Chapter 12: The Crisis of the Later Middle Ages — Key Terms (Vocabulary)
Prelude to Disaster
The later Middle Ages saw previews of calamities that shaped Western civilization: economic dislocation, plague, war, social upheaval, and rising crime and violence from 1315-1322 (Great Famine) through the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War, culminating in a crisis of church prestige and social upheaval. The era spurred questions about economy, disease, war as a catalyst for change, church schism, and vernacular literatures.
Central questions the chapter investigates:
What economic difficulties did Europe experience?
What social/psychological effects followed plague and disease?
Does the theory that war catalyzes political/economic/social change hold for the fourteenth century?
What provoked church schism and its impact on ordinary people?
How did new national literatures reflect political/social developments?
How did frontier settlement laws reveal racial/ethnic discrimination?
Prelude to disaster sets the stage for the subsequent crises by detailing price inflation, bad weather, crop failures, and the resulting misery that eroded social stability.
The Great Famine and Economic Hardship (Prelude to Disaster cont.)
Early 14th century price inflation in northern Europe, driven by widespread crop failures and adverse weather linked to the Little Ice Age.
Severe weather: torrential rains damaged wheat, oats, and hay; long-distance food transport was costly, so urban areas depended on near-by regions for bread and meat.
Consequences of poor harvests: scarcity, starvation, and demographic strain, including high infant/elder mortality risk due to reduced caloric intake.
France and Burgundy suffer significant population losses; in Burgundy, perhaps as much as one-third died. Religious houses in Flanders lost many monks, nuns, and priests.
Chain reaction: typhoid (1316, 10% of Ypres population may have died in 6 months), livestock disease (1318), another famine (1321).
Languedoc as a classic agrarian crisis: years of bad harvests in 1310, 1322, 1329; 150 years of expansion suddenly confronted by four years of famine at outset of 14th century; 1302–1348 saw twenty poor harvests.
Social consequences of famine: abandonment of homesteads, depopulation of villages (Low Countries, Scottish-English borderlands), rise of vagabonds, mortgage/sublease/sold holdings to buy food, landowners buy out poorer neighbors, volatile land markets.
Migration to towns as a response to labor shortages; delayed marriages (economic pressure).
International ripple effects: plague of infection in one country affects wool/clothing trades elsewhere (e.g., 1318 wool declines hurting Flemish weavers and European merchants).
Government responses with limited success: French kings (Philip IV’s successors) condemned grain speculation, forbade grain exports, and restricted fishing; Edward I and Edward II attempted price controls and famine relief via Parliament, but enforcement was weak; grain shipping was disrupted by Baltic yields and piracy.
Scapegoats: rising popular discontent targeted the rich, speculators, and Jews; Jews expelled (1306) and readmitted (1315) but subjected to high-interest lending; rumors of poisoning wells led to pogroms (e.g., Strasbourg 1349).
England’s response: Edward I’s Parliament set price controls (livestock, then ale from barley); English grain imports complicated by Baltic supply, French ban on exports, and pirates; famine relief efforts failed to stabilize markets.
Global and regional economic effects: low cereal harvests, declines in meat/dairy production, and salt shortages (herring preservation) aggravated shortages; the crisis spurred inflation and labor mobility between rural and urban areas.
The Black Death (1348–1350) and its Course
Origins and routes:
Genoese ships opened the Strait of Gibraltar to Italian trade; advances in ship design enabled year-round Atlantic voyages, increasing rat/insect spread.
Bubonic plague origins debated: possibly the Tartars at Caffa (1347) or earlier in Central Asia/China; the plague reached the Crimea and then Méditerranée via Genoa, Pisa, and Mediterranean ports.
In October 1347, Genoese ships carried plague to Messina; spread through Sicily, across Italy, to France, the Low Countries, and ultimately England by June 1348. By mid-1348 most of Europe felt the scourge.
Pathology and transmission:
The plague is caused by the bacterium Pasteurella pestis; hosts included the black rat (Rattus rattus) and fleas; fleas hosted on rodents transmitted the bacterium. The pest’s spread was facilitated by long trade routes and crowded urban settings.
