JACQUERIE

jacquerie, the, an insurrection of the french peasantry which broke out in the ile de france and about beauvais at the end of may 1358. the hardships endured by the peasants in the hundred years' war and their hatred for the nobles who oppressed them were the principal causes which led to the rising, though the immediate occasion was an affray which took place on the 28th of may at the village of saint-leu between "brigands" (militia infantry armoured in brigandines) and countryfolk. the latter having got the upper hand united with the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages and placed guillaume karle at their head. they destroyed numerous chateaux in the valleys of the oise, the breche and the therain, where they subjected the whole countryside to fire and sword, committing the most terrible atrocities. charles the bad, king of navarre, crushed the rebellion at the battle of mello on the 10th of june, and the nobles then took violent reprisals upon the peasants, massacring them in great numbers. see simeon luce, _histoire de la jacquerie_ (paris, 1859 and 1895). (j. v.*) jactitation (from lat. _jactitare_, to throw out publicly), in english law, the maliciously boasting or giving out by one party that he or she is married to the other. in such a case, in order to prevent the common reputation of their marriage that might ensue, the procedure is by suit of jactitation of marriage, in which the petitioner alleges that the respondent boasts that he or she is married to the petitioner, and prays a declaration of nullity and a decree putting the respondent to perpetual silence thereafter. previously to 1857 such a proceeding took place only in the ecclesiastical courts, but by express terms of the matrimonial causes act of that year it can now be brought in the probate, divorce and admiralty division of the high court. to the suit there are three defences: (1) denial of the boasting; (2) the truth of the representations; (3) allegation (by way of estoppel) that the petitioner acquiesced in the boasting of the respondent. in _thompson_ v. _rourke_, 1893, prob. 70, the court of appeal laid down that the court will not make a decree in a jactitation suit in favour of a petitioner who has at any time acquiesced in the assertion of the respondent that they were actually married. jactitation of marriage is a suit that is very rare.