Étienne Marcel

Étienne Marcel (between 1302 and 1310 – 31 July 1358) was provost of the merchants of Paris under King John II, called John the Good (Jean le Bon). He distinguished himself in the defense of the small craftsmen and guildsmen who made up most of the city population.

As a delegate of the Third Estate, he played an important role in the general assemblies held during the Hundred Years' War. In 1357, he found himself at the head of a reform movement that tried to institute a controlled French monarchy, confronting the royal power of the Dauphin or heir to the throne.

Étienne Marcel was born into the wealthy Parisian bourgeoisie, being the son of the clothier Simon Marcel and his wife Isabelle Barbou. Like Jacob van Artevelde in Flanders, his upbringing in the urban upper class brought him close to the powerful; he grew up at a time when towns were becoming a political force, especially Paris, which was the largest city in western Europe (its population in about 1328 is estimated at 200,000 people).

Étienne Marcel married first Jeanne de Dammartin, and secondly Marguerite des Essars, who survived him.

Marcel is mentioned as provost of the Grande-Confrérie of Notre Dame in 1350. In 1354 he succeeded Jean de Pacy as provost of the Parisian merchants, representing the mercantile leaders of the Third Estate of the Estates General, at a time of great change; one of his earliest assemblies - that of 1355 - aimed at controlling the kingdom's finances.

In 1356, King John was taken prisoner by the English after the Battle of Poitiers. On 17 October, his heir, the Dauphin Charles, called together the Estates General. In conjunction with Robert le Coq, Bishop of Laon, Marcel played a leading part; a committee of eighty members, formed by the two, pressed their demands for new taxes with such insistence that the dauphin dismissed the body.

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