Plague, War, and Social Change in the “Long”Fourteenth Century 215branch failed it created a domino effect that might
bring down the entire structure. This happened in 1343
when the two leading Florentine banks—the Bardi and
the Peruzzi—failed, setting off a widespread financial
panic. The immediate cause of their failure was the re-
pudiation of war debts by a major borrower, Edward III
of England, but both banks had been gravely weakened
before the final blow.
The Black Death struck in 1347–51. Endemic in
Asia since the eleventh century, the disease first entered
Europe through the Mediterranean ports and spread
with terrifying speed throughout the subcontinent.
Following the trade routes it reached Paris in the sum-
mer of 1348, Denmark and Norway in 1349, and Russia
in 1351. Estimates are that within four years a third
of the population of Europe died. It was the greatest
demographic catastrophe in European history, and its
ravages did not end with the first virulent outbreak.
Subsequent epidemics occurred regularly in every
decade until the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Given that immunity apparently cannot be transmitted
from generation to generation, the plague served as a
long-term check on population growth, and most coun-
tries required more than two centuries to recover the
population levels they had in 1300 (see table 12.1).
The relationship, if any, between the plague and
poverty or malnutrition is unclear. In its most common
form, bubonic plague is spread by fleas, which are car-
ried by rats and other small mammals. A pneumonic
form of the plague is spread by coughing. The onset of
either form is rapid, and death usually comes within
three days (see illustration 12.1). The mortality rate
seems to have been about the same for all who con-
tracted the disease, so that lowered resistance as a result
of malnutrition likely did not play an important part in
its spread. At the same time, death came most fre-
quently to those who lived in crowded conditions. Sol-
diers, ship’s crews, and the urban poor were at greatest
risk, followed by those country folk whose poverty
forced them to huddle together in their one-room cot-
tages for warmth. The rich often escaped, either because
they lived in more sanitary conditions or because, like
the characters in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron,they
had the means to flee from the centers of population
(see document 12.2).
No one knew what caused the plague. Most proba-
bly believed that it was a visitation from God and took
refuge in prayer and religious ceremonies. Flagellants
paraded from town to town, beating each other with
metal-tipped scourges in the hope of averting God’s
wrath, while preachers demanded the reform of theDOCUMENT 12.1
The Famine of 1315 in England
This dramatic account of the famine is from the English chron-
icler Johannes de Trokelowe. The prices may be compared with
those given for the preceding century in document 11.1.Meat and eggs began to run out, capons and fowl
could hardly be found, animals died of pest, swine
could not be fed because of the excessive price of
fodder. A quarter of wheat or beans or peas sold
for twenty shillings, barley for a mark, oats for ten
shillings. A quarter of salt was commonly sold for
thirty-five shillings, which in former times was
quite unheard of. The land was so oppressed with
want that when the king came to St. Albans on the
feast of St. Lawrence [August 10] it was hardly
possible to find bread on sale to supply his imme-
diate household....
The dearth began in the month of May and
lasted until the nativity of the Virgin [September
8]. The summer rains were so heavy that grain
could not ripen. It could hardly be gathered and
used to make bread down to the said feast day un-
less it was first put in vessels to dry. Around the
end of autumn the dearth was mitigated in part,
but toward Christmas it became as bad as before.
Bread did not have its usual nourishing power and
strength because the grain was not nourished by
the warmth of summer sunshine. Hence those who
had it, even in large quantities, were hungry again
after a little while. There can be no doubt that the
poor wasted away when even the rich were con-
stantly hungry....
Four pennies worth of coarse bread was not
enough to feed a common man for one day. The
usual kinds of meat, suitable for eating, were too
scarce; horse meat was precious; plump dogs
were stolen. And according to many reports, men
and women in many places secretly ate their own
children.
Trokelowe, Johannes. “Annales,” trans. Brian Tierney. In Brian
Tierney, ed., Sources of Medieval History,4th ed. New York:
Knopf, 1983.Predictably, trade declined. Defaults on loans in-
creased, and the banking system came under stress. The
great international banks still controlled their branches
directly and had unlimited liability for their losses. If a