After the economic takeoff of the 13th century, at the beginning of the 14th century Europe entered into crisis (Crisis of the 14th century): a series of calamities struck it. Then, many values that had been valid until then began to be questioned, such as the role of the Church and the role of monarchs.
The famine caused by a succession of bad harvests, the wars and the pests they shook the population and gave a very bleak picture to the last period of the Middle Ages. As a consequence of these catastrophes, the population decreased in an alarming way.
This difficult situation in turn led to numerous conflicts in the countryside and the cities: in the countryside, peasants faced off against lords; In the cities, on the other hand, craftsmen were opposed by rich merchants.
All this brought with it the idea that the end of the world announced by the Apocalypse was approaching. For this reason, the population of that time had an insistent and sick obsession with death. This pessimism was reflected in art and literature.
The Black Death
Epidemics of diseases such as tuberculosis or malaria were the most frequent and fearsome scourge of Medieval Europe: they decimated entire populations. The most devastating of all was the black or bubonic plague. This disease was introduced to Europe by Genoese sailors returning from Constantinople. For medieval doctors, the disease spread because of the corrupted air.
Today, we know that the Black Death was transmitted to humans by fleas that lived on rats. As a result of the Black Death, some 25 million people died in Europe between the year 1348 and the year 1490, almost a third of the population.
black plague doctors
Crisis of the 14th century and economic transformations
The excess population in Europe produced a series of imbalances in the economy of the time. The great mortality of the 14th century caused new problems: as the population decreased, there were fewer workers and the demand for products fell drastically.
In it field, large tracts of land were left uncultivated. The decrease in the population meant that the planting of products of pancarry no longer profitable. That is why they promoted other export-oriented crops, such as the vine and the linen.
In the textile industry manpower was also lost. Since workers were scarce, wages tended to rise.
For this reason, some manufacturers moved their operations to the countryside, hoping to find cheaper labor. They competed with the urban unions, which opposed these industrialists who worked on their own, breaking the monopoly.
social unrest
Between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, various regions of Europe were shaken by popular uprisingsboth in the countryside and in the cities.
In the last centuries of the Middle Ages, peasants had to face various difficulties: the crop failurethe plague and the growing tax requirements of the Churches, the state and the lords. All these factors contributed to creating a climate of malaise among the peasant population that led, over time, to the outbreak of different rebellions.
In the cities, the most common problems were of a social order, since the separation between rich and poor had deepened, and between citizens and those who did not have access to citizenship, unions or city government.
The urban and rural uprisings of this time did not present, however, an organized program of reforms. In general, they proclaimed the equality of men and respect for human dignity but only proposed a return to a better past time.
The leaders of the uprising, who generally did not belong to the social group they led, took advantage of the situation for their personal benefit, and after the failure of the outbreak, abandoned the men they had led to their fate.
Most of the riots were extremely violent and Very short. Chroniclers of the time often described these outbursts as rages: They used to go out as fast as they had exploded. Only occasionally did they achieve improvements.
Among these revolts, the best known were the Jacquerie in France, the Wat Tyler uprising in England, the Remança in Catalonia and the irmandiños in Galicia. All of them were brutally crushed by kings and nobles.
La Jacquerie, a peasant revolt
Certainly never was seen among Christians or Saracens, such madness as that of these wicked (…). They burned and demolished in all of Beauvaisis and the surroundings of Corbie, Amiens and Montdier, more than sixty good houses and castles (…). People behaved like this between Paris and Soissons, and between Soissons and Hen, in Vermedois, and throughout the land of Couci. In this and in the bishoprics of Laon, Soissons and Noyon, more than a hundred castles and houses of knights and squires were destroyed and they killed everyone they found in them (…). But God, with his mercy, put a remedy to this (…) the gentle men of Beauvaisis, Corbesis (…) began to kill and destroy these people without mercy, and to hang them by multitudes in the trees….
J.Froissar, Chronicles
Jacquerie Riots
abandoned villages
One of the most impressive aspects of the economic and demographic crisis of the fourteenth century was the abandonment of the villages in the countryside. The peasants left their lands and possessions and became vagabonds or took refuge in the cities. Fields that had previously been cultivated became overgrown and paths were obliterated. In the villages, houses and churches crumbled. Back then, most of the villages were left without men and therefore without any kind of activity.
The strengthening of the monarchy
At the beginning of the 14th century, new conceptions of political power and the role of the monarchy began to emerge. These ideas, which originated in the 12th century, helped to define the role of monarchs in their kingdoms and to eliminate the political fragmentation that existed in medieval times.
Map of England and France in the 13th century
the english monarchy
From the 12th century, the English monarchs began to expand their territories, which the feudal lords had reduced.
This process began when the king Henry II Plantagenet annexed much of France to the kingdom. However, his son John Landless he lost almost all the French fiefs at the Battle of Bouvines (1214).
This defeat irritated the nobility, which forced him to sign the Magna Carta (1215), the first English constitution, forbidding him to start wars and collect taxes without the approval of the English Parliament, an assembly made up of nobles and burghers. Thus was born the parliamentary monarchy english.
the french monarchy
France also began its process of unification in the 12th century, under the dynasty of the Capetians. For a long time, feudal lords were more powerful than kings, but Philip II Augustus (1180-1223) strengthened royal power by defeating the English at the Battle of Bouvines.
Time after. Philip IV the Handsome (1283-1314) weakened the power of the nobles by summoning them to a council together with the clergy and representatives of the cities: the States General.
two major conflicts
France and England met in the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), which was the prolongation of the conflict that began in the 12th century over the English possessions in France.
At first the English dominated the situation, but eventually the French, led by Joan of Arcthey beat them. With this victory the power of the French king was reinforced Charles VII.
England, on the other hand, was destroyed. The nobility split into two factions, each supporting a candidate for the throne: one from the York family, the other from the Lancastrian.
This conflict led to a civil strife known as the War of the Roses (1455-1485). This war altered the activities of the government. Meanwhile, confiscation of property, murder and persecution were common occurrences.
After 30 years, a relative of the Lancasters Henry VII, of the Tudor family, seized the throne. Ironically, the nobility was weakened as a result of the war, which helped strengthen the monarchy.
The Hundred Years War
Of the wars that ravaged Europe during this period, the Hundred Years War left the deepest scars. At first, it was a dispute over the succession to the crown of France: when the last of the Capetian kings died in France and his cousin assumed the throne, Felipe VIof the family Valoisthe english king Edward III claimed the French throne claiming to be, on his mother’s side, a direct descendant of the Capetians. Later, this war led to the struggle of the French crown to recover lost territories in England. However, this war was not continuous: over the course of the hundred years, long periods of truce alternated with others of warlike activity.
Battle of Azincourt
War of the Roses
In England, the unity of the kingdom, or at least its internal peace, was seriously jeopardized by Henry VI’s long minority and by the military failures suffered by his armies on the Continent. As banditry, riots and peasant uprisings spread throughout the country and royal power weakened due to the madness suffered by the sovereign, two opposing princely factions clashed to claim the crown for themselves. Thus began the War of the Roses between the parties of York (white rose) and Lancaster (red rose). This war kept England divided into two violently hostile clans and ravaged fields, spreading corruption everywhere.
The crisis of Christianity
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Christianity suffered a deep crisis. The papacy fell into corruption and his position was questioned by believers. On the other hand, from the 13th century, the Papacy faced the French monarchy that tried to dominate the Church. This situation led to a conflict between the two powers: the captivity of Avignon.
The Avignon Captivity
The Avignon captivity was a conflict that originated between King Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII. This conflict began when Felipe IV tried to cut ecclesiastical income. The Supreme Pontiff excommunicated him.
However, the French monarch managed to imprison the Pope, accusing him of witchcraft. The Pope managed to free himself from his prison, but he died a short time later.
Felipe IV took advantage of the situation to appoint a French Pope, Clement V, and transfer the papal seat to the French city of Avignon. Between the years 1308 and 1377, a series of French Popes were appointed and forced to live in that city.
Avignon Papal Palace
The schism of the West
When the papacy tried to reestablish its headquarters in Rome, the schism of the West ensued: the church was divided and there were two Popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon. This situation lasted from the year 1377 to 1417.
In Avignon, the Popes maintained a lavish court and administration, at the expense of taxes…