CRISIS OF THE 14TH CENTURY ends medieval expansion 11-13th C

FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
           war, famine, plague & revolution = "signs of last times"    
Eschatology: study of “the last things,” the end of time

I.  THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR 1337-1453  (England vs France)  

II. FAMINE demographic pressure on land:
                 extension of arable reaches limits
    MALTHUSIAN CRISIS:  death rate rises as
        population growth outstrips food production; on
                graph, this pattern is called “demographic scissors”
        1290'S: first famines in north: rise in food prices,
                mortality rates (+10-15%)
        1340's: heavy rain:  no crops sown, animals slaughtered

III. BUBONIC PLAGUE: BLACK DEATH, 1347-8
            1347:  Genoese galley from Crimea to Sicily; spreads north
        BOCCACIO: Prologue of Decameron:
           10 days, 100 stories told by Florentines fleeing plague
Symptoms:
        buboes: painful swelling of lymph nodes (neck, armpit, groin)
                        fever, black splotches (internal hermorraghing)
       Mortality rates:
            1/2 to 2/3 of population in infected areas
      Steep population decline, overall economic regression
                abandonment of arable land, labor shortages
                    
 IV. REVOLUTION:    unprecedented sseries of Peasant Revolts
        FRANCE 1358 JACQUERIE provoked by 100 Years’ War           
        England 138l  WAT TYLER'S REVOLT
              reaction to royal head tax to pay for 100 YrsWar;
              demands: abolition of serfdom;
              feudal services commuted to money rent