Episode 20 Late Middle Age Disasters: Climate and Plague

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

Climate change (the Little Ice Age) and the plague brought an end to the (culturally rich) High Middle Ages by unraveling the basic structure of society.

Crops failed worldwide between 1300-1450 AD owing to heavy rainfall that devastated harvests. During the medieval warming period, agriculture had expanded to marginal lands that couldn’t support crops in a colder climate. In Europe, landed gentry reduced peasants’ access to common pasture lands (to increase cultivated crops), leading to the slaughter of one-third of all domestic animals and a big drop in both fertilizer and protein intake.

Without reliable access to food, there was a big increase in vagabonds, begging and rural crime. Malnutrition led to an epidemic of respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases even before the plague started.

According to Dr Salisbury, there were two types of plague: bubonic and pneumonic. The former was transmitted by fleas from black rats, produced “buboes” (inflammation of the lymph nodes and had a 50% fatality rate.

Pneumonic plague was an airborne infection with a 95% fatality rate.

The plague started in Asia and spread quickly along busy trade networks as far north as Scandinavia and as far south as Ethiopia. It was a great equalizer. With feudal lords dying at the same rates as their serfs, peasants began questioning their loyalty to their masters. The ensuing labor shortage not only led to higher wages, but a series of rebellions starting in China in 1351.*

In numerous European cities, workers rebelled against manufacturers and the unrest quickly spread to the countryside. In France in 1358, a peasant rebellion known as the Jacquerie broke in which peasants killed and ate their lords and set fire to their manor houses.

In 1381, English peasant leader John Ball called for complete reform of the social order in which everything would be owned in common. Although he was eventually defeated and executed, his followers successfully burned all the records of manorial duties peasant owed their masters. The revolt ultimately ended the law binding peasants to the land where they were born, allowing peasants to rent and, in some cases, own the property they farmed.

Labor shortages also led to technological innovations, including water pumps to remove water from mines, new salting techniques (allowing fewer fishing vessels to stay at sea longer) and improved ship building technology that produced larger ships manned by smaller crews.

The first wave of plague abated in 1353, only to return in 1361, 1390 and every few decades until the early 18th century. It only disappeared when brown Norwegian rats (who have thicker fur and are more resistant to flea bites) replaced black rats as the predominant species.

*The Chinese Red Turban Rebellion eventually overturned the Yuan dynasty and replaced it with the Ming Dynasty in 1351.

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https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172829