Synopsis

“Times are tough, but they could be worse” is the eternal message of our show. This time, we’re talking about persecution and rebellion–how certain groups were oppressed for political purposes in medieval (and early modern, and modern) Europe, and some people and groups who rebelled, in both a personal and more broadly political way. From Boudica to Hrotsvit to Jack Cade, join us to talk about how people in the middle ages took power back from the elites.

Notes

1/ Link to Plague episode!

2/ You can tell I’m not a real historian because they would not be allowed to describe the French Revolution as “a messy breakup.”

3/ R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950–1250, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007.

4/ Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew, originally published in 1946, translated by George J. Becker and published in English in 1948. The most famous quote from this essay is “If the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him.” It’s a little eerie to go to the Goodreads page in search of quotes and see how many people’s reviews (from the 2017–2020 period) say something like “Wow, this feels eerily relevant for what’s going on right now.” [Unfortunately, I think it’s always relevant!–JN]

5/ Bhabha, Homi K., “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.” In The Location of Culture. (London: Routledge, 1994), 85–92.

6/ Geraldine Heng, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

7/ Boudica! (dies 60 CE) See Episode 58, note 11.

8/ Hrotsvit of Gandersheim (973–no later than 1002). Episode 22 is about her!

9/ Margery Kempe (1373–after 1438) was awesome. See Episode 36 note 17 and Episode 70.

10/ St Francis of Assisi (c.1181–1226). We’ve talked about him a lot! There’s more on his stigmata way back in Episode 4! Also, check him out in Episode 23 (on his Christmas pageant).

11/ Peasants’ Revolt (so called) in 1381.

Justice, Steven. Writing and Rebellion: England in 1381. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Shakespeare’s version of the Adam/gentleman joke comes from the famous Gravedigger scene in Hamlet V.i:

GRAVEDIGGER: There is no ancient gentlemen but gard’ners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They hold up Adam’s profession.

[Second Gravedigger]: Was he a gentleman?

GRAVEDIGGER: He was the first that ever bore arms.

[Second Gravedigger]: Why, he had none.

GRAVEDIGGER: What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says Adam digged. Could he dig without arms?

12/ Jack Cade’s Rebellion (1450).

Shakespeare again! 2 Henry VI IV.ii:

Dick: The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.

13/ Florence’s Ciompi Revolt (1378–1382).

14/ Defenestrations of Prague. Episode coming soon!

15/ Victor Hugo (1802–1885) wrote Les Misérables (1862) about the 1832 June Rebellion.

16/ We’re about to post this just after the suspect in the murder of a health insurance CEO has been caught, despite extensive sympathy for him from a large portion of the public. The public reaction demonstrates the anger people currently have toward wealthy institutions that cannot be held accountable, an anger that is similar to the anger of some of the people and revolts that we discussed. One of the things we didn’t discuss during this episode is that once anger and vitriol have been stirred up, they become very difficult to control (and there’s a lot of anger going around right now).

Postscript: We got through all that without a the people are revolting joke. Wow.

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