Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/574

524 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE even had the king been sincere, the nobility and Parliament would not have allowed it. The revolt was suppressed in the same cruel way that the Jacquerie had been put down in France. However, it was as impossible to enforce the Statute of Laborers after the Peasants' Revolt as it had been before, and it is also noteworthy that poll taxes were not levied again in the Middle Ages. The peasants also continued gradually to escape from villeinage, just as they had been doing before the revolt. Contemporary with the Peasants' Revolt in England occurred popular risings in other countries. The heavy taxa- ~ ^ tion of Charles V finally resulted in popular Democratic . J . , , movements resistance at the very close of his reign and dur- ing the minority of his son. Revolts occurred in Amiens, Laon, Rouen, Rheims, and other towns of northern France, and in 1382 reached Paris. In Languedoc bands of peasants and artisans became brigands in order to procure food and to escape taxation. In 1379 the Flemish towns re- volted once more against their count. When the rich towns- men in Bruges recalled him, the people of Ghent made the son of Artevelde their leader, conquered Bruges, massacred the foes of democracy there, and spread the movement, not only throughout Flanders, but into Brabant and the Bishop- ric of Liege. But the French led an army against them and they were defeated, and the younger Artevelde was slain in the battle of Roosebek in 1382. It was at this same time that the city leagues of southern Germany reached their height, and that the Ciompi, or lowest class in Florence, gained for four brief years the suffrage. All these movements failed and the lower classes nowhere secured equal political rights, largely, it would seem, because the well-to-do middle class preferred to maintain the established government. The reigns of Richard II of England and Charles VI of France were somewhat alike. Both opened with minorities Richard II during which the kings were in tutelage and and Charles affairs came largely into the hands of their uncles, VI of France whose rule in both cases was bad. The first few years of both reigns were also marked by popular revolts, as