Jacquerie

The Jacquerie was a popular revolt in late medieval Europe by peasants that took place in northern France in the summer of 1358, during the Hundred Years' War. The revolt, which was violently suppressed after a few weeks of violence, centered in the Oise valley north of Paris. This rebellion became known as the Jacquerie because the nobles derided peasants as "Jacques" or "Jacques Bonhomme" for their padded surplice called "jacque". Their revolutionary leader Guillaume Cale was referred to by the aristocratic chronicler Froissart as Jacques Bonhomme ("Jack Goodfellow") or Callet. The word jacquerie became synonymous with peasant uprisings in general in both English and French.