The Calamitous 14 th Century

1. The Calamitous 14th Century Plague and War Economic and Social Tension

2. Off to a Bad Start • Much of grazing land was converted to cultivation so animal husbandry and its manure production declined • Bouts of heavy rain and frost damaged crops • 1301-1314 there was a shortage of food • 1315-1317 there was famine • Silver was short so money was debased while the price of luxury good for the nobles were inflated • Knights and nobles turned to plunder and warfare • By mid-century the world is turned upside down by the plague

3. Rats and Fleas • The Oriental Rat Flea: Xenopsylla cheopis • The septicemic and bubonic plague were transmitted with direct contact with a flea, while the pneumonic plague was transmitted through airborne droplets of saliva coughed up by bubonic or septicemic infected humans. • The bacteria (Yersinia pestis) multiplied inside the flea blocking the flea's stomach causing it to be very hungry. The flea would then start voraciously biting a host. Since the feeding tube to the stomach was blocked , the flea was unable to satisfy its hunger.

4. The Black Death • Bubonic was the most common The mortality rate was 30-75%. • Enlarged lymph nodes. • 'bubonic' refers to the bubo or enlarged gland. • Victims were subject to headaches, nausea, aching joints, fever of 101-105 degrees, vomiting, and a general feeling of illness. Symptoms took from 1-7 days to appear. • Pneumonic plague was the second most commonly seen form • Victims often died before they could reach other places • The mortality rate for the pneumonic plague was 90-95% • The pneumonic plague infected the lungs. Symptoms included slimy sputum with blood. • As the disease progressed, the sputum became free flowing and bright red. Symptoms took 1-7 days to appear. • The septicemic plague was the most rare form of all. • mortality was close to 100% • Symptoms were a high fever and skin turning deep shades of purple. • Died the same day symptoms appeared. • In some cities, as many as 800 people died every day

5. The Path of Destruction • Caffa, a Crimean port on the Black Sea where Italian merchants from Genoa maintained a thriving trade center. • Crimea was inhabited by Tartars • Plague struck the area in 1346, tens of thousands of Tartars died. • Tartars are said to have blamed the Christian Genoese. • Another possibility is that a Christian and Muslim brawled in the street and the Tartars wanted revenge. • Tartars sent an army to attack Caffa, where the Genoese had fortified themselves. As the Tartars laid siege to Caffa, plague struck their army and many died. • Tartars used catapults to lob the infected corpses of plague victims over the walls of Caffa. The plague quickly spread and the Genoese decided to flee • set sail for Italy, carrying rats, fleas, and the Black Death with them.

6. Unsuccessful Remedies • Thinking that disease was transmitted by air, probably because the smell from the dead and dying was so awful, they turned to scents to ward off the deadly vapors. • Others had handkerchiefs dipped in aromatic oils, to cover their faces when going out. • Towns rang church bells to drive the plague away, for the ringing of town bells was done in crises of all kinds • talismans, charms, and spells that could be purchased from the local wise woman or apothecary.

7. Successful Remedies • Milan- city officials immediately walled up houses found to have the plague, isolating the healthy in them along with the sick. • Venice- took sophisticated and stringent quarantine and health measures, including isolating all incoming ships on a separate island. • Pope Clement VI, living at Avignon, sat between two large fires to breath pure air.

8. Economics • Valuable artisan skills disappeared when large numbers of the working class died. • Those who had skills became even more valuable than the rich people. • The society structure began to change giving formally poor laborers more say and peasants and artisans demanded higher wages. • Serfs seeking liberation from tilling their lord's land were told by decree and statue to return to their master's duties. • Farming communities became rare. The lack of sufficient law enforcement personnel promoted lawlessness. • People called "Bechini" pillaged homes, murdering and raping people. They dressed in red robes with red masks and only their eyes showed. The horror of the Black Death had taken on a new victim, the economy.

9. The Church • Suffered the most • Lost prestige, spiritual authority, and leadership over the people. • The church promised cures, treatment, and an explanation for the plague. They said it was God's will • People wanted answers, but the priests and bishops didn't have any. • Some clergy abandoned their Christian duties and fled. People prayed to God and begged for forgiveness. • After the plague, ended angry and frustrated villagers started to revolt against the church. The survivors were also enraged at doctors, who didn't cure patients, but said they could.

10. Long Term Effects • Small populations mean few taxes. • Art was also a victim of the Plague - Death inspired artists to stray from religious pictorials. • Soon after the last eruption of the Black Death, the views on children changed- the birth rate dropped. • Children were considered "not worth the trouble" to raise. It took four hundred years before Europe's population equaled the pre-Black Death figures. • The demand for agricultural workers gave survivors a new bargaining power. Workers formerly bound to the land could now travel and command higher wages for their services. • People left rural areas and migrated to cities for higher wages. The economic structure of land-based wealth shifted. Portable wealth in the form of money, skills and services emerged. • Small towns and cities grew while large estates and manors began to collapse. The very social, economic, and political structure of Europe was forever altered. One tiny insect, a flea, toppled feudalism and changed the course of history in Europe.

11. The Hundred Years War- (1337-1453) • War started in May 1337 when King Philip VI of France attempted to confiscate the English territories in the duchy of Aquitaine. It ended in July 1453 when the French finally expelled the English from the continent (except for Calais) by force. • Treaty of Paris designated that Henry III (1216 - 1270) held the duchy as a fief of the French King. Henry was a vassal of the King of France and, therefore, was required to pay liege homage to him. • In 1328, Charles IV, King of France, died without a male heir. Edward III, the King of England, held claim to the throne via his mother who was Charles' sister. • The other important claimant was head of the Valois house (Philip VI) grandson of Philip III. • Philip VI gained the throne and moved to confiscate Aquitaine in order to consolidate his power. • Edward led a raid into French territory in 1338 to defend his claim and two years later declared himself the true king of France.

12. War Begins • From the beginning of the war (1337) until the battle of Orleans (1428-29), the English won many victories including the decisive battles of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt. The English used a new method of warfare by combining forces of longbowmen with dismounted men-at-arms with much success. • In 1429, at the siege of Orleans the French finally gained the upper hand. Joan of Arc led a relief force which successfully defeated the English. For the next 25 years, the French defeated the English at many engagements and the English retreated from France except for Calais.

13. Joan of Arc • In French Jeanne d'Arc; AKA by her contemporaries as la Pucelle (the Maid). • Jacques d'Arc was a small peasant farmer who was illiterate • At the age of thirteen she started to hear voices- St. Michael, St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and others. • Joan's voices wanted her to fight for the causeshe said to them: "I am a poor girl; I do not know how to ride or fight." The voices only reiterated: "It is God who commands it." • She convinced Charles to let her fight and a search be made for an ancient sword buried behind the altar in the chapel of Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois. It was found where the voices indicated. • Joan summoned the King of England to withdraw his troops from French soil. The English commanders were furious at the audacity of the demand, but Joan by a rapid movement entered Orléans • July 17, 1429, Charles VII was solemnly crowned, the Maid standing by • Charles VII granted her noble status along with her family on December 29, 1429. She returned to the field • She was captured at Compiègne on May 23, 1430 and transferred to the English, she was placed on trial by pro-English clergy and some were coerced into voting for a guilty verdict. • She was convicted and executed on May 30, 1431 but she was declared innocent July 7, 1456 after a lengthy re-trial process when they had access to the documents and witnesses associated with her trial • The original trial had been tainted by fraud, illegal procedures, and intimidation of both the defendant and many of the clergy who had taken part in the trial, and she was therefore described as a martyr by the Inquisitor.

14. Results • Untold misery on France • Farmlands were laid waste; the population was decimated by war, famine, and the Black Death; marauders terrorized the countryside. • Civil wars (see Jacquerie; Cabochiens; Armagnacs and Burgundians) and local wars (see Breton Succession, War of the) increased the destruction and the social disintegration. • Louis XI (Charles’ successor), benefited from these evils. • The virtual destruction of the feudal nobility enabled him to unite France more solidly under the royal authority and to promote and ally with the middle class. • From the ruins of the war an entirely new France emerged. • For England, the results of the war were equally decisive; it ceased to be a continental power and increasingly sought expansion as a naval power.

15. Plague Cyclefrom: http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/Trasmission.html

16. Mapping the Plague

17. Taking its toll