Long Reads: France's First Revolution w/ Justine Firnhaber-Baker
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
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Summary
If you think about the French revolutionary tradition, you’re most likely to picture the storming of the Bastille and the overthrow of the monarchy. But that wasn’t the first time there was a major uprising against the established order in France. In the second half of the fourteenth century, there was a popular revolt known as the Jacquerie, which terrified the French ruling class. They drowned the revolt in blood and set about demonizing the peasants who took part in it. It was only in the wake of a successful revolution four centuries later that historians began taking a fresh look at the Jacquerie.
Long Reads is joined by Justine Firnhaber-Baker to discuss this uprising. She's a professor of history at the University of St Andrews and the author of The Jacquerie of 1358: A French Peasants’ Revolt. Published in 2021, the book was the first major study of the Jacquerie since the nineteenth century.
Read her article for Jacobin, "The Jacquerie Was a Great Popular Rebellion Against the Rich Nobles of France" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/09/jacquerie-peasant-revolt-france-middle-ages-class-conflict-nobility
Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're very welcome to Long Reed's a Jacobin podcast where we look in depth at political topics and thinkers. |
| 0:07.0 | My name's Daniel Finn and the features editor here at Jacobin, and I'll be presenting the show. |
| 0:14.0 | If you think about the French revolutionary tradition, you're most likely to picture the |
| 0:18.1 | storming of the Bastille and the overthrow of the monarchy. |
| 0:22.1 | But that wasn't the first time there was a major uprising |
| 0:24.8 | against the established order in France. In the second half of the 14th century there was a |
| 0:30.4 | popular revolt known as the Jacques-Cry, which terrified the French ruling class. |
| 0:35.0 | They'd drown the revolt in blood and set about demonizing the peasants who took part in it. |
| 0:40.0 | It was only in the wake of a successful revolution four centuries later |
| 0:44.6 | that historians began taking a fresh look at the Jacques-Céry. Our guest today is |
| 0:50.7 | Justine for N-Hébéker. She's a professor of history at the University of St Andrews and the author of the Jacques-Cérie of 1358, a French peasants revolt. |
| 1:01.1 | Published in 2021, her book was the first major study of the Jacquary since the 19th century. |
| 1:07.0 | What was the nature of the political system and the wider social order in France during the 14th century? |
| 1:15.0 | So politically we've got a centralized system in that you have a king and royal government, |
| 1:21.6 | which actually by the mid 14th century when the |
| 1:24.5 | Jacques happens, has a very elaborate bureaucracy supporting a central royal |
| 1:30.6 | government at all levels. But it's also decentralized in that local lordships and regional lordships are very important. |
| 1:40.0 | So when we think about medieval lords, what we are talking about is people who have jurisdiction and fiscal rights over a particular territory and people. We used to think about the Royal Government and the Lords as sort of very |
| 2:00.9 | opposing forces and there's a sort of zero-sum game that as royal power increased, |
| 2:06.7 | lordly power, seniorial power must have decreased, but increasingly we understand that these two |
| 2:12.1 | levels actually work together. |
| 2:14.0 | The Crown's not interested in getting rid of the Lords and Lords see a lot of advantages in |
... |
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