Two forms of disease: bubonic (via flea vector) and pneumonic (airborne direct person-to-person transmission).
Bubonic plague symptoms: swollen lymph nodes (buba) the size of a nut or apple; potential recovery if buba is drained; followed by dark spots and blotches; coughing and spitting blood; death in 2–3 days after symptoms escalate. The disease produced repulsive physical symptoms and stench; contemporary descriptions emphasize horror.
Urban conditions that accelerated spread:
Sanitation primitive; narrow streets, refuse, excrement, overcrowding, and poor light/air. Houses often crowded with extended families sharing beds; rats and fleas easy entry. Hygiene was poor; bathhouses existed but usage unknown.
Fleas and body lice were ubiquitous among all social classes; a single bite could doom an entire household or district.
Social and cultural responses:
Widespread fear, ignorance, and religious fervor; some blamed Jews or lepers for poisoning wells; anti-Semitic violence occurred (e.g., Strasbourg 1349).
Boccaccio’s Decameron describes the social dynamics and spread; he notes that contact with sick clothes could transmit the disease.
Muslim physicians recognized contagion in Salé (Morocco); Abu Madyan quarantined his household; countryside remained relatively safer due to limited rat movement.
Hospitals and medical care:
Hospitals existed across Europe but offered only shelter and care; they could accommodate only a limited number of patients; bed-sharing was common, contributing to spread. Urban and port cities had more hospitals (e.g., Paris, Florence, etc.).
The capacity of rural hospices typically 12–15 beds; city hospitals 20–30 beds in many cases (e.g., Lisbon, Narbonne, Genoa, etc.).
Mortality rates are difficult to specify; English population losses estimated at about 1.4 imes 10^{6} (assuming total population around 4.2 imes 10^{6}). Florence suffered catastrophic losses (1347–1348): from 85,000 inhabitants, perhaps between one-half and two-thirds died, i.e., about 4.25 imes 10^{4} to 5.67 imes 10^{4} people.
Demographic and economic consequences:
The plague disrupted labor, leading to higher wages and a shift in the balance between labor and capital; in some regions, population declines allowed survivors to accumulate wealth and productivity increased (per capita wealth rose despite overall declines). English landlords recovered revenues by about 1375; the economy adjusted to a lower labor supply but higher productivity for those who remained.
Long-term effects included inflation, a rebalanced economy, and rising mobility for peasants and urban workers.
Social, religious, and cultural consequences:
Clergy often maintained high mortality; in cities like Venice, priests remained but many physicians fled; reform impulses grew, setting the stage for later church reforms.
The plague undermined the prestige of the church and contributed to the Great Schism and conciliar movement, accelerating secular political power and nationalism.
Public health measures and long-term legacy:
Western Europe adopted quarantines, movement restrictions, and later improved navigation/trade to manage outbreaks. It would be centuries before modern vaccines (streptomycin, discovered by Selman Waksman) became available in 1947.
Cultural expressions and resilience:
The era produced morbid artistic motifs (e.g., Dance of Death) and prompted large-scale foundations of colleges and universities (e.g., Cambridge, Oxford, Prague, Florence, Vienna, Cracow, Heidelberg) as part of rebuilding knowledge and clerical infrastructure.
The literature and arts reflected heightened mortality concerns; the period witnessed a transition toward vernacular literatures and a broader lay literacy that would shape later European culture.
The Hundred Years' War (ca. 1337–1453)
Causes and origins:
Treaty of Paris (1259) obligated Edward I to become vassal for Aquitaine; in 1337, Philip VI confiscated Aquitaine, which Edward III saw as a breach and a dynastic claim to the French crown. Edward III asserted the right to rule France by primogeniture, while the French nobles supported Philip VI, creating a dynastic and territorial conflict.
The war also had economic motivations: wool trade with Flanders tied English and French economies; disruption threatened Flemish merchants and cloth manufacturers; feudal loyalties and national identities shaped loyalties in this period of conflict.
Popular support and political rhetoric:
Both English and French governments used propaganda to mobilize public opinion; clergy were instructed to deliver patriotic sermons; royal courts painted the opposing side as morally corrupt and financially lucrative for victors.
