Jacquerie
Americannoun
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the revolt of the peasants of northern France against the nobles in 1358.
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(lowercase) any peasant revolt.
noun
Etymology
Origin of Jacquerie
< French, Middle French, equivalent to jaque ( s ) peasant (after Jacques, a name thought to be typical of peasants) + -rie -ry
Explanation
A jacquerie is an insurrection or revolt, especially by peasants against the ruling class. The original jacquerie was an organized uprising by working class farmers in 14th-century France. Chaos among the nobility had left these peasants charged with risking their lives to defend the palaces against invading English soldiers. They rebelled violently for months, but ultimately lost to the aristocrats. Jacquerie derives from the nobles' mocking nickname for peasants, Jacques, a reference to the padded jackets, or jacques, they wore.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This, combined with the soaring fiscal burden of near-constant war, set off a series of uprisings, most notably the French Jacquerie of 1358 and the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
From Salon • Apr. 26, 2020
We may add, that a Jacquerie had been promised, and that M. Bonaparte could not break all his promises at once without some inconvenience.
From Napoleon the Little by Hugo, Victor
It thus became a sort of Jacquerie which, being exploited by unscrupulous demagogues, soon alienated all its respectable elements.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
Cressy and Poitiers; the destruction of the Spanish fleet; the plague of the Black Death; the Jacquerie rising; these are treated by the author in "St. George for England."
From The Little Princess of Tower Hill by Meade, L. T.
As it was a number of arrests were effected the following day—half the manhood of the countryside was implicated in the aborted Jacquerie and the city prison was not large enough to hold it all.
From Lord Tony's Wife An Adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
