The concept of revolution is often associated with modernity due in large part to the significance and massive impact of the French Revolution of 1789, with the year 1789 frequently serving as the end point for the Early Modern period in Europe and the start point for the Modern era. Because the French Revolution was so seminal and served as such a profound model for wanna-be-revolutionaries ever since, it has impacted the definition and conception of revolution itself. Many would argue that revolution, in the modern sense, simply could not occur in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, but this reasoning is circular.
Table of Contents
On Revolution
A good place to start when defining revolutions is with Alexis de Tocqueville, who differentiated between three types of revolutions:
- Political revolutions that make changes in governance and political institutions but leave the broader society comparatively unchanged.
- Sudden and violent revolutions that seek not only to establish a new political system but to transform an entire society.
- Slow but sweeping transformations of the entire society that take several generations to bring about (such as changes in religion).
These three definitions can be very useful when analyzing events and upheavals in modern times and in pre-modern times. By being sufficiently broad and differentiated at the same time, we can study developments and events in the pre-modern past that could qualify as revolutionary, even if they failed in their goals.
In his writings, de Tocqueville was least interested in political revolutions and therefore focused most on the second and third types: 2) sudden and violent revolutions that seek not only to establish a new political system but to transform an entire society; and 3) slow but sweeping transformations of the entire society that take several generations to bring about. These two types of revolution de Tocqueville found to be the most “authentic” because they both tried to achieve two goals:
- They attempt to reduce — or occasionally increase — inequality and, as a result, bring about new classes and groups to power.
- They seek not just political change but social transformation.
And for de Tocqueville, it was the first goal — the attempt to change the extent of social inequality — that constituted the main prerequisite of what he considered as an authentic revolution. On the second goal, de Tocqueville highlighted a concept of his own creation: the “generating principle” of society. To achieve social transformation, “the very bases of society and the generating principles of the laws” must be fought over and consequently altered. To illustrate what he meant by “generating principle,” de Tocqueville explains how the “notion of honor” was altered from martial courage to hardworking, thrifty, acquisitiveness because the former “notion of honor” came from a society whose “generating principle” was feudal and aristocratic. The latter “notion of honor” arose from a society whose “generating principle” was democratic and libertarian.
Another good term to define is “revolutionary war,” which the Makers of Modern Strategy contributors John Shy and Thomas W. Collier define simply as the seizure of political power through armed force. In the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, “revolution” and “revolutionary war” made their appearance, yet not in the modern sense we have been taught and are accustomed to.
Revolution in the Middle Ages
With the fall of the Roman Empire and establishment of the many Germanic and non-Germanic successor states, political life dramatically changed. “Revolutions” in the Roman sense, such as the Conflict of the Orders, the populares versus the optimates, Augustus’ settlements, were simply not possible in the fragmented, primitive and still-forming successor kingdoms. The public sphere vanished with the loss of literacy, urban culture and drying-up of Roman trade routes. Beginning with the Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire, Europe steadily transformed from classical Roman to feudal and manorial-based Medieval society.
Revolutions in the Middle Ages are therefore ones of retrospective analysis and are different from the typical sense of “revolution” moderns would understand. If we’re talking about revolutions by de Tocqueville’s definitions, then there were certainly analogous forms of revolution in the Middle Ages compared to those known in modern times.
Potential Sources of Revolution in the Middle Ages
Revolutions, or attempts at them, in the Middle Ages could originate from several sources and for a variety of reasons. However, there are patterns and themes that make them classifiable.
The Nobility
The nobility, as the Second Estate in the orders of the realm, was an integral part of a functioning society. In an ideal sense, the king was part of the nobility as well, at the top of the hierarchy, not separately superior. Yet the nobility in many European kingdoms and territories could pose a latent, if not immediate, threat to the integrity of the central authority. This was especially the case, for example, in the First and Second Barons’ Wars in England in the 13th century.
Sources of discontent among nobles toward the governing regime often centered on perceived reductions in their traditional privileges. These often had financial and political implications as well, such as nobles demanding a voice in policymaking through traditional meeting of the estates in exchange for levying taxes on them.
Thus, when the nobility did oppose and clash with central royal governments, their aims were usually in line with de Tocqueville’s first type of revolution, a political one focused on making changes in governance and political institutions — typically, a restoration of real or perceived rights — while leaving the broader society comparatively unchanged. This is especially true for usurpations of reigning monarchs and their replacement with a new dynasty: There were noticeable political changes for sure, but society at large was not to be greatly disturbed.
The nobility as a source of potentially revolutionary activity is more marked in the Early Modern period, which comes after the end of the Middle Ages. Over the course of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, across many states of Europe, the central royal government strengthened and centralized at the expense of the nobility. This development was not one of outright coercion by royal authorities of the nobility, but rather a dynamic relationship that had to be balanced along with other forces in society. Gradually, however, over those years, the nobles of many European countries saw their real powers and responsibilities diminished by the growth of the central government. A natural result of this was an outbreak of disturbances and revolts headed by the nobility against the monarchical government throughout the Early Modern era.
If nobles were to be instruments of revolution in the Middle Ages, and instruments in the “authentic” revolutionary sense, they would likely not seek social transformation but attempt to increase inequality — mainly by enhancing, or “restoring”, their rights and privileges — while utilizing populist calls for “liberties” to convince the commoners they aimed for greater equality. This is one of the reasons why noble-led movements that approached the level of revolutionary would then either stall at the level of political revolution; lead to concessions; or ultimately fail.
Nobles who actively sought a transformation in the social system were, unsurprisingly given their station in society, rare…but not non-existent. For example, many Slavic nobles of eastern Europe no doubt wanted to completely overturn the social system placed upon them by the so-called “Tatar yoke.” But more on this subject later.
The Peasantry
Peasant revolts occurred throughout the Middle Ages, but perhaps the most notable wave was in the Late Middle Ages in the 14th century, as famines and plague ravaged society. These jacqueries were the closest thing to revolutionary peasants, yet they too were looking for a modification of an existing constitution, if not merely some sort of relief from the government.
Though peasants almost never spearheaded a movement that aimed for social transformation, sometimes what their leaders said implied this. For example, in 1381, the radical priest and peasant revolt leader John Ball asked rhetorically, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentlemen?” The implication was some sort of leveling of English society, which Ball considered unjustly far too socially unequal and stratified. Indeed, Ball incited the peasants to revolt against their feudal landowners, as opposed to simple blind, untargeted fury of past peasant revolts.
The Bourgeoisie
In more advanced Medieval societies, such as the Low Countries where proto-industrial economies grew up around cloth-making, the emerging bourgeoisie of the cities and rural workshops could lead revolutionary movements. The best example of this is in Flanders in the late 13th century and early 14th century, when peasant revolts combined with urban unrest to provoke resistance and war against the Count of Flanders and the Kingdom of France (1323–1328). In this case, as in others, the main purpose was modification of an existing constitution at most.
However, in the Late Middle Ages, especially after the first waves of the Black Death swept through Europe in the mid-1300s, the non-noble dwellers in urban cities across much of Europe launched disturbances that tended to have more ambitious objectives compared to the revolts before. The plague’s impact on Medieval Europe seems that have served as an inflection point for popular upheavals, an argument made by Samuel K. Cohn, Jr. in his book Lust for Liberty: The Politics of Social Revolt in Medieval Europe, 1200-1425.
The Church
This is a tricky source of revolution, yet the Medieval church, the Papacy, could and did instigate constitutional crises and conflicts with European kingdoms, most obviously with the Holy Roman Empire. The Investiture Controversy (1076–1122) induced revolutionary struggles in that Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Henry IV, and deposed him as German king, releasing all Christians from their oath of allegiance. Enforcing these declarations was a different matter, but the advantage gradually came to be on the side of Gregory VII.
German princes and the aristocracy were happy to hear of the king’s deposition. They used religious reasons to continue the rebellion started at the First Battle of Langensalza in 1075, and for seizure of royal holdings. Aristocrats claimed local lordships over peasants and property, built forts, which had previously been outlawed, and built-up localized fiefdoms to secure their autonomy from the empire. Here again, however, the main objective was modification of an existing constitution and relative power within the political system.
Heretical Movements
Fears of revolution stemming from heresies were, not surprisingly, exaggerated in the very religious era of the Middle Ages. Rarely did heretical movements gain real force to challenge the social system, if that was even a goal.
However, there were certain heretical movements whose beliefs could or did imply major social transformation. A good example of such a heretical movement that also gained substantial following were the Cathars in France (1100s-1300s). The Cathars had radically different views of religion and society than established Catholicism: Cathars denied the trinitarian ideology of the church as well as Christ’s physical incarnation and resurrection; they viewed the world dualistically, divided between an evil, material world (i.e. their present lives and society on earth) that had been built by the God of the Old Testament, and a good, spiritual, non-material world of the God of the New Testament; they also flattened significantly social hierarchies, both in the secular and religious realm; etc. Unsurprisingly, French Catholic priests burned all manuscripts and literary traces of Cathar beliefs.