War offered unusual opportunities for social advancement: wages, pardons for criminals, land grants for the victory; soldiers and nobles were lured by booty and prestige.
Course of the war and key battles to 1419:
Early English success: Crécy (1346) featured longbowmen, rapid-fire archery, and early artillery; French cavalry suffering massive casualties; the English used tactical mobility to overcome numerically superior forces.
Poitiers (1356): Edward, the Black Prince, captured the French king; massive ransom; demonstrated English military prowess.
Agincourt (1415): Henry V achieved a decisive victory despite being outnumbered; reconquest of Normandy followed; by 1419 English had advanced to the walls of Paris (Map 12.2).
Despite English victories, the French eventually rallied and won the war; Calais remained English stronghold until 1453.
Joan of Arc and French resurgence:
Joan of Arc (b. 1412) claimed divine guidance and led the relief of Orléans (1429). Aged 17, she inspired French troops and helped secure the coronation of Charles VII at Reims in 1429, marking a turning point.
After being captured by Burgundians and handed to the English, she was tried as a heretic and burned in Rouen (1431); an 1456 posthumous retrial rehabilitated her, and she was canonized in 1920 as a national saint of France.
Costs and consequences:
Widespread destruction across France; English and French losses included both military and civilian populations; long-term social and economic disruption included depopulation of rural areas, disrupted trade and fairs, and heavy taxation.
England’s coastal towns faced the bulk of destruction; the southern economy recovered slower, whereas the English aristocracy faced long-term economic strain.
Political and constitutional repercussions:
The war stimulated the development of the English Parliament as a representative body: funding the war required consent from knights and burgesses; Parliament met regularly (thirty-seven of fifty years of Edward III’s reign) and laid groundwork for modern parliamentary democracy. The Commons asserted its power in taxation and grievance redress; a 1341 statute required parliamentary approval for nonfeudal levies.
In France, no unified national assembly emerged; regional assemblies persisted, but central royal power remained contested due to linguistic, regional, and legal diversity. The war nevertheless fostered a nascent nationalism in both nations.
Economic consequences of the war:
The war imposed heavy costs on both sides; England reportedly spent over 5 imes 10^{6} pounds sterling; the economic drag included the loss of land-based governance and a drain on resources that reshaped state capacity and taxation.
Military mobilization and spoil rooting increased social mobility but also generated long-term financial difficulties and shifting class power.
Cultural and institutional impacts:
The war contributed to the decline of feudal structures and promotion of centralized state power; artillery and cannon transformed warfare, favoring centralized states with greater resources to fund technological innovations.
Despite waves of violence, the period spurred the growth of national identities and influenced literature, chronicles, and art in both England and France.
End of the war and aftermath:
The war concluded in 1453 with French victory; Calais remained English until its loss, marking a shift in European power dynamics.
The Decline of the Church's Prestige
Babylonian Captivity (1309–1376):
Pressure from Philip the Fair led to Clement V relocating the papacy to Avignon; continued papal administration from Avignon weakened the papacy’s spiritual authority.
Avignon papacy centralized power and finances but shifted focus away from Rome and spiritual leadership, weakening papal prestige and the church’s connection to its Roman roots.
Gregory XI eventually moved the papacy back to Rome in 1377 but died soon after, creating a crisis over papal legitimacy and control.
The Great Schism (1378–1417):
After Urban VI’s controversial election (Rome) and Italian cardinals’ opposition, cardinals elected Clement VII (Avignon) as an antipope; the Western church split into competing papacies—Urban VI and Clement VII—dividing Christendom politically and socially.
The Schism provoked widespread confusion, undermining religious faith and authority; it also stimulated calls for reform and the Conciliar Movement.
The Conciliar Movement and reform attempts:
Conciliarists argued reform should come through general councils representing all Christians; the pope’s authority should be subordinate to a general council. Marsiglio of Padua’s Defensor Pacis (1324) argued that church authority should rest in a general council and that the church should own no property; the state is the primary unifying power. His ideas were condemned by the pope.
John Wyclif (ca. 1330–1384) argued that papal claims of temporal power had no foundation in Scripture, urged Scripture as the standard for belief, and called for abolition of saints’ veneration, pilgrimages, pluralism, and absenteeism; his English translation of the Bible popularized Protestant-like ideas and inspired Lollards.
