The impost they had voted, notably the salt-tax, had met with violent opposition.

"When the news thereof reached Normandy," says Froissart, "the country was very much astounded at it, for they had not learned to pay any such thing.

The Count d'Harcourt told the folks of Rouen, where he was puissant, that they would be very serfs and very wicked if they agreed to this tax, and that, by God's help, it should never be current in his country." The King of Navarre used much the same language in his countship of Evreux.

At other spots the mischief was still more serious.

Close to Paris itself, at Malun, payment was peremptorily refused; and at Arras, on the 5th of March, 1356, "the commonalty of the town," says Froissart, "rose upon the rich burghers and slew fourteen of the most substantial, which was a pity and loss; and so it is when wicked folk have the upper hand of valiant men.