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The Great Famine of 1315-1317 (or to 1322) was the first of a series of large-scale crisis that struck Europe early in the 14th century, causing millions of deaths over an extended number of years and marking a clear end to an earlier period of growth and prosperity during the 11th through 13th centuries. Starting with bad weather in the spring of 1315, universal crop failures lasted through 1316 until the summer of 1317; Europe did not fully recover until 1322. It was a period marked by extreme levels of criminal activity, disease and mass death, infanticide, and cannibalism. It had consequences for Church, State, European society and future calamities to follow in the 14th century.
Background
Famine in the Medieval European context meant that people died of starvation on a massive scale. As brutal as they were, famines were familiar occurrences in Medieval Europe. As an example, localized famines occurred in France during the 14th century in 1304, 1305, 1310, 1315-1317 (the Great Famine), 1330-1334, 1349-1351, 1358-1360, 1371, 1374-1375 and 1390. In England, the most prosperous kingdom affected by the Great Famine, there were famines in 1315-1317, 1321, 1351, 1369, and more. For most people there was usually never enough to eat and life was a relatively short and brutal struggle to survive to old age, which might mean 30 years old. According to official records of the British Royal family, the best off in society, the average life expectancy in 1276 was 35.28 years. Between 1301 and 1325 during the Great Famine it was 29.84 while between 1348-1375 during the plauge it went to 17.33 .
The Great Famine was restricted to Northern Europe,from Russia in the east to Ireland in the west, from Scandinavia in the north and bounded in the south by the Alps and the Pyrenees.
The seeds of the famine had been sleeping in changing weather patterns for decades. The yield ratios of wheat (the number of seeds one could eat per seed planted) had been dropping since 1280 and food prices had been climbing. In good weather the ratio could be as high as 7:1, while during bad years as low as 2:1 -- that is, for every seed planted, two seeds were harvested, one for next years seed, and one for food. By comparison modern farming has ratios of 200:1 or more.
Around 1280 a European wide cooling event began which would last until the 16th century, known as the little ice age, drawing to a close what is now called the Medieval Warm Period. During the Medieval Warm Period the population of Europe had exploded, reaching levels that were not matched again in some places until the 19th century (parts of France today are less populous than at the beginning of the 14th century). Changing weather patterns, ineffective medieval governments to deal with crisis and a population level at a historical high water mark made it a time when there was little margin for error.
Great Famine
In the spring of 1315 it began to rain. Throughout the spring it continued to rain and the temperature remained cool. It rained so hard throughout the summer the grain could not ripen. Grain was brought indoors in urns and pots. The straw and hay for the animals could not be cured and there was no fodder for the livestock. The price of food began to rise. In England food that sold for 20 shillings in the Spring sold for 40 shillings by June, doubling in price. Salt, the only way to cure and preserve the meat was difficult to obtain because it could be not be evaporated in the wet weather; it went from 30 shillings to 40 shillings. In Lorraine wheat prices grew by 320 percent making bread unafforable to peasants. Stores of grain for long term emergencies were limited to the lords and nobles. Because of the general increased population pressures, even lower than average harvests meant some people would go hungry, there was little margin for failure. People began to harvest wild edible roots, plants, grasses, nuts, and bark in the forests.
There are a number of documented incidents that show the extent of the famine. Edward II, King of England, stopped at Saint Albans on August 10, 1315 and no bread could be found for himself or entourage; it was the rare occasion the King of England, the most prosperous nation in Europe, was unable to eat. The French, under Louis X tried to invade Flanders, but being in the low country of the Netherlands, the fields were soaked and the army became so bogged down they were forced to retreat, burning their provisions where they left them unable to carry them out.
In the spring of 1316 it continued to rain. People had less energy and reserve to sustain themselves. All segments of society from Nobles to peasants were effected, most of all the peasants which represented %95 of the population and who had no safety nets. To provide some measure of relief the future was mortgaged by slaughtering the draft animals, eating the seed grain, abandoning children to fend for themselves (see Hansel and Gretel), old people who voluntarily refused food in hopes of the younger generation surviving. The chroniclers of the time wrote of many incidents of cannibalism.
In the spring of 1317 it continued to rain. This was the height of the famine. Finally in the summer of 1317 the weather returned to its normal patterns. However by now people were so weakened by diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, and other sicknesses, and much of the seed stock had been eaten, that it was not until 1325 that the food supply returned to relatively normal conditions and the population began to increase again. Historians debate the toll but it is estimated that between %10-%25 of the population of many cities and towns died. While the Black Death (1438-1475) would kill more, for many the Great Famine was worse. While the plague swept through an area in a matter of months, the Great Famine lingered for years, drawing out the suffering of those who would slowly starve to death, face cannibalism, child-murder and rampant crime.
Consequences
The famine is called the Great Famine not only because of the number of people who died, or the vast geographic area that was affected, or the length of time it lasted, but also because of the lasting consequences.
The first consequence was for the Church. No matter how many prayers, gestures or promises, the Church was unable to reach God. In a society where the final recourse to all problems had been religion, and no amount of prayer had helped, it undermined the authority of God and ultimately of the power of the Church. In other words, the institution of the Church had been weakened.
Second was the increase in criminal activity. Medieval Europe in the 13th century had already been a violent culture where rape and murder were common affairs. With the famine even non-criminals would resort to any means to feed themselves or their family. After the famine, Europe took on a tougher and more violent edge, it had become an even less gentle place than during the 12th and 13th centuries. The effects of this could be seen across all segments of society, perhaps the most striking in the way warfare was conducted in the 14th century during the bloody 100 Years War, versus the 12th and 13th centuries when nobles were more likely to die by accident in Tournament games than on the field of battle.
Third was the failure of the Medieval governments to deal with the crisis. Just as God was unable to answer their prayers, the more earthly powers were equally ineffective, eroding and undermining their power and authority.
Fourth the Great Famine marked a clear end to an unprecedented period of population growth that had started around 1050, although some believe this had been slowing down for a few decades allready, there is no doubt the Great Famine was a clear end of high population growth.
Finally, the Great Famine would have consequences for future events in the 14th century such as the Black Death when an already weakened population would be struck again.
Cannibalism controversy
The evidence for cannibalism during the Great Famine is ambiguous and controversial for historians. There are report from Livonia and Estonia, as well as Ireland and most other parts of Europe. Many historians discount it as being impossible, that in a time when the Renaissance was just starting, while Dante was creating one of the greatest works of literature in history, at the same time people in Europe were eating one another. However, perhaps it says more about our own modern values, which attribute cannibalism to "the other" and not ourselves, than about the realities of people doing whatever it took to survive.
See also
References
- William C Jordan, The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century, Princeton UP, 1996. ISBN 0691058911. The most recent, and first, book on the subject, it is the most comprehensive treatment.
- Henry S. Lucas, "The great European Famine of 1315-7", Speculum, Vol. 5, No. 4. (Oct., 1930), pp. 343-377. Available online (http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-7134%28193010%295%3A4%3C343%3ATGEFO1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y) from JSTOR. The first (in English) and most widely cited article on the Great Famine.
- I. Kershaw, "The Great Famine", Past and Present, 59 (1973) Available online (http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-2746%28197305%290%3A59%3C3%3ATGFAAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W) from JSTOR. Second most widely cited article.
- B.M.S. Campbell, ed., Before the Black Death
- A.R. Bridbury, "Before the Black Death", Economic History Review, 30 (1977) Available online (http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0117%28197708%292%3A30%3A3%3C393%3ABTBD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q) from JSTOR.
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