Chapter 12The Crisis of the

Later Middle Ages, 1300–1450

In this fifteenth-century painting, dead bodies lie in the middle of a path, while a funeral procession at the right includes a man with an adult’s coffin and a woman with the coffin of an infant under her arm. People did not simply allow the dead to lie in the street in medieval Europe, though during famines and epidemics it was sometimes difficult to maintain normal burial procedures.

Death from Famine

Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

According to the Golden Legend, a thirteenth-century collection of saints’ lives, the bubonic plague ravaged Rome when Gregory I was elected pope (590–604). This fourteenth century painting, produced at a time when plague was again striking Europe, shows Gregory leading a procession around the city as new victims fall (center). The artist shows everyone in fourteenth-century clothing and may have seen similar plague processions in his own city.

Procession of Saint Gregory

Musée Condé, Chantilly/Art Resource, NY

Use the map and the information in the text to answer the following questions:•1 How did the expansion of trade that resulted from the commercial revolution contribute to the spread of the Black Death?•2 When did the plague reach Paris? Why do you think it got to Paris before it spread to the rest of northern France or to southern Germany? •3 Which cities were spared? What might account for this?•4 Which regions were spared? Would the reasons for this be the same as those for cities, or might other causes have been operating in rural areas?

The Course of the Black Death in Fourteenth-Century Europe

In many cities hospitals could not cope with the large numbers of plague victims. The practice of putting two or more adults in the same bed, as shown here, contributed to the spread of the disease. At the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, nurses complained of being forced to put eight to ten children in a single bed in which a patient had recently died.

Patients in a Hospital Ward, Fifteenth Century

Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library

In this manuscript illumination from 1349, shirtless flagellants scourge themselves with whips as they walk through the streets of the Flemish city of Tournai. The text notes that they are asking for God’s grace to return to the city after it had been struck with the “most grave” illness.

Flagellants

HIP/Art Resource, NY

In this 1387 illustration, an English merchant requests concessions from the count of Flanders to trade English wool at a favorable price. Flanders was officially on the French side during the Hundred Years’ War, but Flemish cities depended heavily on English wool for their textile manufacturing. Hence the count of Flanders agreed to the establishment of the Merchant Staple, an English trading company with a monopoly on trade in wool.

English Merchants in Flanders

British Library

Medieval warfare usually consisted of small skirmishes and attacks on castles. This miniature shows the French besieging an English-held castle, which held out for six months. Most of the soldiers use longbows, although at the left two men shoot primitive muskets above a pair of cannon. Painted in the late fifteenth century, the scene reflects military technology available at the time it was painted, not the time of the actual siege.

Siege of the Castle of Mortagne Near Bordeaux (1377)

British Library

English Holdings in France During the Hundred Years’ WarThe year 1429 marked the greatest extent of English holdings in France.

Fourteenth-Century Peasant RevoltsIn the later Middle Ages, peasant and urban uprisings were endemic, as common as factory strikes in the industrial world. The threat of insurrection served to check unlimited exploitation.

Same-Sex RelationsThis illustration, from athirteenth century French book of morals, interprets female and male same-sex relations as the work of devils, who hover over the couples. This illustration was painted at the time that religious and political authorities were increasingly criminalizing same sex relations.

Austrian National Library, Vienna, Cod. 2554, fol. 2r

Opening Page from theDalimil ChronicleThis history of Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) was the first book to be written in the Czech language, and was an important tool in the creation of a Czech national identity. The section reproduced here includes references to “our people” and “our land.” The book remains an important part of Czech identity; in 2005 the National Library of the Czech Republic purchased a fragment of an illustrated fourteenth-century Latin translation for nearly half a million dollars. Similar historical chronicles were written in the vernacular languages of many parts of Europe in the fifteenth century and contributed to a growing sense of ethnic and national distinctions.

Austrian National Library, Vienna

Several manuscripts of Christine’s works included illustrations showing her writing, which would have increased their appeal to the wealthy individuals who purchased them.Several manuscripts of Christine’s works included illustrations showing her writing, which would have increased their appeal to the wealthy individuals who purchased them.

British Library