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The end of the High Middle Ages was a gradual process that unfolded over the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, with a series of crises that transformed the conditions of European life. The end of the High Middle Ages is conventionally placed in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, marked by the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death of 1347. The causes of the end of the High Middle Ages are complex and interrelated, and they include demographic, economic, climatic, political, religious, and cultural factors. Understanding these causes is essential for understanding the transition to the Late Middle Ages and the origins of the early modern world.
Thomas Bisson, “The Crisis of the Twelfth Century” (2009), argues that the structural crisis of the period is already visible by 1180, well before the demographic and climatic crises of the early fourteenth century. B. M. S. Campbell, “Before the Black Death” (1991), and William Chester Jordan, “The Great Famine” (1996), make the more conventional case that the period “ends” with the subsistence and demographic crises of 1315–1349.
Demographic Factors
The demographic expansion that had characterized the High Middle Ages came to an end in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The population of Europe had been growing steadily since the late tenth century, but by the late thirteenth century, the limits of available land were being reached. The exhaustion of the most accessible new lands for settlement, the decline in the productivity of the soil, and the decrease in real wages (as population growth outstripped the supply of land) all contributed to the demographic crisis of the late medieval period.
The Great Famine of 1315–1317, caused by a series of exceptionally wet and cold summers, was the first major crisis of the period. The famine struck across Europe, from Ireland and England to northern Italy and from Spain to Scandinavia, and it produced widespread starvation and death. The famine was followed by a series of epidemics — the sheep scab epizootic, the bovine murrain, and the murrain of fish — that further damaged the food supply. The Black Death of 1347, which killed perhaps a third of Europe’s population, was the most catastrophic event of the Late Middle Ages.
Climatic Factors
The climatic downturn of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries was a major factor in the end of the period. The Medieval Warm Period (c. 950–1250) had produced milder winters, longer growing seasons, and more reliable harvests than the centuries before or after. By the late thirteenth century, however, the climate was cooling and becoming more variable, and the agricultural productivity of Europe was beginning to decline.
The climatic downturn was associated with a number of factors, including the increased volcanic activity of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the decreased solar activity of the period (the Wolf Minimum of solar activity, c. 1280–1350), and the changes in ocean circulation that accompanied the cooling. The climatic downturn contributed to the agricultural crisis of the period, and it prepared the way for the demographic and economic catastrophes of the Late Middle Ages.
Economic Factors
The economic expansion of the High Middle Ages was also coming to an end in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The growth of population had stimulated the demand for manufactured goods and the expansion of trade, but it had also stressed the resources of the land and the labor market. The decline in real wages that began in the late thirteenth century made it more difficult for the peasantry to support themselves, and the increased taxation by the kings and lords of the period further reduced the resources of the peasantry.
The commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages also faced limits in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The markets for luxury goods were saturated, and the competition for markets was increasing. The Italian banking houses suffered a major crisis in the 1340s, with the failure of the Bardi and the Peruzzi in 1345–1346. The decline of the Hanseatic League in the fifteenth century was another sign of the changing economic conditions of the period.
Political Factors
The political crises of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries were another major factor in the end of the period. The struggle between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France in 1302–1303 was a major confrontation that weakened the papacy and strengthened the royal monarchy. The Babylonian Captivity of the papacy at Avignon (1309–1377) was a major crisis of the Church that lasted for nearly seventy years. The Great Schism of the Western Church (1378–1417) was a major crisis that lasted for nearly forty years and that further weakened the papacy.
The Hundred Years’ War between England and France (1337–1453) was a major conflict that lasted for more than a century and that devastated much of France. The war was accompanied by a series of epidemics, famines, and social upheavals that further weakened the European population and economy. The war also contributed to the rise of national identity in England and France, and it helped to shape the political development of both kingdoms in the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period.
Religious and Cultural Factors
The religious and cultural crises of the late medieval period were another major factor in the end of the period. The Great Schism and the Babylonian Captivity of the papacy weakened the institutional Church and encouraged the rise of heretical and reform movements. The Lollard movement in England, the Hussite movement in Bohemia, and the Conciliar movement of the late medieval Church were all signs of the religious crisis of the period.
The cultural crises of the late medieval period included the decline of the scholastic tradition, the rise of humanism, and the emergence of the Renaissance. The decline of the scholastic tradition was associated with the critique of the Aristotelian synthesis by William of Ockham and his followers, and the rise of humanism was associated with the recovery of the classical tradition and the development of a new approach to learning. The emergence of the Renaissance was a major cultural transformation that began in Italy in the fourteenth century and that spread across Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Sources
Principal sources used in this article:
- Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (Toronto, 2014), ch. 10.
Further reading:
- Thomas N. Bisson, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century (Princeton, 2009), “Epilogue.”
For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).