Treason in France and England in the Later Middle Ages

Summary

IN JUNE 1382, Raoulet Mathei from Chierlie (France) was at the Lendit fair just north of Paris. After he and four men from his hometown shared a meal, they began drinking. The discussion soon turned to politics and specifically to the “guerres, impositions, gabelles, subsides & autres charges (wars, dues, salt tariffs, subsidies, and other charges).” They collectively commented on the “grant turbulacions (great troubles)” that were causing the merchants to be “moult grevez et oppressez (very overwhelmed and oppressed).” One of the men claimed that the late Charles V (d. 1380) had hoarded wealth while alive, but after his death “moult de charges, aides & subsides avaient este remises & pardonnez (many of the charges, taxes and subsidies were returned and pardoned),” to which Raoulet drunkenly added that it would have been better if the king had died ten years earlier. One of the men present, Robert de Beaumont, who the pardon asserts was Raoulet's “hayneux (enemy),” pointed out that Raoulet “disoit mal contre la magesté royal (spoke ill of royal majesty)” and he intended to report it. The others begged him to reconsider, insisting that all of them had said what they had only because they were drinking, and if he reported it Raoulet would receive “griesve punicion (grave punishment).” They added that Raoulet already regretted his words. Robert was unmoved and Raoulet was arrested at some unknown point in time. Ultimately, he was pardoned on the condition that he pay for thirty masses for the soul of Charles V at Notre-Dame-des-Carmes in Paris within three months.

This pardon for lèse majesté (“high treason”) is intriguing for several reasons. First, it is important to note that it was a political discussion that led Raoulet to err. As the merchants they complained were most affected by the king's fiscal policies, men like Raoulet were deeply invested in politics. However, merchants were not the only non-nobles engaging in these types of conversations. Another pardon from 1387 indicates that a group of shepherds in the Limousin region were also discussing high level politics, and specifically the peace Charles VI was about to sign with Richard II. They had learned this news from a merchant in Limoges who had just returned from Paris.