The Cathars, in their communities mainly in southern France, did live very different lives than traditional Catholics, and thus could be said to have been engaging in social transformation. In the end, Catharism was condemned by the papacy and the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) led by the forces of the Kingdom of France, smashed the heretical movement and the regional nobility who had harbored them: The County of Toulouse and the Viscounty of Béziers and Albi, most notably.
Religion could instigate revolutionary movements in a more radical, and heretical, way as well. There had always been Christian heresies and crusades in Medieval Europe, but in the Late Middle Ages, prefiguring the Protestant Reformation, religious conflicts erupted that in some cases sought to overthrow the established church and social relations. The Hussite Wars (1419–1434) were a prime example of this.
Examples of Revolutions in the Middle Ages
Below we listed revolutions and/or upheavals and disturbances that took on revolutionary character. We classified these Medieval revolutions in terms of de Tocqueville’s three types of revolution.
Type 1 Revolutions
In the Middle Ages, revolutions were largely those of de Tocqueville’s first and less radical definition: Political revolutions that make changes in governance and political institutions but leave the broader society comparatively unchanged. For example, one of the most radical incidents in the Middle Ages was Simon de Montfort’s Second Barons’ War in England against King Henry III (1264–1267). De Montfort managed to capture the king, and called his now-famous, proto-democratic Simon de Montfort’s Parliament (January-March 1265), which included not just the barons and knights of the shire, but also the burgesses of major towns. Radical reforms were discussed, but they would’ve amounted to a modification of the existing constitution rather than a complete change; in the end, even a modification didn’t happen since de Montfort was defeated and the rebellion ended.
Córdoban Revolution: 755-756
Taking place in Muslim Spain, this turn of events is very much in line with de Tocqueville’s political revolution category. In the Abbasid Revolution of 747-750, the reigning Umayyad Caliphate was overthrown by a coalition of non-Arab Muslims, disaffected Arab Muslims, and opponents of the Umayyads for other reasons, such as corruption. Abd al-Rahman I, a prince of the deposed Umayyad royal family, had refused to recognize the authority of the Abbasid Caliphate and became an independent emir of Córdoba in 756. He established his position by defeating the existing Muslim rulers of the area who had defied Umayyad rule and united various local fiefdoms into an independent emirate. Socially, little about the Córdoban Revolution was revolutionary.
Uprising of Asen and Peter: 1185-1187
Essentially a war of independence against the Byzantine Empire, waged by Bulgarians and Vlachs with the aim of restoring the Bulgarian Empire. In this they would succeed, and the Second Bulgarian Empire was established in 1185 and lasted until 1396. This struggle for independence was very much a political revolution; it sought a restoration of a prior independence. And it didn’t stray far into the realm of social transformation in large part because, when Basil II conquered the First Bulgarian Empire in the first place, he made sure the Bulgars’ local customs and administrative practices be largely unchanged.
Type 2 Revolutions
De Tocqueville’s second type of revolution — sudden and violent revolutions that seek not only to establish a new political system but to transform an entire society — was very limited in the Middle Ages. The Late Middle Ages — roughly 1300 to 1500, with years bleeding over into the 13th century and the 16th century — witnessed many popular and peasant revolts, such as Wat Tyler and John Ball’s revolts in England, the Jacquerie in France and the Flemish peasant and urban revolts. However, the goal in these uprisings was ultimately not so much to transform all society and establish a new political system. Typically, the goals were to restore some kind of previous liberty or law, whether real or just perceived, that had existed before they were forgotten or trampled over for whatever reason.
The Stellinga: 841-843
This is an interesting case of an attempted Medieval revolution. The Saxons had been pagan prior to Charlemagne’s successive wars against them in the late 9th century. Many Saxons were slaughtered and forced to convert. The Saxon socio-political system was dismantled in favor of the Carolingian Frankish model. Thus, the Stellinga or Stellingabund movement of Saxon frilingi (freemen) and lazzi (freedmen) between 841 and 843 did envision something socially transformative. True, it didn’t aim forward, for something novel or new; it looked backward to the privileges and social order of the pagan Saxon society. Still, this movement aimed for social transformation, and it aimed to do so violently and suddenly against the Carolingian overlords. It ultimately was suppressed, but the episode is an insightful glimpse of revolution in the Early Middle Ages that seem to fall under de Tocqueville’s second category of revolution.
