30 THE GREEN RISING 



lords were not so pronounced in France as in Eng- 

 land. The French peasant experienced his greatest 

 privations as a result of war and pestilence. Be- 

 cause of this fact, few agrarian revolutions have 

 occurred on French soil. This may be explained by 

 the fact that the privations experienced were trace- 

 able to the uncontrollable consequences of war and 

 the ravages of disease, rather than to the arbitrary 

 exercise of power by a predominant class. It is also 

 true, as Helen Douglas Irvine says, that "those who 

 have been oppressed through long ages do not rebel, 

 not, at any rate, until a period of comparative means 

 and leisure has stimulated their imagination so that 

 they have an ideal standard of living." 13 



That this is true is indicated by the fact that the 

 French peasants have rebelled but a few times 

 against their landlords. The thrift of the French 

 peasants is well known, and, while through the ages 

 they have experienced all of the restrictions inci- 

 dent to the feudal system, they have enjoyed rela- 

 tively more prosperity than rural dwellers of other 

 countries similarly situated. 



The greatest discontent of the French peasant 

 came about when a period of reasonable prosperity 

 was followed very unexpectedly by adverse condi- 

 tions. An illustration of this occurred in the thir- 

 teenth century. The thirteenth century and the 

 early part of the fourteenth century have been gen- 

 erally regarded as a period of great prosperity, but 



"The Making of Rural Europe (1923), Chap. V, p. 67. 



