The Pastoureaux of 1320

Abstract

The rising in France in 1320 known as the Pastoureaux, or Shepherds' Crusade, receives little attention in most histories, and it is, indeed, a relatively small-scale event for which there are limited sources. Nevertheless, it has wider implications than have been generally recognised. The purpbse of this paper is therefore two fold: to describe these events through khe available sources and to offer some ideas concerning their historical! importance.

Jewish Persecutions and Weather Shocks: 1100–1800

“…The Pastoureaux first attacked royal castles in Normandy and the Paris region, then they moved south where they persecuted Jews throughout Languedoc in cities like Saintes, Verdun, Grenade, Castelsarrasin, Toulouse, Cahors, Lézat, Albi, Auch, Rabastens and Gaillac (Barber, , p. 12). The ‘brunt of peasant violence fell upon the Jews, for they … could be blamed for the economic hardships which the lower classes had recently been suffering’ (Barber, , p. 163)…”

“… Tension had been building for sometime as a result of the poor harvests and the peasants undertook religious demonstrations and parades aimed at ending the famine (Barber, , pp. 162–3).…”

“…162–3). Contemporaries also mention that they were incited by debtors of the Jews (Barber, , p. 146). Nirenberg argues that ‘the shepherds and the townspeople who supported them’ understood this relationship, and ‘recognised that the heavy taxes placed on Jews were a form of indirect taxation on Christians’ (Nirenberg, , p. 48).…”