of France, a successful king who earned the nickname “The Wise.” Charles the Bad of Navarre remained a thorn in the side of the French. Marcel is remembered as an early proponent of representative government and reformer, albeit one seriously flawed.

Sources

**Jean Froissart, Chronicles, selected and translated by Geoffrey Brereton, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), pp.151-155. cited by Steven Kreis on his web site.

Guizot, France, vol. II

*http://heraldica.org/topics/france/rois_ic.htm