The Black Death: The Hundred Year's War

It was the Spring of 1348, and the citizens of Europe were malnourished due to limited food supplies for such a large population. This made them more susceptible to the outbreak of the Black Death. The Black Death originated in Asia, then moved westward into Sicily. From Sicily, the plague crept its way up through Europe infecting millions of people, in total killing more than one third of Europe’s population. In fact, over fifty percent of the population of Siena died, along with fifty percent of Paris, eighty percent of Florence, and over two thirds of Venice. The Black Death caused people to question authority, which led to the breakdown of the political, economic, and religious spheres of traditional society in Europe and the introduction

The Black Death created armistices during the Hundred Year’s War. The Hundred Year’s War started over a dispute between England and France about who would take the throne in France. The result of the dispute was occasional warfare between England and France. Henry Knighton, an anachronistic of this time, provided a first hand account of the Black Death. Knighton talked about how over 5,000 Scots passed away in Selkirk Forest while they waited to attack the realm of England. This was because the Black Death had no boundaries. It did not care if a person was an insignificant peasant or a renowned noble, it killed almost everybody that it infected. This caused an enormous number of sick and weak soldiers. The toll of warfare and death threatened the welfare of these nations involved in the war, so the war subsided for a period of time. In summary, the Black Death affected political aspects of Europe because it altered the plans of the Kings who wanted to conquer more land, and make more money for themselves and their nobility. The politics in Europe were not the only area affected by the Black

John Ball was a priest who often spent his Sunday’s out in cloisters or a graveyard preaching that peasants and serfs deserved equality. He often was jailed for expressing his radical views that opposed the views held by the Archbishop of Canterbury. A person like John Ball was a threat to the nobility and royalty in these times. The nobles and royalty did not want thoughts of equality and an explanation for why there should be equality planted into the heads of the serfs and peasants. The upper class wanted to keep their wealth and power, not share it with those who they viewed as unsuitable to live a lavish lifestyle. John Ball often preached that, “If we all spring from a single father and mother, Adam and Eve, how can they claim or prove that they are lords more than us, except by making us produce and grow the wealth which they spend?” Being a priest, phrases such as the one above made the serfs and peasants believe that if God truly did make everybody equal, then why were they not share the wealth and have the same opportunities. The concerns of the peasants resulted in a revolt. After a brief amount of time, the nobles finally put a stop to the Peasant Revolt. The result of the revolt: the breakdown of serfdom. Economically, some former serfs and peasants could finally have their own form of prosperity because they had the ability to work for wages. The Black Death death helped