Read Online The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850 by Brian Fagan - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Brian Fagan
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wheat but barley, beans, oats, and peas yielded crops
that were 15 to 20 percent lower than normal. Northern Europe generally experienced comparable shortfalls.
Salt and wine production plummeted. Downy mildew attacked French
grapes, so vines never reached their proper maturity and "there was a
great failure of wine in the whole kingdom of France." Chroniclers complained of shortages and harsh taste. The vineyards of Neustadt in Germany were hard hit: 1316, "a trifling quantity of wine"; 1317, "very little
wine." That of 1319 was "sour," while the cold in 1323 was so extreme
that the root stocks died. Not until 1328, six years after the famine
ended, was there "very much and exceptionally good wine."8
The weather attacked not only crops but animals. Just feeding them in
winter became a serious headache. The fields were so damp that, even if
hay could be mowed, the crops could not dry in the open. Stored in a
barn, uncured hay rots, builds up heat and methane gas, and can burst
into flames unless turned regularly. What drying ovens and kilns were
available were used to dry unripened grain for human consumption. The
worst for animals came later in the famine years. The bitterly cold winter
of 1317/18 used up the already depleted fodder stocks. When these ran
out, farmers had to turn their animals out to forage for themselves in
short-lived warmer spells. Thousands of head starved or froze to death in
their pastures. Sheep suffered especially badly from the cold, for prolonged
snow and frost early in the year make lambing a risky proposition. The
raw summer brought virulent rinderpest, which attacked cattle with diarrhea, dehydration, and intestinal failure. Thousands of putrefying carcasses were burnt or buried in mass graves. A parasitic worm infection
called liver fluke reduced sheep and goat flocks by as much as 70 percent
in some places.
"The great dying of beasts" continued into the early 1320s, bringing severe shortages not only of livestock but of manure for the fields. The impact was felt immediately. Oxen and horses lay at the heart of the rural
economy, the former used extensively for plowing. Teams of oxen, often
owned jointly by several families, plowed heavier soils for entire communi ties and were heavily used by medieval manors. Inevitably, the stock shortage translated into fewer hectares plowed, abandoned fields, and lower
crop yields. Only pigs were relatively unaffected. Fast-breeding swine were
abundant until the shortfall in bread, beef, and mutton caused people to
increase the amount of pork in their diet and herds were decimated.
In the towns, the urban poor ate less bread. Wrote a Flemish observer in
1316: "The people were in such great need that it cannot be expressed. For
the cries that were heard from the poor would move a stone, as they lay in
the street with woe and great complain, swollen with hunger."9 In Flanders,
bread was no longer made from wheat but from anything that was available. Sixteen Parisian bakers were caught putting hog dung and wine dregs
in their loaves. They were placed on punishment wheels in public squares
and forced to hold fragments of the rotten bread in their hands. People
went days without eating and assuaged hunger pangs by eating leaves,
roots, and the occasional fish taken from a stream. Even King Edward II of
England had trouble finding bread for his court. Famine was often more severe in cities and towns than in the countryside, with widespread diarrhea
and lethargy resulting from "strange diets." The hungry suffered greatly
from the intense winter cold. There had not been so many deaths from disease or such instability in towns within living memory. Robbery with assault became commonplace as thieves stole anything that could be eaten or
sold for food, be it hay, timber, or church roof lead. Piracy flourished as
desperate locals preyed on fishing boats and grain vessels.
Grave robbing had always been a fact of life,
that were 15 to 20 percent lower than normal. Northern Europe generally experienced comparable shortfalls.
Salt and wine production plummeted. Downy mildew attacked French
grapes, so vines never reached their proper maturity and "there was a
great failure of wine in the whole kingdom of France." Chroniclers complained of shortages and harsh taste. The vineyards of Neustadt in Germany were hard hit: 1316, "a trifling quantity of wine"; 1317, "very little
wine." That of 1319 was "sour," while the cold in 1323 was so extreme
that the root stocks died. Not until 1328, six years after the famine
ended, was there "very much and exceptionally good wine."8
The weather attacked not only crops but animals. Just feeding them in
winter became a serious headache. The fields were so damp that, even if
hay could be mowed, the crops could not dry in the open. Stored in a
barn, uncured hay rots, builds up heat and methane gas, and can burst
into flames unless turned regularly. What drying ovens and kilns were
available were used to dry unripened grain for human consumption. The
worst for animals came later in the famine years. The bitterly cold winter
of 1317/18 used up the already depleted fodder stocks. When these ran
out, farmers had to turn their animals out to forage for themselves in
short-lived warmer spells. Thousands of head starved or froze to death in
their pastures. Sheep suffered especially badly from the cold, for prolonged
snow and frost early in the year make lambing a risky proposition. The
raw summer brought virulent rinderpest, which attacked cattle with diarrhea, dehydration, and intestinal failure. Thousands of putrefying carcasses were burnt or buried in mass graves. A parasitic worm infection
called liver fluke reduced sheep and goat flocks by as much as 70 percent
in some places.
"The great dying of beasts" continued into the early 1320s, bringing severe shortages not only of livestock but of manure for the fields. The impact was felt immediately. Oxen and horses lay at the heart of the rural
economy, the former used extensively for plowing. Teams of oxen, often
owned jointly by several families, plowed heavier soils for entire communi ties and were heavily used by medieval manors. Inevitably, the stock shortage translated into fewer hectares plowed, abandoned fields, and lower
crop yields. Only pigs were relatively unaffected. Fast-breeding swine were
abundant until the shortfall in bread, beef, and mutton caused people to
increase the amount of pork in their diet and herds were decimated.
In the towns, the urban poor ate less bread. Wrote a Flemish observer in
1316: "The people were in such great need that it cannot be expressed. For
the cries that were heard from the poor would move a stone, as they lay in
the street with woe and great complain, swollen with hunger."9 In Flanders,
bread was no longer made from wheat but from anything that was available. Sixteen Parisian bakers were caught putting hog dung and wine dregs
in their loaves. They were placed on punishment wheels in public squares
and forced to hold fragments of the rotten bread in their hands. People
went days without eating and assuaged hunger pangs by eating leaves,
roots, and the occasional fish taken from a stream. Even King Edward II of
England had trouble finding bread for his court. Famine was often more severe in cities and towns than in the countryside, with widespread diarrhea
and lethargy resulting from "strange diets." The hungry suffered greatly
from the intense winter cold. There had not been so many deaths from disease or such instability in towns within living memory. Robbery with assault became commonplace as thieves stole anything that could be eaten or
sold for food, be it hay, timber, or church roof lead. Piracy flourished as
desperate locals preyed on fishing boats and grain vessels.
Grave robbing had always been a fact of life,
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