The Jacquerie was a massive uprising in the late 1350s. The book invokes it as an instance of wartime violence against women: marauding peasants raped French noblewomen. It appears not as a sustained account of the uprising, but as a concrete example in a wider discussion of rape, law, and social attitudes in medieval France.

The Uprising as Context

The evidence identifies the Jacquerie as a large-scale uprising and places the assaults during the disorder associated with it. It does not describe the uprising’s causes, course, leaders, or outcome, nor does it specify where or when within the revolt the attacks occurred.

Violence Against Noblewomen

The account singles out French noblewomen as victims of rape by marauding peasants. This brief reference situates sexual violence within the dangers women faced during wartime and political unrest; it supplies no individual victims’ names or further circumstances.

Law and Social Attitudes

The book sets this example beside the legal principle that rape was a felony and a capital offense in France, including Normandy. It also distinguishes legal condemnation from varied social attitudes: noblewomen’s honor was highly prized by the aristocracy, while stories could depict violence against lower-status women more casually. The reference to the Jacquerie therefore illustrates wartime violence without implying that the law’s severity prevented such attacks.

Place in the Narrative

The Jacquerie serves as one example in a discussion challenging the idea that medieval rape was scarcely treated as a crime. Its role is contextual rather than narrative: the account uses the uprising to show that legally punishable violence could nevertheless occur amid wartime disorder.