Clermont-en-Beauvaisis

Clermont-en-Beauvaisis grew beneath the castle of its counts on a height above the surrounding plain. Its keep and the walls of the town made it a visible centre of local authority. The country around Clermont was also one of the scenes of the Jacquerie, the great French rural rising of 1358.

The revolt ended in a confrontation between the rebels and the nobles near Clermont. Tradition holds that its leader Guillaume Cale was executed in the town’s main square. The following year Clermont’s castle was besieged by Jean de Grailly, the Captal de Buch, who served the English crown. Louis II of Bourbon later restored the damaged castle, and work from around 1370 strengthened its enclosure and the defences of the town.