Great Slav Revolt: 983
In a similar vein to the Stellinga among the Saxon subjects of the Carolingian Empire, various Slavic people east of the Elbe River revolted against their Germanic, Christian oppressors. This time the regime was not Carolingian, but Ottonian — a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs and Holy Roman Emperors — but the subject peoples’ motivations and objectives were similar to the Saxon Stellinga: They wanted a restoration of their society to pre-Christian, pre-Germanic times. This implied social transformation, once again a restoration rather than a forward-looking revolution. The Slav revolt carried on at varying levels of intensity for years. The main result was that it practically halted the German drive to the east (Ostsiedlung) for around two centuries.
Zealots of Thessalonica: 1342-1350
The Zealots were a political group that dominated political developments in Thessalonica from 1342 until 1350. The contemporary sources, notably anti-Zealot in sympathies, provide little information on the Zealots’ government of Thessalonica. The Zealots managed to establish effective civic self-government for eight years. They confiscated the property of the aristocracy and redistributed their wealth. In the past it had been claimed that the Zealots had a kind of social reform program, but sources are scant. Many of these claims were built upon a discourse of the scholar Nikolaos Kabasilas, but eventually it seems that it had no connection to the Zealot revolt but was composed many decades later.
Type 3
De Tocqueville’s third type of revolution — slow but sweeping transformations of the entire society that take several generations to bring about — is interesting in regard to the Middle Ages because it was this type of revolution that culminated in the Protestant Reformation, referred to by de Tocqueville as the “religious revolution.” The Reformation’s beginning in 1517 is sometimes used as a convenient end point for the Middle Ages in Europe, since it shattered the universality of the papal Catholic church and worldview (which was, of course, already separate from the Orthodox Church since 1054). The “religious revolution” of the Reformation was indeed a slow but sweeping transformation of entire societies that took several generations to bring about; the starting point might be 1517, but its roots stretched back at least two centuries — not coincidentally, back to around when the so-called Late Middle Ages began at the turn of the 14th century.
Prelude to the Reformation: 1300-1517
As already mentioned, de Tocqueville considered the Protestant Reformation — the “religious revolution” — to be a prime example of his third type of revolution: The gradual but sweeping transformation of all society over the course of generations. Technically, the Protestant Reformation was the culmination of this revolution. It was the Reformation’s prelude — from roughly the years 1300 to 1517 — that witnessed exactly the kind of slow yet sweeping changes in society that characterize de Tocqueville’s third type of revolution.
The establishment of the Avignon Papacy (1309–1376), when the pope moved to and resided in Avignon, France, instead of his traditional seat in Rome. By making the papacy so influenced by French politics, this partisanship hurt the prestige and image of the pope. What made this worse was when Pope Gregory XI left Avignon in 1376 to take up his residence in Rome, which resulted in a line of popes in Rome and a competing antipope line still based in France.
The climatic changes at the end of the Medieval Warm Period induced widespread famines in the Late Middle Ages, which combined with the introduction of the Black Plague and its successive waves, severely impacted European societies. The social order in many instances was up-turned as noblemen and clergymen died as easily as peasants while the ensuing decline in the labor pool meant that peasants could demand higher wages or changes in their relations to their landlord. Such developments provoked existential crises for many Europeans and a reevaluation of their religious worldview.
Relations between the church and the state, while never simple and filled with episodes of conflict throughout the Medieval period, grew even more complicated over the course of the Late Middle Ages. When the pope’s prestige was damaged by the Avignon Papacy and subsequent schism that created multiple popes, European monarchs took note of the effects and the implications for church-and-state relations in their respective kingdoms and territories. With the papacy compromised, secular leaders felt less threatened by the church’s ability to enforce its power in policy, such as having oversight over appointments to clerical office or obeying edicts from the pope.
The successive waves of famine and plague impacted the Catholic church on a very practical level: Tons of well-educated, highly-experienced, and sincere clergymen were wiped out. And their subsequent replacements bore all the hallmarks of novices, rushed through the bureaucratic church process for the sake of just producing substitutes, no matter their quality. This development didn’t help the spiritual health and views of Christian Europe’s lay people, be they commoners or nobles. It is no wonder that the volume of voices calling out for thorough cleansing of the Catholic church got audibly louder and louder over the years from 1300 to 1517. And these voices primarily came from within the ranks of the church.
In an attempt to recover the level of prestige the papacy held before the Avignon Papacy — ideally, returning to the level of influence that popes wielded in the High Middle Ages (1000–1300) — the popes of the 1400s and 1500s engaged in policies that were meant to aggrandize the office. They did this through temporal politics, playing off Italian city-states and territories against each other, as well as through massive funding of building projects and the arts. It was the policy of indulgences, which raised money to fund the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica from donations by church-goers to reduce their time in purgatory, that most immediately pushed Martin Luther to draft his famous 95 Theses and promulgate them in 1517.