Jan Hus (ca. 1369–1415) in Bohemia argued for ecclesiastical reform based on Scripture and conscience; Hus’s execution in 1415 intensified Czech resistance (Hussites) and helped set the stage for later religious reform movements.
Pisa Conclave (1409) deposed the two rival popes and elected a new pope, but neither Avignon nor Rome would resign; this threefold schism highlighted the need for reform and set the stage for the Council of Constance.
The Council of Constance (1414–1418):
Goals: end the schism, reform the church, and root out heresy; it deposed the Roman pope and the pope chosen at Pisa and isolated the Avignon antipope. A new pope, Martin V, was elected in 1417 and the council dissolved.
Hus was condemned and burned; reforms were discussed but largely failed to materialize, and the papacy reasserted authority in the aftermath.
After-effects and implications for medieval society:
The schism and conciliar movement undermined the church’s universal sovereignty and strengthened secular governments’ claims to jurisdiction in their realms. This shift contributed to the later development of national states and the waning of ecclesiastical monopoly on power.
The reformers’ ideas laid groundwork for later Protestant Reformation, and the era’s religious instability contributed to broader social and political transformation in Europe.
The Life of the People
Social and economic backdrop:
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were marked by war, plague, famine, and social unrest; violence and economic stress shaped daily life. Yet, parish life and marriage remained central to many people’s lives. In many regions, marriage and family life provided stability amid turmoil.
Marriage and family:
Arranged marriages by parents were common, often to secure land, labor, and alliances. Merchet (a fee to the lord upon a daughter’s marriage) and banns (public proclamation of intended marriage) were standard procedures; dowries and financial settlements accompanied unions.
Age at first marriage varied by region and class: Italian evidence (Prato) shows women around 16.3 years in 1372 and 21.1 in 1470; German noble families show even younger marriages (some brides as young as 12-15). In northern Europe, rural/urban women typically married in their twenties; men tended to marry in their mid-to-late twenties. National averages reflect regional differences and economic pressures.
Cases from the Paston family in England (early 15th century) illustrate arranged marriages with real economic responsibilities: land management, tenant relations, and political planning; personal affection could be present but often secondary to property and status.
Prostitution emerged in legal/urban contexts to regulate sexual commerce; towns in Languedoc and other regions operated brothels to control the industry, though women faced stigma. Prostitution was a recognized urban phenomenon linked to the cash economy and male labor mobility.
Outlets for sexuality without marriage existed within legal tolerances in some regions, reflecting medieval attitudes toward sexuality and social order.
Life in the parish and rural community:
The parish remained a central social unit; priests blessed fields and led harvest celebrations; the liturgical calendar shaped agricultural labor and communal life.
Peasants resisted lords’ manorial obligations; attempts to reimpose feudal duties resulted in uprisings. Guilds provided social security, medical care, and mutual support, especially in towns. However, by the 14th century, guilds increasingly restricted entry and created barriers to membership and advancement, particularly for women.
Craft guilds and labor organization:
Guilds protected monopoly rights and regulated apprenticeships; entry often required lengthy training (seven years) and significant capital; promotions to master status required resources for starting a workshop or obtaining guild sponsorship; many openings did not materialize, causing tensions and strikes.
Women in guilds faced barriers; Cologne’s guild records show that most were male-dominated by the 15th century.
The larger businesses had more separation between masters and journeymen, fostering tensions and labor unrest (strikes/riots in Flemish towns, France, and England).
Violence, entertainment, and social order:
Late medieval society reproduced regular violence: tournaments, archery, wrestling; bullbaiting and bearbaiting were popular forms of entertainment. Public executions were dramatic and often drew crowds, reflecting the era’s fascination with violence.
The era’s social climate was built on a culture of force and fear, producing both heroic myths (e.g., Robin Hood as a symbol of anti-aristocratic oppression) and brutal suppression of dissent.
Fur-Collar Crime and aristocratic misrule:
As wars concluded, idle nobles resorted to crime: kidnapping for ransom, protection rackets, and violence against peasants; noble gangs extorted peasants and manipulated the legal system.
