of those living in medieval France continued to be peasants, the producers of the food and
fiber essential for maintaining themselves and everyone else. More than any other
environmental factor, climate provides the limits within which agriculture can be
practiced. The patterns of temperature, precipitation, and wind direction and velocity that
constitute climate play a ma-jor role in determining what can be planted and when, as
well as how much emphasis can be placed on livestock.
As it does today, France during the Middle Ages straddled three climatic zones. The
mildest, known as the Mediterranean climate, encompassed the Mediterranean coastal
lowland and the lower Rhône Valley. Here, mist and moisture from the Atlantic
alternated with dry winds from the Sahara to form cool, damp winters and hot, dry
summers. This pattern supported an agricultural complex of wheat or barley, planted in a
winter cycle, supplemented by olives and vines, the classic Mediterranean triad. Because
of the annual summer drought, the primary livestock were sheep and goats, taken from
lowland winter pastures to highland summer pastures in an ancient pattern known as
transhumance. At the other extreme were scattered locations in the high Alps and
Pyrénées that experienced a northern or Alpine climate. With snow on the ground for
much of the year and only short, cool summers, the possibilities for agriculture were
limited to the grazing of cattle, sheep, and goats, supplemented by limited production of
rye and oats in favored locations.
The remainder and by far the greatest proportion of France lay within the temperate
zone, so called because it experienced extremes neither of temperature nor of
precipitation. Not only could peasants in this zone practice a traditional agricultural
complex of summer crops and heavy dependence on cattle, from the 9th century onward
they added a winter planting cycle as well. Because soils over much of this zone were
heavier and thicker with a higher organic content than was found in the Mediterranean
zone, new agricultural implements were necessary to put them into production
effectively. The development of the moldboard plow by the 9th century helped to make
the temperate region of France one of the richest agricultural regions of Europe by the
high Middle Ages.
Though the gross features of climate during the Middle Ages were not significantly
different from those today, there were some variations over the period that seriously
affected the production of food and fiber. These variations can be grouped as follows:
400 to 750, cool and wet; 750 to 1200, warm and dry; 1200 to 1350, cool and wet; and
1350 to 1550, warmer but continued wet. Variations in precipitation usually affected
agriculture more directly than did temperature variations. Too much precipitation might
reduce the harvest in temperate Europe, while drier conditions might have the same effect
in Mediterranean Europe. Indeed, one of the best-documented harvest failures to strike
temperate Europe occurred in 1315, a year that saw much higher than average
precipitation in northern France and surrounding areas.
William H.TeBrake
[See also: AGRICULTURE; FAMINE; TRANSHUMANCE]
Alexandre, Pierre. Le climat en Europe au moyen âge: contribution a l’histoire des variations
climatiques de 1000 à 1425, d’après les sources narratives de l’Europe occidentale. Paris:
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1987.
Lamb, Hubert H.Climate: Present, Past and Future. 2 vols. London: Methuen, 1977, Vol. 2:
Climatic History and the Future, pp. 423–73.
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