the crisis of the late Middle Ages was a series of events in the 14th and 15th centuries that ended centuries of European stability during the late Middle Ages three major crises led to radical changes in all areas of society demographic collapse political instability and religious upheavals the Great Famine of 1315 to 1317 and the black death of 1347 to 1351 reduced the population perhaps by half or more as the medieval warm period came to a close and the first century of the little Ice Age began it took until 1500 for the European population to regain the levels of 1300 popular revolts in late medieval Europe and Civil Wars between Nobles such as the wars of the Roses were common with France fighting internally nine times and there were International conflicts between kingdoms such as France and England in the Hundred Years War the unity of the Roman Catholic Church was shattered by the Western SK is M the Holy Roman Empire was also in decline in the aftermath of the great internum 1247 to 1273 the Empire lost cohesion and the separate dynasties of the various German States became more politically important than their Union under the emperor the expression crisis of the late Middle Ages is commonly used in Western historiography especially in English and German and somewhat Less in other Western European scholarship to refer to the array of crises besetting Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries the expression often carries a modifier to specify it such as the urban crisis of the late Middle Ages or the cultural monastic religious social economic intellectual or agrarian crisis or a regional modifier such as the Catalan or French crisis by 1929 the French historian Mark block was already writing about the effects of the crisis and by mid-century there were acade mic debates being held about it in his 1981 article late middle-age agrarian crisis or crisis of feudalism Peter Creet reprises some of the early works in the field from historians writing in the 1930s including Mark block hry pen will hel Abel and Michael pastan referring to the crisis in Italian as the crisis of the 14th century Giovani kabini alluded to the debate that already by 1974 had been going on for several decades in French British American and German historiography Arnold borst 1992 states that it is a given that 14th century Latin Christianity was in a crisis and goes on to say that the intellectual aspects and how universities were affected by the crisis is underrepresented in the scholarship hither to when we discussed the crisis of the late Middle Ages we consider intellectual movements beside religious social and economic ones and give some examples some question whether crisis is the right expression for the period at the end of the Middle Ages and the transition to modernity in his 1981 article the end of the Middle Ages decline crisis or transformation Donald Sullivan addresses this question claiming that scholarship has neglected the period and viewed it largely as a precursor to subsequent climactic events such as the Renaissance and Reformation in his introduction to the history of the Middle Ages in Europe mider Fernandez wrote in 2004 to talk about a general crisis of the late Middle Ages is already a common place in the study of medieval history Herbert meller in his 2012 book on the religious crisis of the late Middle Ages discussed whether the term itself was in crisis no doubt the thesis of the crisis of the late Middle Ages has itself been in crisis for some time now and hardly anyone considered an expert in the field would still profess ESS it without some ifs and butts and especially so in the case of German medieval historians in his 2014 historiographical article about the crisis in the Middle Ages Peter Schuster quotes the historian Leopold Geno's 1971 article crisis from the Middle Ages to Modern Times crisis is the word which comes immediately to the historian's mind when he thinks of the 14th and the 15th centuries most governments instituted measures that prohibited exports of food food stuffs condemned Black Market speculators set price controls on grain and outlawed large-scale fishing at best they proved mostly unenforcable and at worst they contributed to a continent-wide downward spiral the hardest hit lands like England were unable to buy Grain from France because of the prohibition and from most of the rest of the grain producers because of crop failur from shortage of Labor any grain that could be shipped was eventually taken by Pirates or utters to be sold on the black market meanwhile many of the largest countries most notably England and Scotland had been at War using up much of their treasury in creating inflation in 1337 on the eve of the first wave of the Black Death England and France went to war in what became known as the 100 Years War this situation was worsened when land owners and monarchs such as Edward III of England and Philip IV of France raised the fines and rents of their ten out of a fear that their comparatively high standard of living would decline when a typhoid epidemic emerged many thousands died in populated Urban centers most significantly epra now in Belgium in 1318 a pestilence of Unknown Origin sometimes identified as Anthrax targeted the animals of Europe notably sheep and cattle further reducing the food supply in income of the peasantry as Europe moved out of the medieval warm period and into the little I age a decrease in temperature and a great number of devastating floods disrupted harvests and caused Mass famine the cold and the rain proved to be particularly disastrous from 1315 to 1317 in which poor weather interrupted the maturation of many grains and beans and flooding turned Fields Rocky and Barren scarcity of grain caused price inflation as described in one account of grain prices in Europe in which the price of wheat doubled from 20 Shillings per quarter in 1 185 to 40 Shillings per quarter by June of the following year grape harvests also suffered which reduced wine production throughout Europe the wine production from The Vineyard surrounding the Abbey of St Arnold in France decreased as much as 80% by 1317 during this climatic change and subsequent famine Europe's cattle were struck with bovine pestilence a pathogen of unknown identity the pathogen spread throughout Europe from Eastern Asia in 13 15 and reached the British Isles by 1319 manorial accounts of cattle populations in the year between 139 and 1320 places a 62% loss in England and Wales alone in these countries some correlation can be found between the places where poor weather reduced crop harvests and places where the bovine population was particularly negatively affected it is hypothesized that both low temperatures and lack of nutrition lowered the cattle population immune systems and made them vulnerable to disease the mass death and illness of cattle drastically affected Dairy production and the output did not return to its pre pestilence amount until 1331 much of the medieval peasants protein was obtained from dairy and milk shortages likely caused nutritional deficiency in the European population famine and pestilence exacerbated with the prevalence of War during this time led to the death of an estimated 10 to 15 % of Europe's population the Black Death was a particularly devastating epidemic in Europe during this time and is notable due to the number of people who succumbed to the disease within the few years the disease was active it was fatal to an estimated 30 to 60% of the population where the disease was present while there is some question of whether it was a particularly deadly strain of Yia pesus that caused the Black Death Research indicates no significant difference in bacterial Phenix type thus environmental stressors are considered when hypothesizing the deadliness of the black plague such as crop failures due to changes in weather the subsequent famine and an influx of host rats into Europe from China there were some popular uprisings in Europe before the 14th century but these were local in scope for example uprisings at a Manor House against an unpleasant Overlord this changed in the 14th and 15th centuries when new downward pressures on the poor result resulted in mass movements and popular uprisings across Europe to indicate how common and widespread these movements became in Germany between 1336 and 1525 there were no less than 60 phases of militant peasant unrest Scholars such as David Hurley and Michael Pan used the term Mal fusan limit to explain some calamities as results of overpopulation in his 1798 essay on the principle of population Thomas malus asserted that expon itial population growth will invariably exceed available resources making Mass death inevitable in his book the black death and the transformation of the West David hurle he explores whether the plague was an inevitable crisis of population and resources in the Black Death a turning point in history he implies that the black death's pivotal role in late medieval Society was now being challenged arguing on the basis of a neom Fusian economics revisionist historian recast the Black Death as a necessary and long overdue corrective to an overpopulated Europe hurle he also examined the arguments against the malthusian crisis stating if the Black Death was a response to excessive human numbers it should have arrived several decades earlier in consequence of the population growth before the Black Death hurle he also brings up other biological factors that argue against the plague as a reckoning by arguing the role of famines in affecting population movements is also problematic the many famines preceding the Black Death even that the great hunger of 1315 to 1317 did not result in any appreciable reduction in population levels hurle he concludes the matter stating the medieval experience shows us not a malthusian crisis but a stalemate in the sense that the community was maintaining its stable levels very large numbers over a lengthy period and states that the phenomenon should be referred to as more of a death block rather than a crisis to describe Europe before the epidemics