The phenomenon of fur-collar crime illustrates how privileged groups often acted with impunity, prompting popular resistance and shaping national legends (Robin Hood).
Peasant revolts and social protest:
Flanders (1323–1328) and France (Jacquerie, 1358) reveal widespread rural discontent; urban workers also participated in protests, linking agricultural grievances to urban unions and guild politics.
England’s Peasants’ Revolt (1381) erupted due to a combination of rising taxes, labor demands post-Black Death, and political grievances; the king’s response—charters and promises—came to little, and the revolt was crushed. Rural serfdom largely disappeared in England by 1550.
The revolts reflect a broader pattern of protest across Europe, with peasants and urban artisans seeking to reform or dismantle systems of oppression and taxation.
Race and ethnicity on frontier regions:
Frontier zones between Latin Europe and eastern Europe, including Ireland and the Baltic, saw significant migrations. Ethnic and linguistic tensions increased as populations intermixed; laws often favored dominant colonial minorities (Germans, English, Spaniards) and discriminated against native populations.
Ireland’s Kilkenny Statute (1366) prohibited intermarriage and required English norms; Slavic regions and Eastern Europe saw similar restrictions on movement, religious offices, and guild memberships to maintain ethnic homogeneity.
Vernacular literature and the rise of national cultures:
Vernacular languages emerged as legitimate literary mediums alongside Latin and French. Dante’s Divine Comedy (1310–1320), Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387–1400), and Villon’s Grand Testament (1461) mark the rise of national literatures in Italian, English, and French. Christine de Pisan contributed to female scholarly and literary work with The City of Ladies and other works.
These works reflect a shift toward national consciousness and a broader public sphere capable of reading and discussing complex ideas in vernacular languages.
The era saw a rise in lay literacy and a transition from an entirely oral culture to a literate culture with bureaucratic and commercial demands.
Intellectual currents and religious reform movements:
Jan Hus and Wyclif (Lollards) represented early reformist currents that challenged papal authority and church wealth; their ideas foreshadowed Protestant reform and influenced later religious movements.
The period’s intellectual debates on church hierarchy, clerical authority, and lay participation contributed to a broader rethinking of church-state relations.
The era’s end-state and legacy:
The Life of the People shows a society reconfiguring around war, disease, and economic stress, yet capable of sustaining family life, local parishes, and new forms of cultural expression. The rise of vernacular literature, lay literacy, and a shift toward national identities point toward changes that would shape early modern Europe.
Vernacular Literature
The growth of vernacular languages in literature and public life:
Dante’s Divine Comedy (1310–1320), Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387–1400), Villon’s Grand Testament (1461) illustrate a broad movement toward national languages as vehicles for high culture and social commentary.
Christine de Pisan (1363?–1434) contributed to female literary and historical discourse with books like The City of Ladies and The Book of Three Virtues; her works reflect a blend of education, advocacy for women, and practical advice for household management.
Themes and significance:
Dante uses the Divine Comedy to critique ecclesiastical corruption, while remaining deeply Christian; the work embodies Scholastic philosophy and classical allusions, bridging medieval and modern literary sensibilities.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales offers a panoramic portrait of English life, revealing social variety and moral ambiguity; it blends Christian and secular themes in a way that reveals the era’s complexity.
Villon’s poetry (Lais, Grand Testament) expresses modern sensibilities—humor, social observation, and a focus on human experience—while retaining medieval forms.
Literacy and education:
The rise of vernacular literature paralleled broad social changes: lay literacy grew, universities expanded, and more people could access complex ideas in their own language. Though Latin remained the language of scholarship, vernacular works shaped national consciousness and audience reach.
The period saw increased literacy among laypeople, a rise in school attendance in towns, and the growth of administrative literacy among nobles and bureaucrats, enabling more complex governance.
Jan Hus and the Hussite Movement (Individuals in Society)
Jan Hus (ca. 1369–1415) was a Czech reformer who studied and preached at Charles University in Prague; he emphasized church reform, Scripture, and moral authority, criticizing papal temporal power and clerical abuses.
