CHAPTER 12: THE CRISIS OF THE LATER MIDDLE AGES - 1300-1450
Pre-Chapter
I. Later Middle Ages experiences hardships and new revelations
A. Book of Revelation “predicts” casualties
1. “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” - war, famine, disease,
death
a) Colder climate, poor harvests, bubonic plague,
peasant revolts, etc. (image Death of Wat Tyler,
leader of English Peasants’ Revolt)
B. Institutions saw new types of vitality (Christian Church)
Prelude to Disaster
Series of climate changes devastated agriculture, and attempts to solve these economic and
social problems by political leaders were unsuccessful
I. Climate Change and Famine
A. Little Ice Age (1300-1450) - natural and human records show climate got colder and wetter
1. Natural - Alpine and polar glaciers, tree rings, pollen in bogs
2. Recorded - farming failure, abandoned villages due to ice cut off
a) Storms ruined crops and led to starvation - Great Famine (1315-1322)
II. Social Consequences
A. Famine leads to population decline
1. Low Countries/Scottish-English borderlands - abandoned property and villages
a) Vagabond - someone who wanders (in search of food and work)
2. Flanders/East Anglia - peasants sold holdings to richer farmers for food
3. Postponed marriage and childbirth
B. Anger was taken out on the rich, speculators, and Jews
1. Jewish hate and rumors
a) Jews were often targeted for swindling the poor
b) Accused of poisoning Christian wells
C. International trade affects other nations
1. 1318 - An infection in English sheep caused a decline in wool exports
a) Flemish, Hanseatic, and Italian merchants suffered from unemployment and turned to crime
2. Government unsuccessfully acts against these issues with “wish-list” ideas
a) Three sons of Philip the Fair (French):
(1) Disapproved of speculators who held back stocks of grain back until conditions were
poor
(2) Forbade the sale of grain abroad
(3) Prohibited the catching of larger fish
b) Edward I’s son Edward II (English):
(1) Condemned speculators after failing to set price controls
(2) Efforts for famine relief fail
(a) Unable to buy grain from abroad due to international issue and internal looters
The Black Death
After ship improvements allowed for year round travel, merchants took advantage of this and began carrying cargo, and vermin, to other parts of
Europe. Rats, fleas, and roaches carried all types of sickness onto land, one of these being the Black Death, a disease carried on Genoese ships
in western Europe in 1347, killing around ⅓ of the population.
I. Pathology
A. HIstory of the Black Death
1. The bacillus Yersinia pestis
a) Fleas that bite their infected host pass on the bacteria from rat to rat, and sometimes human
2. Historic cases include sixth century Eastern Rome and China and India in the 1890s
14th Century Europe vs 19th Century China and India
- No reports of mass rat die-offs; transmitted
pneumatically or through flea bites
- Spread faster and more deadly
- Could have been another virus like Ebola and not
, the bubonic plague
- Explained by different variants and
improvements in sanitation
B. Effects and symptoms
1. Boils (bubo) - big painful growths in the armpit, groin, or neck; gave the name “bubonic”
a) If popped and drained, patient had a chance of recovery
2. Black spots or blotches from bleeding under the skin
a) Not reason for “Black Death” but a mistranslation of Latin phrase atra mors (dreadful death)
3. Violent coughing and spitting of blood meant near death
II. Spread of the Disease
A. First description in 1331 in south-western China, Mongol Empire
1. Rats traveled on merchant caravans across Central Asia and on ships to ports along Black Sea (city of
Kaffa)
a) Dramatized versions include catapulting infected, dead bodies over walls
B. Poor sanitary conditions
1. Narrow streets were filled with feces, dead animals, filthy beggars, and homeless men
2. Cramped houses w/ large families provided little light and ventilation; closeness = warmth
3. Wood, mud, and clay houses allowed rat entry
4. Flea infestations weren’t alarming; entire households could get infected
| Plague doctors were covered from head to toe. Waxed coats allowed poison to slip off. Long beaks contained
strong smelling herbs. The long stick hit the ground to warn people they were coming |
C. Mortality Rates
1. No set population records more most cities and countries - ⅓ widely accepted
a) English population - estimated 1.4 mil out of 4.2 mil; 500 to 600 deaths/day
(1) People fled and brought the plague
b) Byzantine Empire - “Evil was incurable, every died the same whether sick or rich”
D. Future of the Plague
1. Reappeared from time to time; enforced better sanitary conditions and built resistance
2. 1721 - last appearance in France, Europe
3. 1947 - Microbiologist Selman Waksman discovers treatment, streptomycin
LIVING IN THE PAST: TREATING THE PLAGUE
Physicians thought the plague was due to poisons in the air that caused imbalance in bodily fluids.
Doctors thought that boils were the body's natural reaction to too much fluid.
Therefore, strong smelling herbs and other substances like rosemary were held in front of the nose. It
was said one should vomit daily and wrap themselves in sheets to sweat copiously.
The best way was to draw blood from a vein and rebalance the fluids and flush the body of poisons.
