Urban insurrections and public rites in late fourteenth-century: the political and symbolical relations at the punishment ceremonies to the cities of medieval France

Abstract

We will emphasize in this text the discussion of some narratives about the uprisings in the cities of Paris and Rouen between 1381 and 1383, taking as the main axis of analysis how certain rites are presented in the writings of the religious of Saint-Denis and the text titled Inedited Part of the Chronicles of Saint-Denis. The point of convergence between the royal power, the urban elites and the heterogeneous population was connected to the effort of symbolic formalization at the judiciary ceremonial range, fundamental in the effort to reconcile the punishment that followed the uprisings. At the judiciary ceremonial the dominant power seeks to achieve its objectives through the production of images and the manipulation of symbols within a specific framework of interaction. Thus, the effort of sacralization of monarchy can be identified in the role assigned to the real power to punish and grace in a manner analogous to the supreme judge.