Hus’s approach combined doctrinal orthodoxy with socio-economic critique; his followers advocated Czech religious and cultural autonomy (Hussites) and challenged the broader church establishment. Hus’s execution in 1415 sparked reformist currents and contributed to Czech national consciousness.
Questions for analysis:
1) If Hus argued for orthodox teaching yet is hailed as a reformer, why is his legacy so complex? 2) What political and cultural roles did Hus serve in Bohemia?
Summary and Implications
The crises of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—economic, demographic, and religious—transformed late medieval society. Severe weather and famine, the Black Death, and protracted warfare destabilized traditional structures and opened space for reform, nationalism, and new forms of governance.
The Hundred Years' War catalyzed the development of representative institutions in England while reinforcing centralized authority and national identity in France.
The Great Schism and conciliar movements exposed the limits of papal universal power and established a precedent for state-centered governance over church authority in many regions.
The era’s cultural developments included the rise of vernacular literature, lay literacy, and national literatures, signaling a shift away from exclusively Latin/clerical culture and contributing to the emergence of modern European identities.
The period ended with a transformation of religious authority, political power, and social organization, setting the stage for early modern Europe: nationalism, centralized states, and new forms of cultural and intellectual life.
Key Terms
Great Famine, Black Death, buba, flagellants, Crécy, Agincourt, Joan of Arc, representative assemblies, nationalism, Babylonian Captivity, schism, conciliarists, merchet, banns, peasant revolts, Jacquerie, racism, Dalimil Chronicle, Statute of Kilkenny
Additional Notes and Visual References
Map 12.1 The Course of the Black Death in Fourteenth-Century Europe highlights the routes the plague took and regions spared; map emphasizes how some areas escaped the most severe impacts.
Map 12.2 English Holdings in France during the Hundred Years' War shows English territorial extent and major battles; the turning point around 1429 with Joan of Arc's impact and subsequent French reconquest.
Map 12.3 Fourteenth-Century Peasant Revolts illustrates major uprisings in France, England, Flanders, and other regions; shows how economic distress and social tensions manifested in rebellion.
Visuals of the era (e.g., Prostitute Invites a Traveling Merchant; Proliferation of the Dance of Death motif) illustrate the social and cultural responses to crisis and the moral complexities of late medieval society.
Key Dates and Figures (Selected)
1315-1322 Great Famine; 1346 Crécy; 1347-1348 Black Death reaches England; 1349-1350 mortality peaks in many cities; 1358 Jacquerie; 1366 Kilkenny Statute; 1378-1417 Great Schism; 1414-1418 Council of Constance; 1429 Orléans relief and Reims coronation of Charles VII; 1453 end of the Hundred Years' War; 1370s-1380s Wyclif/Lollards; 1415 Hus executed; 1920 Hus canonized; 1947 streptomycin vaccine.
Connections to Foundational Principles and Real-World Relevance
The crises illustrate how climate events, macroeconomics, and epidemiology intersect with politics and religion to reshape institutions—an early example of complex systems dynamics in world history.
The rise of vernacular literature and lay literacy foreshadows the democratization of knowledge and the eventual Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and modern bureaucratic states.
The shift from universal papal authority to national sovereignty foreshadows the modern separation of church and state and the governance of secular institutions.
The era’s social upheavals demonstrate how economic stress, labor scarcity, and class tensions can trigger large-scale social change, including revolts, reform movements, and the emergence of representative political practices.
Equations and LaTeX-Formatted References
Great Famine duration: 1315-1322
Black Death period: 1347-1350 (first major wave)
Population and mortality (England example): N_{England}oxed{ ext{approx } 4.2 imes 10^{6}}
ightarrow D oxed{1.4 imes 10^{6}} ext{ deaths}Florence demographic snapshot (1427–1430 census):
population: ext{P}_{Florence}oxed{= 2.60 imes 10^{5}}
age 60+: 0.15
age 0-19: 0.44
age 20-59: 0.41
Slave export earnings in Tana (Crimea) circa 1408: 0.78 (78%) of export earnings from slaves
English war costs: £5 imes 10^{6} (five million pounds)
The Statute of Laborers: 1351
The Council of Constance: 1414–1418; Martin V: 1417–1431