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The Black Death. And the Persistence of Plague. Overview. The Late Medieval Period: 1350-1500 Outbreak of Plague Its Characteristics Reactions Consequences. The Late Medieval Period. Sometimes depicted as a time of decay The end of medieval civilization?
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The Black Death And the Persistence of Plague
Overview • The Late Medieval Period: 1350-1500 • Outbreak of Plague • Its Characteristics • Reactions • Consequences
The Late Medieval Period • Sometimes depicted as a time of decay • The end of medieval civilization? • Knights become less important in battle • Also a period enormous creativity and change • Inventions: printing press, cannons, clocks, navigation • Art & Architecture: the Italian Renaissance • Changing balance of social forces • Merchants increasingly powerful • Hereditary aristocracy challenged • Spread of patronage beyond courts • Monarchy remains the dominant form of political organization but republican ideals emerge in Italy
Plague • Origins of the Black Death • Worldwide pandemic in the 14th century • Started in China during 1330s • Spread to Crimean peninsula in the late 1340s • rats & fleas spread a deadly bacterium, Yrsenia Pestis • Crimean War a likely vector for transmission of the plague to Europe • onset in Genoa in 1347 • Spreads to the rest of Europe by 1350 • recent evidence suggest that other diseases, such as cattle and sheep murrain, accompanied bubonic plague • Plague continues to visit Europe periodically until 1723 but exercises little dramatic effect after 1450
Plague • Virtually absent in Europe since seventh century • Transmission • Bubonic – black rats and fleas • Pnuemonic - coughing • Septicemic – bodily fluids • Symptoms • Buboes near groin and armpits • Lingering sickness for several weeks • Modern treatment includes antibiotics
How does Chaucer’s poetry reflect the rise of the middle class? • It contains stories from several middle class characters • It subtly mocks chivalric ideals • It ridicules the prestige of the church authorities • It depicts a society that is relatively prosperous
How does the tone of the Miller’s Tale differ from the tone of the Knight’s Tale • The Knight was more inclined to be rude and disgusting • The Miller was more deferential in his tone • The Miller told a drunken story about adultery and included references to farting • The Knight told a classic Arthurian Romance
Lingering Depopulation from PlaguePopulation levels Fell and Stay low for over a hundred years
Demographic Consequences • Demography is the key concept • population decline was dramatic: 40% of Europe dies within 5 years • Wustungen: entire villages left empty • Some cities, such as Florence, Italy, experienced mortality rates over 70% • Other areas were relatively unaffected • No big rebound as plague becomes endemic to Europe • The Gray Death in 1361 • Plague in late 1360s, mid 1370s, etc… • Gradually fades out over hundreds of years • Last visitation of plague was in 1723 in Marseilles, France
Socio-Economic Consequences • Declining production in the short term • Short term price increase in grain (over in 5 years) • Rents fall and stay low for a century • Labor shortage: wages rise and remain high for decades • Luxury goods rise in price and remain high for decades • Gap between rich and poor narrows • 1350-1450: good years for skilled laborers • New agricultural strategies develop • Increasing pasturage • Enclosures begin in England and continue for 400 years
Socio-Economic Consequences • Did the Black Death cause the end of serfdom? • Definition of Serfdom • Labor duties instead of rents • Manorial exactions: merchet, tallage, and heriot • Legal status based on land tenure • Arguments in favor of this assumption • Deserted villages • Demography favors laborers • Arguments against this assumption • Land/labor ratios • Conflicting evidence: Eastern vs. Western Europe • Increases in market economy and wage labor predated plague • Influence of urban economy • Neo serfdom: an anomalous trend from 1350-1400 • Nevertheless, serfdom virtually disappears in western Europe by 1500
Social Responses to Plague • Processions • Flagellants re-emerge after decades in remission • Explanations and Scapegoats • God sent it • Sin caused it • Antichrist would soon arrive • Jews poisoned wells • Deserted villages and manors • Encroaching forests • Rejuvenation of the soil
The Dance of Death or Danse Macabre • Literary and pictorial depictions of a procession that brings the richest to the poorest to their graves • A northern European phenomenon, the concept was in circulation over fifty years prior to the Black Death, but after 1350 depictions of it were more numerous • Emphasized the socially leveling aspects of death i.e. everyone dies but it also was an incitement to penance in preparation for imminent death • Its depiction lasted well into the Northern Renaissance of the 1500s
Summary • European population declined by 50% during the Fourteenth Century • famine hits first • war between England and France contributes to destruction of productive capacities of agriculture in France • plague hits late 1340s and every 5-10 years for the rest of the century • Apocalyptic & religious concerns rise • Amid chaos new economic opportunities develop • Social mobility increased
Summary • Although it probably accelerated the decline of serfdom, the demographic collapse of the fourteenth century did not destroy the foundations of high medieval culture • By increasing social mobility and heightening religious and apocalyptic fear, plague provided a catalyst for many of the social, economic, and cultural changes that characterized the turbulent early modern period from 1350-1800
