10. Downtrodden French Peasants Hated the Aristocrats So Much They Forced Them to Eat Other
On May 21st, 1358, matters came to a head when peasants from a village near the Oise River killed a knight. They then roasted him on a spit and forced his children to eat his flesh. The revolt spread quickly, as peasants razed local castles and slaughtered their inhabitants. Soon, the disparate rebel bands in the countryside began coalescing under the leadership of Guillaume Cale, who then joined forces with Parisian rebels under Etienne Marcel. The revolt burned hot, but it also burned out quickly.
The undisciplined and untrained rebels were routed once the militarily trained and better-armed nobles organized and set out to suppress the revolt. The Paris uprising collapsed after its leader was assassinated. Guillaume Cale, with his peasant army, assembled to meet that of the nobles, and unwisely accepted an invitation for truce talks with the aristocrats’ leader, Charles the Bad of Navarre. When Cale showed up, he was treacherously seized, then tortured and beheaded. The now-leaderless peasant army was then ridden down by knights and routed. Afterward, as a warning against future unrest, the peasants were subjected to massive collective reprisals and a reign of terror in which around 20,000 were killed.
