Ciompi Revolt: Florentine wool workers seize the city
July 1378
Day laborers excluded from the wool guild rose against the Florentine oligarchy, forced through a popular constitution, and installed the wool comber Michele di Lando as gonfaloniere. Their proletarian republic lasted six weeks before patrician backlash crushed it and exiled its leaders. It remains a marker for late medieval class conflict and the limits of urban democracy.
In context
Also in 1378 (4 other events on record)
- Western Schism begins with rival pope at Fondi · Europe · Religion
- Urban VI elected amid Roman riot · Europe · Religion
- Charles IV dies in Prague · Europe · Politics
- Ming builds the Great Wall's eastern sections · East Asia · Politics
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Politics
Era
Late Middle Ages (1301–1500), one of 874 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources