19. A Flighty Aristocrat’s Frivolous Orders to Her Serfs Triggered Medieval Europe’s Biggest Bout of Popular Unrest
Medieval Europe’s biggest bout of violent unrest was the German Peasants War of 1524 – 1525. Also known as The German Peasants Rebellion, it was actually Europe’s largest popular uprising ever prior to the French Revolution of 1789. The conflict, which shook Central Europe and the Holy Roman Empire’s Teutonic core was marked by exceptional brutality and viciousness by all sides. The levels of bloodthirsty violence during both the revolt and the suppression that took place in its aftermath were unprecedented.
For generations, German peasants had experienced a steady curtailment of their ancient rights to fish, hunt, bear arms, or collect wood from common lands. In the meantime, their aristocratic overlords’ exactions grew increasingly onerous. The conflict was reportedly – and perhaps apocryphally – sparked by the Countess of Lupfen’s orders to her serfs to stop tending their crops in order to collect snail shells for her to use as thread spools. Neglecting their fields and crops meant starvation, so instead of doing that the peasants took up arms.
