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Lust for Liberty: The Politics of Social Revolt in Medieval Europe, 1200–1425
Lust for Liberty challenges long-standing views of popular medieval revolts. Comparing rebellions in northern and southern Europe over two centuries, Samuel Cohn analyzes their causes and forms, their leadership, the role of women, and the suppression or success of these revolts.
Popular revolts were remarkably common--not the last resort of desperate people. Leaders were largely workers, artisans, and peasants. Over 90 percent of the uprisings pitted ordinary people against the state and were fought over political rights--regarding citizenship, governmental offices, the barriers of ancient hierarchies--rather than rents, food prices, or working conditions. After the Black Death, the connection of the word "liberty" with revolts increased fivefold, and its meaning became more closely tied with notions of equality instead of privilege.
The book offers a new interpretation of the Black Death and the increase of and change in popular revolt from the mid-1350s to the early fifteenth century. Instead of structural explanations based on economic, demographic, and political models, this book turns to the actors themselves--peasants, artisans, and bourgeois--finding that the plagues wrought a new urgency for social and political change and a new self- and class-confidence in the efficacy of collective action.
Popular revolts were remarkably common--not the last resort of desperate people. Leaders were largely workers, artisans, and peasants. Over 90 percent of the uprisings pitted ordinary people against the state and were fought over political rights--regarding citizenship, governmental offices, the barriers of ancient hierarchies--rather than rents, food prices, or working conditions. After the Black Death, the connection of the word "liberty" with revolts increased fivefold, and its meaning became more closely tied with notions of equality instead of privilege.
The book offers a new interpretation of the Black Death and the increase of and change in popular revolt from the mid-1350s to the early fifteenth century. Instead of structural explanations based on economic, demographic, and political models, this book turns to the actors themselves--peasants, artisans, and bourgeois--finding that the plagues wrought a new urgency for social and political change and a new self- and class-confidence in the efficacy of collective action.
384 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2006
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About the author
Samuel K. Cohn Jr.
19 books12 followersSamuel Kline Cohn Jr., is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2020
Weren't people in the Middle Ages subservient to their masters, and incapable of resisting their superiors? Cohn investigates town chronicles, royal decrees and court records across Flanders, France and Italy , and finds descriptions of 1,012 popular revolts in in the 225 years after 1200. Though ruler-sponsored record-keepers avoided mentioning the victories of peasants or town rabble over their lords, Cohn's survey of official pardons shows that in 70% of these revolts (726 out of the 1,012), the rebels won at least some of their demands, including pardon from any punishment.
With surprising detail Cohn recovers evidence of the causes, demands, tactics, and slogans of medieval popular movements. We see the "people without underpants", who threw out the corrupt administrator of Bologna in 1289, the children's anti-war marches, the collective strikes involving mass emigration away from abusive rulers, or the great revolts against papal rule which swept over 1,577 walled towns and villages of central Italy in 1375. Cohn gives the conflicting contemporary views on these revolts, which sound quite familiar. As aristocratic cleric Jean de Bel explained, the rabble were driven by "uncontrolled diabolical madness" and "senseless beastly rage". Other writers reflect the views of victorious rebel leaders, as where the Milanese chronicle records: "all the cities and villages of Romagna, the Marche, the Duchy of Spoleto, the Papal States, and the Campania of Rome ... went under the flag of liberty and made themselves free".
The book is more analysis of fragmentary records than story telling. In tabulating the causes, goals, means, and results of rebellion, Cohn avoids generalization like the plague. He's well aware of the limits in his source material. But the weight of evidence shows a dramatic age, with the movements for liberty gathering steam.
With surprising detail Cohn recovers evidence of the causes, demands, tactics, and slogans of medieval popular movements. We see the "people without underpants", who threw out the corrupt administrator of Bologna in 1289, the children's anti-war marches, the collective strikes involving mass emigration away from abusive rulers, or the great revolts against papal rule which swept over 1,577 walled towns and villages of central Italy in 1375. Cohn gives the conflicting contemporary views on these revolts, which sound quite familiar. As aristocratic cleric Jean de Bel explained, the rabble were driven by "uncontrolled diabolical madness" and "senseless beastly rage". Other writers reflect the views of victorious rebel leaders, as where the Milanese chronicle records: "all the cities and villages of Romagna, the Marche, the Duchy of Spoleto, the Papal States, and the Campania of Rome ... went under the flag of liberty and made themselves free".
The book is more analysis of fragmentary records than story telling. In tabulating the causes, goals, means, and results of rebellion, Cohn avoids generalization like the plague. He's well aware of the limits in his source material. But the weight of evidence shows a dramatic age, with the movements for liberty gathering steam.
May 22, 2023
Good historical analysis with many examples of popular revolts drawn from Italy, France and Flanders. However, the book misses a great opportunity of developing a deeper argument that can analyse certain key revolts in their own context and time, giving the reader more information about the progress of such revolts, outcomes, etc.
December 1, 2015
I hate it when I forget to move a book from its no longer appropriate shelf. Finished this book a long time ago! Cohn Jr. needs to work out the straw dummy trope that he uses in his arguments--it would make them a lot stronger.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews