November 10, 2025 • 29 mins
🌾Hunger Games: The Great Famine of 1315🌾
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The 14th century opened with a nightmare beginning a period called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, which lasted almost 200 years and was filled with famine, plague, religious schisms and wars, lots of wars. Sadly, it’s the beginning of the end for the medieval era.
After centuries of warmth, prosperity, and booming harvests, Europe plunged into a cold, wet catastrophe, the Great Famine of 1315. In this episode, you’ll learn about the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the disaster that began the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.
The Great Famine of 1315–1317 was the beginning of the crisis and one of the most devastating in 14th century Medieval Europe, a harrowing event that killed millions and reshaped the fabric of society. From endless rain and rotting grain to livestock dying in the fields and desperate people turning to unthinkable acts, the famine reshaped Europe for generations.
We'll look at the medieval world before the famine, down the science, politics, and human stories behind one of medieval Europe's worst disasters. Learn how years of cold rain, crop failure, and desperation changed the course of European history.
You'll hear firsthand accounts from chroniclers, discover the volcanic eruptions that may have triggered the cooling and ushered in the "Little Ice Age." Learn how years of relentless cold rain led to crop failures, the collapse of livestock populations, and mass starvation that reshaped Europe forever.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- 🌾 How centuries of agricultural success led to a fragile, overpopulated Europe.
- 🌧️ How the endless rains of 1315 destroyed crops and livestock across the continent.
- 🧂 Why salt, vital for preserving meat, suddenly vanished, worsening starvation.
- 🕊️ How famine fueled crime, cannibalism, and the collapse of faith in the Church.
- 🌋 How volcanic eruptions from Indonesia to Iceland may have triggered the cooling.
- 🧙♂️ The real famine folklore behind the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel.
- 💀 How the Great Famine killed over 25% of Europe’s population and set the stage for the Black Death.
The Great Famine of 1315–1317 marked the first great crisis of the Late Middle Ages. For three years, unrelenting rain, crop failure, disease, and starvation devastated Europe. It was the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the dawn of the Little Ice Age, a chilling prelude to the horrors of the Black Death three decades later.
“When God saw that the world was so over proud,He sent a dearth on earth, and made it full hard...”
~ The Evil Times of Edward II
Get all the links and see the bibliography in the show notes on Medieval Archives!
Grab a free copy of A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman
Other episodes to explore:
Ep. 42 - Medieval Diseases and “Cures”
Ep. 75 - Natural Disasters: Earthquakes that rocked the Middle Ages
- (00:17) - 14th Century or Bust!
- (01:10) - Thanks to all the producers!
- (01:54) - Life in the 13th century
- (04:20) - Little Ice Age Begins
- (05:38) - Rain, rain, go away
- (06:57) - Crop failure, livestock death & price gouging
- (12:21) - No relief, abandoned chldren and 'Hansel & Gretel
- (13:16) - Cannibalism, Fact or Fiction?
- (14:25) - Black Horseman of Famine and loss of faith
- (16:41) - You are my sunshine
- (18:28) - Poems, Folk Tales & Consequences
- (21:07) - Volcanic activity led to the LIttle Ice Age
- (26:58) - Volcanic Eruption & Bibliography
- (27:05) - Get your free audio book!
- (27:57) - Sharing is caring
- (28:06) - Become an Executive Producer with a 1315 donation
- Medieval Archives - Host
Contact: podcast@medievalarchives.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome back to theMedieval Archives podcast. The
podcast from In evil news,history, and entertainment. I'm
your host Gary, aka theArchivist. Now I've been stuck
in the 14th century for a while,and I'm loving every minute of
it. Last time we took a look atthe end of the 14th century with
the life and death of John theFearless. Today we're going to
the start of the century andtake a look at how everything
(00:29):
changed from a time ofprosperity and growth to
depression, famine, and death.The 14th century begins a period
now called the crisis of thelate Middle Ages, which lasted
almost 200 years and was filledwith famine, plague, religious
schisms, and wars, lots of wars.Sadly, it's the beginning of the
end for the medieval era. Now itcan be debated that every
(00:50):
century in the Middle Ages wasin crisis, but the 14th had more
than its fair share of badevents. And today we'll be
looking at the event thatstarted at all the great famine
of 1315, one of the mostdevastating events of the 14th
century. We'll look at theevents leading up to the famine,
how it happened, how thepopulation handled the changes,
and the aftermath. Before wehead back to the 14th century, I
(01:12):
want to thank everyone forsupporting the show. You've
shared it with your friends onyour social channels you've left
reviews, and some of you haveeven donated to keep the show
running and added free. Howeveryou support, thank you, and I
appreciate all of it. Now if youhave any questions or comments,
or you have a topic you're dyingto hear on the show, send that
over topodcast@minivlarcribes.com or
leave us a message on thevoicemail line 720-722-1066.
(01:38):
Show notes and any links forthis lesson will be found at
minivlarcribes.com/97. Thenumber 9, the number 7. Alright,
grab yourself a snack and let'slearn about the great famine of
1315.
So we can't jump straight into1315 to get a clear picture of
how the famine started. Toreally understand the impact, we
(02:00):
need to go back a few years andsee how things were shaping up
in medieval Europe. In the late13th century, Europe was densely
populated and highly dependenton agriculture. And for
centuries, since around the year1000, Europe has enjoyed a
relatively warm and stableclimate. The period we now call
the medieval warm period, theclimate was changing, it was
getting warmer, allowingfarmland to expand and pushing
(02:22):
agriculture into new areas,allowing for great crop and food
production. And with the foodboom came a population boom. It
was easier and cheaper tosustain a bigger family than
ever before. Europe saw apopulation boom in the 13th
century that was brought on byexceptional crop yields. Now the
increase in farmland coupledwith new farming innovations
like the horse collar and theheavy plow, allowed farmers to
(02:43):
work more land and to work itfaster. Farmers were also
mastering the three field system.In the three field system, one
field is planted in the spring,one is planted in the fall, and
the other one is left follow forthe year, nothing is planted in
it. The next season, they wouldrotate the fields in which they
planted and left follow. Andthis allowed the soil to recover
its nutrients better and thecrops would provide a bigger
(03:05):
yield. At the start of themedieval warm period, in the
900s, it's estimated that wheatproduction was about 2 to 1, so
for every seed planted 2 werecultivated. As the years
progressed into the medievalwarm period, the production
increased over 250% for everyseed planted 7 were cultivated.
The increase production in theshort and time to plant drove
(03:25):
the need for more farmland. Nowvast amounts of forests were
cleared to make way for newfarmland and during the medieval
warm period from 1,000 to about1,300, farmland doubled in
England and in Germany. Croppedproduction was increasing in a
quick pace and the medievalpopulation was following right
along. England went from about1.5 million people to over 6
million. Germany rose from 4million to 11. France went from
(03:50):
6 million to 17 million and thepeak population for all of
Europe heading into the 14thcentury is estimated to be about
80 to 100 million people.Cropped production was
increasing by 50% every year andthe population was doubling
every year, 100% increase. Nowtimes were good or so it seemed.
There was no margin for errorthough, to sustain the higher
(04:12):
population crops needed tocontinue to grow and increase
every year. Cropped failures arelower harvest would cause
serious problems. Now as thecalendar turns into the 14th
century, a 400 year periodcalled the Little Ice Age starts
in Europe. The medievalpopulation would soon realize
their world and their way ofliving was changing drastically.
(04:33):
They had no idea it was a littleice age. It wasn't given that
name until the 20th centuryafter scientific data was
examined. It's called the littleice age but it's not exactly an
ice age. It was really asustained period of cooling and
it was mainly in the NorthAtlantic regions stretching from
North America to Northern andEastern Europe. The southern
hemisphere didn't see the samecooling patterns. After
(04:55):
generations of prosperity andpopulation growth it was time to
pay the paper and the toll wasfar greater than anyone could
imagine. "The change in weathercame on rather fast, at least
fast, as climate's concerned.Current scientific data suggests
by the year 1300 summers werealready getting cooler, and
glaciers were growing at asignificant rate. For medieval
people, their plight was justbeginning. Since 1290 crop
(05:17):
harvest was slowly decliningyear-over-year, but it wasn't
alarming yet, just a slowdecline." That all changed
almost overnight. The winter of1315 was a colder than normal
winter, but it wasn't reallyunusual. Then came spring, and
April showers. Only it didn'tbring May flowers. It brought
May showers, and June showers.And with the rain started
(05:39):
falling in the spring of 1315,it didn't stop for months. It
rained all the way throughAugust, and with the continued
rain came cooler weather. Itrained across all of Northern
Europe, from Ireland, England,across the continent all the way
to Poland. "One day, it startedraining, and it didn't quit for
four months." English chroniclerJohn of Triclo wrote, "The
(06:00):
d'Earth began in the month ofMay and lasted until the feast
of the nevinity of the Virgin.The summer rains were so heavy
that the grain could not ripen.It could hardly be gathered, and
used to bake bread down to thesaid feast day, unless it was
put in vessels to dry. Aroundthe end of autumn, the d'Earth
was partly mitigated, but towardChristmas, it came back as bad
as before. Bread did not haveits usual nourishing power and
(06:23):
strength, because the grain wasnot nourished by the warmth of
the summer sunshine. Hence,those who ate it, even in large
quantities, were hungry againafter a little while. A French
chronicler recorded that the dayloose began in 1315, seven weeks
after Easter, during this seasonthat rained most marvelously and
for so long. And Bernard Guy, aFrench bishop and the inquisitor
(06:46):
of Toulouse, wrote, "Excedentlygreat rains descended from the
heavens and they made a huge anddeep mud pools on the land.
Throughout all May, July, andAugust, the rains did not
cease." Some crops were plantedduring this time, but most died
due to the fields beingsaturated and flooding. The
constant rain and humiditycaused grain to rot before it
could germinate. They evenbrought the grain indoors to dry
(07:08):
in pots and by the fire, but itwasn't enough to sustain the
farms, let alone an entirepopulation. Alright, so there's
no bread this year. We stillhave cows, hogs and sheep to eat.
While the grain and wheat wasused to feed livestock, too, wet
soggy grain isn't a meal forcows and sheep, and the wet
grains became moldy causingsickness in the animal. There
(07:29):
was a catastrophic die-off oflivestock, over 80% of the
livestock died during thisperiod. Another issue faced in
the farmers was the wet ground.The soil became a wet, swampy
mess, and they couldn't plow thefields to plant enough crops.
Lower areas in central Englandwere completely flooded over.
This wasn't a localized problemin England or France. It
affected a large area ofnorthern Europe. There was no
(07:51):
surplus to import from aneighboring region. Every
country was facing the sameproblem. And another problem
they were seeing was salt, a keyingredient in preserving meat,
and it became scarce. Salt isproduced in two ways by mining
it from a salt mine or fromevaporation ponds. There were a
few salt mines in eastern Europe,but the majority of production
came from evaporation. And inthe evaporation process, salt
(08:15):
water, sea water, was fed intoshallow ponds, and then the sun
would evaporate the water andleave behind the salt deposits.
That during the spring andsummer of 1315, there was too
much rain. Not enough sunlightand evaporation ponds were
useless, they were flooded out.Salt production was at an
all-time low. Things weregetting bad from medieval Europe.
(08:36):
to no crops, food production wasdown. Any meat they were able to
butcher couldn't be preservedfor the coming winter because of
the salt shortage. And therewasn't any way to get more food
or salt. The supply chain waslocal and even getting grain or
meat or salt from anothercountry wasn't an option all
throughout northern Europe. Rainwas falling. Crops were failing.
England, France, Germany, Italy.It was a widespread catastrophe.
(09:01):
People went days eating, andmany ate roots, berries, grasses,
leaves, anything nature couldoffer to feed them in their
families. Any fish they couldcatch were quickly eaten until
the streams and rivers werebarren of life. The declining
grain production also led to anincrease in pricing and price
skyrocketed. In England, theprice of wheat rose by as much
as 800%. In Lorraine, grainprices increased over 300% in
(09:24):
the first year of the famine. Inother areas, increases of a
hundred to two hundred percentwere common. Green and bread was
a scarce commodity, affordableonly to royalty and nobles. For
the poor peasant who spentalmost everything he earned on
bread, this was a death sentence.There are various accounts of
bakers who used hog manure andwine sediments to make loaves of
bread and those caught doingthat were severely punished. In
(09:47):
1316 a Flemish chronicle wrotethat people were in such great
need that it cannot be expressed.For the cries of that were heard
from the poor would move a stoneas they lay in the street with
their woe and great complainsswollen with hunger. In August
of 1315, the first season withall the crop failures, King
Edward II visited St. Albinz,and he couldn't find any bread
(10:07):
for the royal court. John ofShroklo wrote about the King's
visit to St. Albinz, and hewrote, "In 1315, hunger grew in
the land. Meat and eggs began torun out. Capins and foul could
hardly be found. Animals died ofpests. Swine could not be fed
because of the excessive priceof fodder. The price of wheat,
beans, peas, barley, oat, andsalt quadruple are more, which
(10:29):
was unheard of. The land wasoppressed with want, that when
the King came to St. Albinz onfeast of St. Lawrence, it was
barely possible to find bread onsale to supply his household.
There can be no doubt that thepoor wasted away even they were
constantly hungry. Four penniesworth of course bread was not
enough to feed a common man forone day. The usual kind of meat,
(10:51):
suitable for eating, was tooscarce. Horse meat was precious.
Plump dogs were stolen off ofpeople's porches and according
to many reports, men and womenin many places secretly ate
their children. That's kind ofgross and we'll get back to that
in a little bit, but itdescribes the desperation in the
population and this is onlyseven to eight months into what
(11:11):
will be a five to six yearfamine. Things are bad and
they're only getting worse. Thenobility, the kings, lords,
barons, they could afford thehigher prices but the lower
classes, which made up about 90%of the population couldn't
afford it. And money doesn'tjust make crops grow even at
higher prices. At some point thesurplus runs out. And when that
(11:32):
happens, it turns into a horrormovie. There are widespread
accounts of eating animals, cows,horses, dogs, cats, anything
really, not horrible butcertainly not ideal. But the
animals weren't healthy to beginwith and carry disease. Now with
the failing crops and moldystraw and outbreak of disease
killed the majority of thecattle and sheep. And it wasn't
(11:52):
just a few of them. Like I said,over 80% of the cattle and sheep
population was wiped out, butdesperate starving people
they'll eat anything, even adisease dead cow. Now eating
putrid meat and moldy grainsonly caused death to come
quicker for the people and manydidn't die of starvation. They
died of the effects of eatingthe bad meat and grains,
(12:12):
sickness, vomiting, dehydrationled to certain death. It gets
worse. Once there's not enoughanimals to eat, they look for
other sources of meat. As 1315ended, there was hope next year
would bring a good harvest, butit wasn't meant to be. Spring of
1316 saw as much rain as theprevious years and crops didn't
grow. Livestock, draft horsesand small animals were all but
(12:35):
gone. They had been eaten ordied in the previous year.
People began abandoning theirchildren to fend for themselves.
Older generations stopped eating,voluntary starvation so the
younger folks could eat whatthere was and still have some
strength left to work the fields.The brothers Grimm, Jacob and
Wilhelm used this as inspirationfor their fairy tale, Hansel and
(12:56):
Gretel. In the tale, Hansel andGretel are abandoned by their
parents during a famine left inthe woods to fend for themselves.
Then they're lured by a witchwho feeds them all kinds of
snacks. Only Hansel and Greteldiscover the witch is trying to
fatten them up to bake them intoa human pie. Makes you wonder if
that actually a fairy tale, ormaybe it was a true story. Grypt
(13:17):
with fear, desperation, andhunger many turned to a taboo
custom. Cannibalism. There arenumerous accounts of cannibalism
during the Great Famine. Peopledigging up the newly dead and
eating them, some of the deaddidn't even get a proper burial.
It's not a pretty picture. InBristol, a chronicler recorded
the whores of the famine. Hewrote, "A great famine of dirt
(13:38):
was such morality that theliving could scarce suffice to
bury the dead. Horse flesh anddog flesh was accounted good
meat, and some eat their ownchildren." The thieves that were
in prison did pluck and tear topieces, such as were newly put
into prison and devoured themhalf alive. Imagine that. You
think you're going to prison toserve your crime, then you get
(13:58):
eaten half alive. It was diretimes. There was food for no one.
And eating the dead didn't helpeither. Instead of sustaining
the living, the human fleshcaused more disease and death.
There are records from England,France, Ireland, the Netherlands,
even as far as Estonia, allindicating cannibalism was
taking place due to the famine.Now some scholars will tell you
(14:19):
that it's a rumor, but it'srecorded in too many places from
too many separate locations tobe easily dismissed as just
rumors. "When the lamb openedthe third seal, I heard the
third living creature say, 'Come,I looked, and there before me
was a black course. It's writerwas holding a pair of scales in
(14:39):
his hand.' Then I heard whatsounded like a voice among the
four living creatures saying,'Two pounds of wheat for a day's
wages, and six pounds of barleyfor a day's wages.' and do not
damage the oil and the wine.Society was breaking down.
People were starving in thestreets. Heck, they were
(15:00):
starving in the castles too.Bans of landless starving
peasants roamed the countrysideturning to robbery and violence.
Crime was out of control andpeople were eating the dead. It
was truly an end of world typeof apocalypse. When death is
everywhere, people tend to looktoward a higher power for
guidance and comfort and support.And medieval Europe was no
different. They look to thechurch. Only the church was
(15:24):
overwhelmed. Monasteries andnunneries were forced to close
their doors, unable to feed theendless stream of people at
their gates. Prayer didn't seemto work and people soon began to
blame the church for the famine.If prayer wasn't working, maybe
the church was at fault. Maybethe corruption in the church had
brought on the famine. Afterinitially turning to the church
(15:44):
for comfort, many turned away.If the church wasn't going to
help, everyone was going to fendfor themselves. Kings were
helpless too. They couldn'tmagically stop the rain or make
the crops grow. The king didn'tcrack down on crime either. And
it's not just the king of onecountry. None of the countries
cracked down on crime. It becameapparent that no one was going
to help. The population quicklylost its faith in the church and
(16:06):
in the crown. With another yearof dismal crops, no relief in
sight. The population wasmalnourished and vulnerable to
disease. pneumonia, bronchitisand tuberculosis all ran rampant
and weakened and killed a largenumber of the population. Winter
of 1317 came and it was as badas the previous two. And the
(16:26):
rain continued into the spring.And by this time, two years into
the famine, everyone wassuffering. Lower class,
merchants, all the whips, noblesand kings. It didn't matter your
stature in life. It didn'tmatter how much money you had.
There was no food to be hadanywhere. Then summer arrived.
And with it came drier weather.And the rain stopped. Fills
(16:59):
began to dry and there was aglimmer of hope. Those who could
work planted the crops that theyhad, which was already severely
depleted from the last two yearsof famine. Now the harvest of
1317 was the best in three years.Which is to say it was okay. I
mean, it wasn't a bumper crop byany stretch. Not enough to stop
the widespread starvation. Butit was the first successful crop
(17:19):
in a few years and people hadhope again. People were excited.
This might be the turnaround.The grain was harvested and able
to dry. And they were able toget more seeds for next year and
more bread and food for thecoming winter. 1318 came and saw
more favorable weather andanother good harvest. The
weather was returning tosomewhat normal and crops were
growing. Medieval Europe hadjust endured and mostly survived
(17:44):
its greatest famine. Now thegreat famine is usually given
the dates of 1315 to 1317. Whichis accurate for the bad weather
and the crop failures. By 1317crops were growing. Starvation
was starting to decline. Thefamine, however, persisted. It
would take several years for anyreturn to normalcy and it wasn't
(18:05):
until 1325, 10 years after thefamine started. That food
supplies began to hit pre-Faminenumbers. And the death toll
during the Great Famine wassignificant. Over 25% of
Europe's population died fromstarvation, crime, and disease.
That's a significant number.That's a family of four. One
person died. It was a horrifictime. Now the consequences of
(18:29):
the Great Famine are farreaching in long lasting. Bigger
than just crop failures. Itruined once thriving economies
all across Europe and it blew upthe feudal system. Land value
plummeted, noble and lords losttheir incomes. In England, the
wool trade was wiped out.Without sheep there was no wool
to trade. Revenue from woolexports fell to its lowest point
(18:51):
in decades. And with all thedeath and economic ruin, there's
one interesting benefit of thefamine. It helped the working
class. With a large number ofthe peasants dying and now a
smaller working population,labor was more valuable than
ever. Peasants held a little bitof leverage over the lords,
demanding higher wages andbetter working conditions. Many
(19:14):
still felt the famine was apunishment from God and in
England they blamed King EdwardII. The contemporary poem called
The Evil Times of Edward IIreads, "When God saw the world
was so over-proud, he sent dirton earth and made it full-hard.
A bushel of wheat was at fourshillings or more of which men
might have had a quarter before.And then they turned pale who
(19:36):
had laughed so loud and theybecame all docile who before
were so proud. A man's heartmight bleed for to hear the cry
of poor men who called out "alas,for hunger I die." There's an
old German folk tale during thistime that points out the cruel
selfishness of people. The MausTower of Bingan, originally from
(19:57):
the 10th century, but it wasretold during the Great Famine
and tells the tale of a greedybishop. It says, "The land of
the Prince Bishop of Bingen, adistrict of the Rhine Valley
above Cologne, had suffered asevere shortfall in its harvest,
and food was in very shortsupply. Nevertheless, the Bishop
demanded that everyone pay himtheir full rent and taxes and
(20:18):
money and in kind. He then usedthe money to buy up what food
remained in the market andstored all of it in his fortress
tower in which he lived. Hedismissed all of his dependents,
servants, and then shut andlocked all of the gates and
doors to the tower in order tobe sure that people did not
enter and steal the food he hadhoarded there. But he did not
worry about that. The peoplewere all gone. They had eaten
(20:40):
every blade of grass, everykernel of grain in the land,
some had died, while others hadfled and left the Bishop as the
only living person in Bingen.Just as he was congratulating
himself on having been cleverenough to have survived the
great hunger and comfort, heheard noises outside and at the
doors. He rushed to the top ofthe tower and saw a terrible
sight. All of the starving ratsand mice from the entire region
(21:03):
had smelled the food and werehurrying toward his tower. With
Europe slowly getting back tonormal, is there any indication
what caused this change andweather and the great famine?
Was it really God's punishment?Well, it might not have been
punishment, but it could havebeen an act of God. There are a
series of events, all majorvolcanic eruptions that may have
(21:24):
caused the earth to cool and theweather to change enough to
cause the famine. In 1257, MountSama Las volcano erupted on an
island in Indonesia in the SouthPacific, but it was a massive
explosion. Scientists classifyvolcanic explosions on a scale
of 0-8, 0 being just a littleburp a little bit of lava coming
out, and 8 being a planet killer.The Mount Sama Las eruption was
(21:47):
a level 7, shooting over 10cubic miles of dirt, rock and
ash over 25 miles into theatmosphere. Level 7 eruptions
don't often, and the last onewas on Tambora in 1850, also in
Indonesia. In that followingyear, 1816 is known as the year
without summer due to the globalcooling that took place from all
(22:08):
the ash in the atmosphere. Backto the medieval times, in 1262,
the Cattle of Alcano and Icelanderupted. Now it is recorded as a
level 5 eruption, the same asMount St. Helens in the 80s if
you remember that one. Oh andthere was a few years ago the
Hunga Tonga eruption in theSouth Pacific was a level 5, and
there is an awesome video ofthat eruption. I'll put it in
(22:30):
the show notes, you gotta watchit. When you watch the video in
the massive eruption, keep inmind, the Hunga Tonga volcano
sits 500 feet below sea level.Then imagine what a level 5
would look like without all theseawater holding it back. As it
was, the Hunga Tonga eruptionhad a volcanic plume 34 miles
into the air. You know what onewas a level 5 eruption, Mount
(22:51):
Vesuvius, the same one thatwiped out Pompeii in 3 other
Roman cities. And then in 1280,the year the little ice ages
believed to begin, Kielito ofAlcano and South America erupted,
and it's listed as a level 6eruption, throwing 2 and a half
cubic miles of rock and ash intothe atmosphere. A few years
before the great famine in theearly 1300s, Mount Tarawara
(23:13):
erupted in New Zealand, and itwasn't just one eruption. It was
11 eruptions, all classified aslevel 4, ejecting almost 4 cubic
miles of rock and ash into theatmosphere. Alright, so we have
a handful of volcanoes throwingthick volcanic ash into the air.
How does that cause a famine oreven change the weather? Well in
simplest terms, the ash hangs inthe atmosphere and absorbs and
(23:35):
reflects the sunlight causingthe temperature on Earth's
surface to cool. Also, all theash and particulates in the air
come together to form moreclouds and more rain, further
cooling the Earth. Now a quickdisclaimer, I'm not a scientist,
I'm a historian, so if I getsome of this wrong, feel free to
send me an ass to email. I didhowever watch Dante's peak back
in the 90s, so that pretty muchmakes me a volcano expert. The
(23:59):
longest short of it is, whenit's cloudy outside and there's
no sunshine, it's colder out,all the volcanic ash blocked the
sun and made the world colder.And it takes a while to clear
the ash from the atmosphere, theTambora eruption in 1815 was so
severe, it lowered the globaltemperature by 1 degree
Fahrenheit in less than 6 months.In 1860, the year without summer,
(24:19):
Quebec Canada got over a foot ofsnow in June. It took Earth's
temperature four years torecover from the Tambora
eruption. Now scientistsstudying the 1257 Somalis
eruption examined ice cores andtree rings and estimated the
temperature dropped by 4 degreesFahrenheit globally and took
over a decade to recover. A fewdegrees doesn't seem like a
(24:40):
whole lot, but it's enough todisrupt the delicate balance of
the earth. When the sun isblocked out, sea temperatures
drop, causing currents to change,causing an animal migration to
change, and even when the airtemperature returns to normal,
it can take the ocean under 10to 15 years to recover. Now,
whether the four volcaniceruptions were a direct cause of
the Great Famine is hard to tell.One thing that is for sure, the
(25:02):
cumulative effect on earthcaused a period of global
cooling. It was more than thevolcano's, though. Earth's
climate was changing in thelittle ice age lasted 500 years.
Scientists have proposed severalideas, I won't cause the little
ice age, lower solar activity,increased volcanic activity,
changes in ocean circulation,earth's orbit changing, and even
(25:22):
mass extinctions brought on bythe Black Death and War.
Whatever the cause of the littleice age, the medieval population
in 1315 were on the front endand suffered catastrophic
consequences. Over 25% of thepopulation died. Crime was out
of control, and remained thatway for years after the famine.
It's more than a couple of yearswith no food and then back to
(25:44):
normal. It changes your way oflife. My grandparents were
teenagers during the GreatDepression, and I remember the
stories they would tell. Nothaving anything struggling to
get food, working, stealing,doing whatever it took to get by.
Their experiences in the GreatDepression stayed with them for
life. They wasted little. Theywould save yous 10 foil. They
would rinse it off, and it wasgood to go for another use. Now
(26:06):
I imagine it was the same in the1320s and beyond, those who
lived through the Great Famineremember the hard times and were
always prepared in case ithappened again. The 14th century
is defined by crisis aftercrisis, and the Great Famine was
just the beginning. The worstwas yet to come. As bad as the
Great Famine was, it ranks onlyas the second worst disaster of
(26:27):
the 14th century. The GrimReaper was biting this time,
preparing for his greatestmasterpiece. The Black Death in
1347. The Great Famine wiped out25% of the population. The Black
Death killed upwards of 50% andin some areas 60% of the
population. The populationnumbers in Europe wouldn't equal
(26:47):
or surpass the pre-Familynumbers for over 200 years.
That's going to end our look atthe Great Famine of 1315. You
can find that volcanic eruptionvideo and the bibliography in
the show notes atMedievalArchives.com/97. And if
you want to read up on thecrisis of the 14th century, I'd
(27:09):
recommend two books. The firstis called "A Distant Meer" by
Barbara Tuckman. It's a greatbook. The other book is the
recently published "SeptorIsland" by Helen Carr. I haven't
read it yet
it's not available in the States,but I have read the "Red Prince"
by Carr and it's fantastic. Iimagine this new book will be
too. Now you can get a freeaudio copy of these books
(27:29):
well, not "Septor Island"
it's not available in the Statesyet. But the other two books are
"The Distant Meer" and "The RedPrince" and you can get a free
copy on "Audible" by going toMedievalArchives.com/FreeBook.
Now you have to sign up for afree trial, but that's all right.
You can cancel it at any timeand that free book you choose is
yours to keep forever. Send yourquestions and comments to
(27:49):
podcast@medievalarchives.com orleave us a message on the
voicemail line 720-722-1066. Nowif you're enjoying the podcast,
the easiest way to support it isto tell your friends, and if
you're listening on yoursmartphone, which I'm sure you
are, you can send them a linkright now. Now if you're getting
value from the show, considersupporting us with a financial
(28:09):
donation. Helps keep the show onthe website, add free and full
of great content. And there aresome great fund donation options
1066 for William the Conquerorof Fans, 1485 to commemorate the
Battle of Baazwa, or you cancontribute any amount. You can
even do a 1315 great faminedonation. Visit
medievalarchives.com/support forall the options and to drop a
(28:31):
donation. Now thanks for yourtime and thanks for your
continued support. That's goingto wrap it up for this week.
Thanks again for subscribing andlistening to the Medieval
Archives podcast, illuminatingthe dark ages for the digital
world.
(29:02):
[Music]
Welcome back to theMedieval Archives podcast. The
podcast from In evil news,history, and entertainment. I'm
your host Gary, aka theArchivist. Now I've been stuck
in the 14th century for a while,and I'm loving every minute of
it. Last time we took a look atthe end of the 14th century with
the life and death of John theFearless. Today we're going to
the start of the century andtake a look at how everything
(00:29):
changed from a time ofprosperity and growth to
depression, famine, and death.The 14th century begins a period
now called the crisis of thelate Middle Ages, which lasted
almost 200 years and was filledwith famine, plague, religious
schisms, and wars, lots of wars.Sadly, it's the beginning of the
end for the medieval era. Now itcan be debated that every
(00:50):
century in the Middle Ages wasin crisis, but the 14th had more
than its fair share of badevents. And today we'll be
looking at the event thatstarted at all the great famine
of 1315, one of the mostdevastating events of the 14th
century. We'll look at theevents leading up to the famine,
how it happened, how thepopulation handled the changes,
and the aftermath. Before wehead back to the 14th century, I
(01:12):
want to thank everyone forsupporting the show. You've
shared it with your friends onyour social channels you've left
reviews, and some of you haveeven donated to keep the show
running and added free. Howeveryou support, thank you, and I
appreciate all of it. Now if youhave any questions or comments,
or you have a topic you're dyingto hear on the show, send that
over topodcast@minivlarcribes.com or
leave us a message on thevoicemail line 720-722-1066.
(01:38):
Show notes and any links forthis lesson will be found at
minivlarcribes.com/97. Thenumber 9, the number 7. Alright,
grab yourself a snack and let'slearn about the great famine of
1315.
So we can't jump straight into1315 to get a clear picture of
how the famine started. Toreally understand the impact, we
(02:00):
need to go back a few years andsee how things were shaping up
in medieval Europe. In the late13th century, Europe was densely
populated and highly dependenton agriculture. And for
centuries, since around the year1000, Europe has enjoyed a
relatively warm and stableclimate. The period we now call
the medieval warm period, theclimate was changing, it was
getting warmer, allowingfarmland to expand and pushing
(02:22):
agriculture into new areas,allowing for great crop and food
production. And with the foodboom came a population boom. It
was easier and cheaper tosustain a bigger family than
ever before. Europe saw apopulation boom in the 13th
century that was brought on byexceptional crop yields. Now the
increase in farmland coupledwith new farming innovations
like the horse collar and theheavy plow, allowed farmers to
(02:43):
work more land and to work itfaster. Farmers were also
mastering the three field system.In the three field system, one
field is planted in the spring,one is planted in the fall, and
the other one is left follow forthe year, nothing is planted in
it. The next season, they wouldrotate the fields in which they
planted and left follow. Andthis allowed the soil to recover
its nutrients better and thecrops would provide a bigger
(03:05):
yield. At the start of themedieval warm period, in the
900s, it's estimated that wheatproduction was about 2 to 1, so
for every seed planted 2 werecultivated. As the years
progressed into the medievalwarm period, the production
increased over 250% for everyseed planted 7 were cultivated.
The increase production in theshort and time to plant drove
(03:25):
the need for more farmland. Nowvast amounts of forests were
cleared to make way for newfarmland and during the medieval
warm period from 1,000 to about1,300, farmland doubled in
England and in Germany. Croppedproduction was increasing in a
quick pace and the medievalpopulation was following right
along. England went from about1.5 million people to over 6
million. Germany rose from 4million to 11. France went from
(03:50):
6 million to 17 million and thepeak population for all of
Europe heading into the 14thcentury is estimated to be about
80 to 100 million people.Cropped production was
increasing by 50% every year andthe population was doubling
every year, 100% increase. Nowtimes were good or so it seemed.
There was no margin for errorthough, to sustain the higher
(04:12):
population crops needed tocontinue to grow and increase
every year. Cropped failures arelower harvest would cause
serious problems. Now as thecalendar turns into the 14th
century, a 400 year periodcalled the Little Ice Age starts
in Europe. The medievalpopulation would soon realize
their world and their way ofliving was changing drastically.
(04:33):
They had no idea it was a littleice age. It wasn't given that
name until the 20th centuryafter scientific data was
examined. It's called the littleice age but it's not exactly an
ice age. It was really asustained period of cooling and
it was mainly in the NorthAtlantic regions stretching from
North America to Northern andEastern Europe. The southern
hemisphere didn't see the samecooling patterns. After
(04:55):
generations of prosperity andpopulation growth it was time to
pay the paper and the toll wasfar greater than anyone could
imagine. "The change in weathercame on rather fast, at least
fast, as climate's concerned.Current scientific data suggests
by the year 1300 summers werealready getting cooler, and
glaciers were growing at asignificant rate. For medieval
people, their plight was justbeginning. Since 1290 crop
(05:17):
harvest was slowly decliningyear-over-year, but it wasn't
alarming yet, just a slowdecline." That all changed
almost overnight. The winter of1315 was a colder than normal
winter, but it wasn't reallyunusual. Then came spring, and
April showers. Only it didn'tbring May flowers. It brought
May showers, and June showers.And with the rain started
(05:39):
falling in the spring of 1315,it didn't stop for months. It
rained all the way throughAugust, and with the continued
rain came cooler weather. Itrained across all of Northern
Europe, from Ireland, England,across the continent all the way
to Poland. "One day, it startedraining, and it didn't quit for
four months." English chroniclerJohn of Triclo wrote, "The
(06:00):
d'Earth began in the month ofMay and lasted until the feast
of the nevinity of the Virgin.The summer rains were so heavy
that the grain could not ripen.It could hardly be gathered, and
used to bake bread down to thesaid feast day, unless it was
put in vessels to dry. Aroundthe end of autumn, the d'Earth
was partly mitigated, but towardChristmas, it came back as bad
as before. Bread did not haveits usual nourishing power and
(06:23):
strength, because the grain wasnot nourished by the warmth of
the summer sunshine. Hence,those who ate it, even in large
quantities, were hungry againafter a little while. A French
chronicler recorded that the dayloose began in 1315, seven weeks
after Easter, during this seasonthat rained most marvelously and
for so long. And Bernard Guy, aFrench bishop and the inquisitor
(06:46):
of Toulouse, wrote, "Excedentlygreat rains descended from the
heavens and they made a huge anddeep mud pools on the land.
Throughout all May, July, andAugust, the rains did not
cease." Some crops were plantedduring this time, but most died
due to the fields beingsaturated and flooding. The
constant rain and humiditycaused grain to rot before it
could germinate. They evenbrought the grain indoors to dry
(07:08):
in pots and by the fire, but itwasn't enough to sustain the
farms, let alone an entirepopulation. Alright, so there's
no bread this year. We stillhave cows, hogs and sheep to eat.
While the grain and wheat wasused to feed livestock, too, wet
soggy grain isn't a meal forcows and sheep, and the wet
grains became moldy causingsickness in the animal. There
(07:29):
was a catastrophic die-off oflivestock, over 80% of the
livestock died during thisperiod. Another issue faced in
the farmers was the wet ground.The soil became a wet, swampy
mess, and they couldn't plow thefields to plant enough crops.
Lower areas in central Englandwere completely flooded over.
This wasn't a localized problemin England or France. It
affected a large area ofnorthern Europe. There was no
(07:51):
surplus to import from aneighboring region. Every
country was facing the sameproblem. And another problem
they were seeing was salt, a keyingredient in preserving meat,
and it became scarce. Salt isproduced in two ways by mining
it from a salt mine or fromevaporation ponds. There were a
few salt mines in eastern Europe,but the majority of production
came from evaporation. And inthe evaporation process, salt
(08:15):
water, sea water, was fed intoshallow ponds, and then the sun
would evaporate the water andleave behind the salt deposits.
That during the spring andsummer of 1315, there was too
much rain. Not enough sunlightand evaporation ponds were
useless, they were flooded out.Salt production was at an
all-time low. Things weregetting bad from medieval Europe.
(08:36):
to no crops, food production wasdown. Any meat they were able to
butcher couldn't be preservedfor the coming winter because of
the salt shortage. And therewasn't any way to get more food
or salt. The supply chain waslocal and even getting grain or
meat or salt from anothercountry wasn't an option all
throughout northern Europe. Rainwas falling. Crops were failing.
England, France, Germany, Italy.It was a widespread catastrophe.
(09:01):
People went days eating, andmany ate roots, berries, grasses,
leaves, anything nature couldoffer to feed them in their
families. Any fish they couldcatch were quickly eaten until
the streams and rivers werebarren of life. The declining
grain production also led to anincrease in pricing and price
skyrocketed. In England, theprice of wheat rose by as much
as 800%. In Lorraine, grainprices increased over 300% in
(09:24):
the first year of the famine. Inother areas, increases of a
hundred to two hundred percentwere common. Green and bread was
a scarce commodity, affordableonly to royalty and nobles. For
the poor peasant who spentalmost everything he earned on
bread, this was a death sentence.There are various accounts of
bakers who used hog manure andwine sediments to make loaves of
bread and those caught doingthat were severely punished. In
(09:47):
1316 a Flemish chronicle wrotethat people were in such great
need that it cannot be expressed.For the cries of that were heard
from the poor would move a stoneas they lay in the street with
their woe and great complainsswollen with hunger. In August
of 1315, the first season withall the crop failures, King
Edward II visited St. Albinz,and he couldn't find any bread
(10:07):
for the royal court. John ofShroklo wrote about the King's
visit to St. Albinz, and hewrote, "In 1315, hunger grew in
the land. Meat and eggs began torun out. Capins and foul could
hardly be found. Animals died ofpests. Swine could not be fed
because of the excessive priceof fodder. The price of wheat,
beans, peas, barley, oat, andsalt quadruple are more, which
(10:29):
was unheard of. The land wasoppressed with want, that when
the King came to St. Albinz onfeast of St. Lawrence, it was
barely possible to find bread onsale to supply his household.
There can be no doubt that thepoor wasted away even they were
constantly hungry. Four penniesworth of course bread was not
enough to feed a common man forone day. The usual kind of meat,
(10:51):
suitable for eating, was tooscarce. Horse meat was precious.
Plump dogs were stolen off ofpeople's porches and according
to many reports, men and womenin many places secretly ate
their children. That's kind ofgross and we'll get back to that
in a little bit, but itdescribes the desperation in the
population and this is onlyseven to eight months into what
(11:11):
will be a five to six yearfamine. Things are bad and
they're only getting worse. Thenobility, the kings, lords,
barons, they could afford thehigher prices but the lower
classes, which made up about 90%of the population couldn't
afford it. And money doesn'tjust make crops grow even at
higher prices. At some point thesurplus runs out. And when that
(11:32):
happens, it turns into a horrormovie. There are widespread
accounts of eating animals, cows,horses, dogs, cats, anything
really, not horrible butcertainly not ideal. But the
animals weren't healthy to beginwith and carry disease. Now with
the failing crops and moldystraw and outbreak of disease
killed the majority of thecattle and sheep. And it wasn't
(11:52):
just a few of them. Like I said,over 80% of the cattle and sheep
population was wiped out, butdesperate starving people
they'll eat anything, even adisease dead cow. Now eating
putrid meat and moldy grainsonly caused death to come
quicker for the people and manydidn't die of starvation. They
died of the effects of eatingthe bad meat and grains,
(12:12):
sickness, vomiting, dehydrationled to certain death. It gets
worse. Once there's not enoughanimals to eat, they look for
other sources of meat. As 1315ended, there was hope next year
would bring a good harvest, butit wasn't meant to be. Spring of
1316 saw as much rain as theprevious years and crops didn't
grow. Livestock, draft horsesand small animals were all but
(12:35):
gone. They had been eaten ordied in the previous year.
People began abandoning theirchildren to fend for themselves.
Older generations stopped eating,voluntary starvation so the
younger folks could eat whatthere was and still have some
strength left to work the fields.The brothers Grimm, Jacob and
Wilhelm used this as inspirationfor their fairy tale, Hansel and
(12:56):
Gretel. In the tale, Hansel andGretel are abandoned by their
parents during a famine left inthe woods to fend for themselves.
Then they're lured by a witchwho feeds them all kinds of
snacks. Only Hansel and Greteldiscover the witch is trying to
fatten them up to bake them intoa human pie. Makes you wonder if
that actually a fairy tale, ormaybe it was a true story. Grypt
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with fear, desperation, andhunger many turned to a taboo
custom. Cannibalism. There arenumerous accounts of cannibalism
during the Great Famine. Peopledigging up the newly dead and
eating them, some of the deaddidn't even get a proper burial.
It's not a pretty picture. InBristol, a chronicler recorded
the whores of the famine. Hewrote, "A great famine of dirt
(13:38):
was such morality that theliving could scarce suffice to
bury the dead. Horse flesh anddog flesh was accounted good
meat, and some eat their ownchildren." The thieves that were
in prison did pluck and tear topieces, such as were newly put
into prison and devoured themhalf alive. Imagine that. You
think you're going to prison toserve your crime, then you get
(13:58):
eaten half alive. It was diretimes. There was food for no one.
And eating the dead didn't helpeither. Instead of sustaining
the living, the human fleshcaused more disease and death.
There are records from England,France, Ireland, the Netherlands,
even as far as Estonia, allindicating cannibalism was
taking place due to the famine.Now some scholars will tell you
(14:19):
that it's a rumor, but it'srecorded in too many places from
too many separate locations tobe easily dismissed as just
rumors. "When the lamb openedthe third seal, I heard the
third living creature say, 'Come,I looked, and there before me
was a black course. It's writerwas holding a pair of scales in
(14:39):
his hand.' Then I heard whatsounded like a voice among the
four living creatures saying,'Two pounds of wheat for a day's
wages, and six pounds of barleyfor a day's wages.' and do not
damage the oil and the wine.Society was breaking down.
People were starving in thestreets. Heck, they were
(15:00):
starving in the castles too.Bans of landless starving
peasants roamed the countrysideturning to robbery and violence.
Crime was out of control andpeople were eating the dead. It
was truly an end of world typeof apocalypse. When death is
everywhere, people tend to looktoward a higher power for
guidance and comfort and support.And medieval Europe was no
different. They look to thechurch. Only the church was
(15:24):
overwhelmed. Monasteries andnunneries were forced to close
their doors, unable to feed theendless stream of people at
their gates. Prayer didn't seemto work and people soon began to
blame the church for the famine.If prayer wasn't working, maybe
the church was at fault. Maybethe corruption in the church had
brought on the famine. Afterinitially turning to the church
(15:44):
for comfort, many turned away.If the church wasn't going to
help, everyone was going to fendfor themselves. Kings were
helpless too. They couldn'tmagically stop the rain or make
the crops grow. The king didn'tcrack down on crime either. And
it's not just the king of onecountry. None of the countries
cracked down on crime. It becameapparent that no one was going
to help. The population quicklylost its faith in the church and
(16:06):
in the crown. With another yearof dismal crops, no relief in
sight. The population wasmalnourished and vulnerable to
disease. pneumonia, bronchitisand tuberculosis all ran rampant
and weakened and killed a largenumber of the population. Winter
of 1317 came and it was as badas the previous two. And the
(16:26):
rain continued into the spring.And by this time, two years into
the famine, everyone wassuffering. Lower class,
merchants, all the whips, noblesand kings. It didn't matter your
stature in life. It didn'tmatter how much money you had.
There was no food to be hadanywhere. Then summer arrived.
And with it came drier weather.And the rain stopped. Fills
(16:59):
began to dry and there was aglimmer of hope. Those who could
work planted the crops that theyhad, which was already severely
depleted from the last two yearsof famine. Now the harvest of
1317 was the best in three years.Which is to say it was okay. I
mean, it wasn't a bumper crop byany stretch. Not enough to stop
the widespread starvation. Butit was the first successful crop
(17:19):
in a few years and people hadhope again. People were excited.
This might be the turnaround.The grain was harvested and able
to dry. And they were able toget more seeds for next year and
more bread and food for thecoming winter. 1318 came and saw
more favorable weather andanother good harvest. The
weather was returning tosomewhat normal and crops were
growing. Medieval Europe hadjust endured and mostly survived
(17:44):
its greatest famine. Now thegreat famine is usually given
the dates of 1315 to 1317. Whichis accurate for the bad weather
and the crop failures. By 1317crops were growing. Starvation
was starting to decline. Thefamine, however, persisted. It
would take several years for anyreturn to normalcy and it wasn't
(18:05):
until 1325, 10 years after thefamine started. That food
supplies began to hit pre-Faminenumbers. And the death toll
during the Great Famine wassignificant. Over 25% of
Europe's population died fromstarvation, crime, and disease.
That's a significant number.That's a family of four. One
person died. It was a horrifictime. Now the consequences of
(18:29):
the Great Famine are farreaching in long lasting. Bigger
than just crop failures. Itruined once thriving economies
all across Europe and it blew upthe feudal system. Land value
plummeted, noble and lords losttheir incomes. In England, the
wool trade was wiped out.Without sheep there was no wool
to trade. Revenue from woolexports fell to its lowest point
(18:51):
in decades. And with all thedeath and economic ruin, there's
one interesting benefit of thefamine. It helped the working
class. With a large number ofthe peasants dying and now a
smaller working population,labor was more valuable than
ever. Peasants held a little bitof leverage over the lords,
demanding higher wages andbetter working conditions. Many
(19:14):
still felt the famine was apunishment from God and in
England they blamed King EdwardII. The contemporary poem called
The Evil Times of Edward IIreads, "When God saw the world
was so over-proud, he sent dirton earth and made it full-hard.
A bushel of wheat was at fourshillings or more of which men
might have had a quarter before.And then they turned pale who
(19:36):
had laughed so loud and theybecame all docile who before
were so proud. A man's heartmight bleed for to hear the cry
of poor men who called out "alas,for hunger I die." There's an
old German folk tale during thistime that points out the cruel
selfishness of people. The MausTower of Bingan, originally from
(19:57):
the 10th century, but it wasretold during the Great Famine
and tells the tale of a greedybishop. It says, "The land of
the Prince Bishop of Bingen, adistrict of the Rhine Valley
above Cologne, had suffered asevere shortfall in its harvest,
and food was in very shortsupply. Nevertheless, the Bishop
demanded that everyone pay himtheir full rent and taxes and
(20:18):
money and in kind. He then usedthe money to buy up what food
remained in the market andstored all of it in his fortress
tower in which he lived. Hedismissed all of his dependents,
servants, and then shut andlocked all of the gates and
doors to the tower in order tobe sure that people did not
enter and steal the food he hadhoarded there. But he did not
worry about that. The peoplewere all gone. They had eaten
(20:40):
every blade of grass, everykernel of grain in the land,
some had died, while others hadfled and left the Bishop as the
only living person in Bingen.Just as he was congratulating
himself on having been cleverenough to have survived the
great hunger and comfort, heheard noises outside and at the
doors. He rushed to the top ofthe tower and saw a terrible
sight. All of the starving ratsand mice from the entire region
(21:03):
had smelled the food and werehurrying toward his tower. With
Europe slowly getting back tonormal, is there any indication
what caused this change andweather and the great famine?
Was it really God's punishment?Well, it might not have been
punishment, but it could havebeen an act of God. There are a
series of events, all majorvolcanic eruptions that may have
(21:24):
caused the earth to cool and theweather to change enough to
cause the famine. In 1257, MountSama Las volcano erupted on an
island in Indonesia in the SouthPacific, but it was a massive
explosion. Scientists classifyvolcanic explosions on a scale
of 0-8, 0 being just a littleburp a little bit of lava coming
out, and 8 being a planet killer.The Mount Sama Las eruption was
(21:47):
a level 7, shooting over 10cubic miles of dirt, rock and
ash over 25 miles into theatmosphere. Level 7 eruptions
don't often, and the last onewas on Tambora in 1850, also in
Indonesia. In that followingyear, 1816 is known as the year
without summer due to the globalcooling that took place from all
(22:08):
the ash in the atmosphere. Backto the medieval times, in 1262,
the Cattle of Alcano and Icelanderupted. Now it is recorded as a
level 5 eruption, the same asMount St. Helens in the 80s if
you remember that one. Oh andthere was a few years ago the
Hunga Tonga eruption in theSouth Pacific was a level 5, and
there is an awesome video ofthat eruption. I'll put it in
(22:30):
the show notes, you gotta watchit. When you watch the video in
the massive eruption, keep inmind, the Hunga Tonga volcano
sits 500 feet below sea level.Then imagine what a level 5
would look like without all theseawater holding it back. As it
was, the Hunga Tonga eruptionhad a volcanic plume 34 miles
into the air. You know what onewas a level 5 eruption, Mount
(22:51):
Vesuvius, the same one thatwiped out Pompeii in 3 other
Roman cities. And then in 1280,the year the little ice ages
believed to begin, Kielito ofAlcano and South America erupted,
and it's listed as a level 6eruption, throwing 2 and a half
cubic miles of rock and ash intothe atmosphere. A few years
before the great famine in theearly 1300s, Mount Tarawara
(23:13):
erupted in New Zealand, and itwasn't just one eruption. It was
11 eruptions, all classified aslevel 4, ejecting almost 4 cubic
miles of rock and ash into theatmosphere. Alright, so we have
a handful of volcanoes throwingthick volcanic ash into the air.
How does that cause a famine oreven change the weather? Well in
simplest terms, the ash hangs inthe atmosphere and absorbs and
(23:35):
reflects the sunlight causingthe temperature on Earth's
surface to cool. Also, all theash and particulates in the air
come together to form moreclouds and more rain, further
cooling the Earth. Now a quickdisclaimer, I'm not a scientist,
I'm a historian, so if I getsome of this wrong, feel free to
send me an ass to email. I didhowever watch Dante's peak back
in the 90s, so that pretty muchmakes me a volcano expert. The
(23:59):
longest short of it is, whenit's cloudy outside and there's
no sunshine, it's colder out,all the volcanic ash blocked the
sun and made the world colder.And it takes a while to clear
the ash from the atmosphere, theTambora eruption in 1815 was so
severe, it lowered the globaltemperature by 1 degree
Fahrenheit in less than 6 months.In 1860, the year without summer,
(24:19):
Quebec Canada got over a foot ofsnow in June. It took Earth's
temperature four years torecover from the Tambora
eruption. Now scientistsstudying the 1257 Somalis
eruption examined ice cores andtree rings and estimated the
temperature dropped by 4 degreesFahrenheit globally and took
over a decade to recover. A fewdegrees doesn't seem like a
(24:40):
whole lot, but it's enough todisrupt the delicate balance of
the earth. When the sun isblocked out, sea temperatures
drop, causing currents to change,causing an animal migration to
change, and even when the airtemperature returns to normal,
it can take the ocean under 10to 15 years to recover. Now,
whether the four volcaniceruptions were a direct cause of
the Great Famine is hard to tell.One thing that is for sure, the
(25:02):
cumulative effect on earthcaused a period of global
cooling. It was more than thevolcano's, though. Earth's
climate was changing in thelittle ice age lasted 500 years.
Scientists have proposed severalideas, I won't cause the little
ice age, lower solar activity,increased volcanic activity,
changes in ocean circulation,earth's orbit changing, and even
(25:22):
mass extinctions brought on bythe Black Death and War.
Whatever the cause of the littleice age, the medieval population
in 1315 were on the front endand suffered catastrophic
consequences. Over 25% of thepopulation died. Crime was out
of control, and remained thatway for years after the famine.
It's more than a couple of yearswith no food and then back to
(25:44):
normal. It changes your way oflife. My grandparents were
teenagers during the GreatDepression, and I remember the
stories they would tell. Nothaving anything struggling to
get food, working, stealing,doing whatever it took to get by.
Their experiences in the GreatDepression stayed with them for
life. They wasted little. Theywould save yous 10 foil. They
would rinse it off, and it wasgood to go for another use. Now
(26:06):
I imagine it was the same in the1320s and beyond, those who
lived through the Great Famineremember the hard times and were
always prepared in case ithappened again. The 14th century
is defined by crisis aftercrisis, and the Great Famine was
just the beginning. The worstwas yet to come. As bad as the
Great Famine was, it ranks onlyas the second worst disaster of
(26:27):
the 14th century. The GrimReaper was biting this time,
preparing for his greatestmasterpiece. The Black Death in
1347. The Great Famine wiped out25% of the population. The Black
Death killed upwards of 50% andin some areas 60% of the
population. The populationnumbers in Europe wouldn't equal
(26:47):
or surpass the pre-Familynumbers for over 200 years.
That's going to end our look atthe Great Famine of 1315. You
can find that volcanic eruptionvideo and the bibliography in
the show notes atMedievalArchives.com/97. And if
you want to read up on thecrisis of the 14th century, I'd
(27:09):
recommend two books. The firstis called "A Distant Meer" by
Barbara Tuckman. It's a greatbook. The other book is the
recently published "SeptorIsland" by Helen Carr. I haven't
read it yet
it's not available in the States,but I have read the "Red Prince"
by Carr and it's fantastic. Iimagine this new book will be
too. Now you can get a freeaudio copy of these books
(27:29):
well, not "Septor Island"
it's not available in the Statesyet. But the other two books are
"The Distant Meer" and "The RedPrince" and you can get a free
copy on "Audible" by going toMedievalArchives.com/FreeBook.
Now you have to sign up for afree trial, but that's all right.
You can cancel it at any timeand that free book you choose is
yours to keep forever. Send yourquestions and comments to
(27:49):
podcast@medievalarchives.com orleave us a message on the
voicemail line 720-722-1066. Nowif you're enjoying the podcast,
the easiest way to support it isto tell your friends, and if
you're listening on yoursmartphone, which I'm sure you
are, you can send them a linkright now. Now if you're getting
value from the show, considersupporting us with a financial
(28:09):
donation. Helps keep the show onthe website, add free and full
of great content. And there aresome great fund donation options
1066 for William the Conquerorof Fans, 1485 to commemorate the
Battle of Baazwa, or you cancontribute any amount. You can
even do a 1315 great faminedonation. Visit
medievalarchives.com/support forall the options and to drop a
(28:31):
donation. Now thanks for yourtime and thanks for your
continued support. That's goingto wrap it up for this week.
Thanks again for subscribing andlistening to the Medieval
Archives podcast, illuminatingthe dark ages for the digital
world.
(29:02):
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