Capitolo

Social Inequalities and the Great Famine in the County of Flanders (1315-7)

  • Mathijs Speecke
  • Thijs Lambrecht

The Great Famine of 1315-7 is one of the key moments in the social and economic history of Northern Europe during the late Middle Ages. The adverse weather conditions of 1315-6 combined with high demographic pressures resulted in extreme poverty, famine and ultimately crisis mortality. In this paper we focus on the impact of these events in the Low Countries and the county of Flanders in particular. The aim of our paper is twofold. In the first part, we present new data about the effects of the adverse weather conditions of 1315 on agricultural output and food prices. Our data indicate that Flanders was particularly vulnerable to food shortages and famine due to its reliance on grain import from neighbouring regions. The second part focuses on the socially differentiated impact of the famine. Whereas large farms were able to secure enormous profits due to high food prices, smallholders were forced to sell their holdings to survive.

  • Keywords:
  • Middle Ages,
  • 14th century,
  • Flanders,
  • peasants,
  • Great Famine,
  • inequality,
+ Mostra di più

Mathijs Speecke

Ghent University, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0001-7094-0231

Thijs Lambrecht

Ghent University, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0001-5587-5128

  1. Albini, Giuliana. “Carestie in area lombarda tra fine Duecento e metà Trecento. Uno sguardo attraverso le cronache coeve.” In La congiuntura del primo Trecento in Lombardia (1290-1360), a cura di Paolo Grillo, e François Menant, 171-207 (Collection de l’École française de Rome, 555). Rome: École française de Rome, 2019 DOI: 10.4000/books.efr.37555
  2. Arnoux, Mathieu. “Famines, blés marocains, marins génois et pirates français à Sandwich (1316-1318).” Dans Orbis disciplinae : hommages en l’honneur de Patrick Gautier Dalché, éd. par Nathalie Bouloux, Anca Dan, et Giorgos Tolias, 509-26. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017
  3. Augustijn, Beatrijs, Hans Rombaut, en Maurice Vandermaesen. Bronnen voor de agrarische geschiedenis van het middeleeuwse graafschap Vlaanderen, vol. 2. Gent: Belgisch centrum voor landelijke geschiedenis, 1990
  4. Baek, Seung H., Jason E. Smerdon, George-Costin Dobrin, Jacob G. Naimark, Edward R. Cook, Benjamin I. Cook, Richard Seager, Mark A. Cane, and Serena R. Scholz. “A Quantitative Hydroclimatic Context for the European Great Famine of 1315–1317.” Communications Earth & Environment 19, no. 1 (2020): 1-7 DOI: 10.1038/s43247-020-00016-3
  5. Bourin, Monique, et François Menant. “Les disettes dans la conjoncture de 1300 en Méditerranée occidentale.” Dans Les disettes dans la conjoncture de 1300 en Méditerranée occidentale, éd. par Monique Bourin, John Drendel, et François Menant, 9-33 (Collection de l’École française de Rome, 450). Rome: École française de Rome, 2011 DOI: 10.1400/187646
  6. Bruns, Friedrich, ed. Die Chroniken der niedersächsischen Städte. Lübeck, vol. 2 (Die Chroniken der deutschen Städte vom 14. bis ins 16. Jahrhundert, 26). Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1899
  7. Campbell, Bruce M.S. The Great Transition: Climate, Disease and Society in the Late-Medieval World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139031110
  8. Coornaert, Émile. La draperie-sayetterie d’Hondschoote (XIVe-XVIIIe siècles) : un centre industriel d’autrefois. Paris: Les presses universitaires de France, 1930
  9. Curschmann, Fritz. Hungersnöte im Mittelalter. Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Wirtschaftsgeschichte des 8. bis 13. Jahrhunderts (Leipziger Studien aus dem Gebiet der Geschichte, band 6,1). Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1900
  10. de Laurière, Eusèbe, éd. Ordonnances des roys de France de la troisième race, vol. 1. Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1723
  11. Dekker, Cornelis, en Jaap G. Kruisheer. “Een rekening van de abdij Ter Doest over het jaar 1315.” Bulletin de la Commission Royale d’Histoire 133 (1967): 273-306 DOI: 10.3406/bcrh.1967.1505
  12. Derville, Alain. L’agriculture du Nord au Moyen Âge. Artois, Cambrésis, Flandre wallonne. Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 1999
  13. Des Marez, Guillaume, et Emile De Sagher, éd. Comptes de la ville d’Ypres de 1267 à 1329, 2 vol. Brussels: Kiessling et Imbreghts, 1909-13
  14. Dhérent, Catherine. “Maladies et mortalités à Douai au XIVe siècle.” In Santé, médecine et assistance au Moyen Âge. Actes du 110e Congrès national des Sociétés savantes, Montpellier, 1985. Section d'histoire médiévale et de philologie, vol. 1: 81-92. Paris: Éditions du C.T.H.S., 1987
  15. Dyer, Christopher. “Did the rich really help the poor in medieval England ?” En Ricos y pobres: opulencia y desarraigo en el Occidente medieval. Actas de la XXXVI Semana de Estudios Medievales de Estella, 20 al 24 de julio de 2009, 307-322. Pamplona: Gobierno de Navarra, 2010
  16. Freedman, Paul. “Rural Society.” In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 6, c. 1300-c. 1415, ed. by Michael Jones, 82-101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000 DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521362900.006
  17. Geens, Sam. “The Great Famine in the County of Flanders (1315-17): The Complex Interaction between Weather, Warfare, and Property Rights.” Economic History Review 71, no. 4 (2018): 1048-72 DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12605
  18. Gilliodts Van Severen, Louis. Coutumes des pays et comté de Flandre. Quartier de Bruges, vol. 1. Brussels: Fr. Gobbaerts, 1874
  19. Gilliodts Van Severen, Louis. Coutumes des pays et comté de Flandre. Quartier de Furnes, vol. 3. Brussels: Fr. Gobbaerts, 1897
  20. Heebøll-Holm, Thomas Kristian. Ports, Piracy, and Maritime War: Piracy in the English Channel and the Atlantic, c. 1280-c. 1330 (Medieval Law and Its Practice, 15). Leiden: Brill, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/9789004248168
  21. Jordan, William C. The Great Famine. Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, 1996
  22. Kershaw, Ian. “The Great Famine and Agrarian Crisis in England 1315-1322.” Past and Present 59 (1973): 3-50 DOI: 10.1093/past/59.1.3
  23. Lambrecht, Thijs. “Si Grant Inégalité?: Town, Countryside and Taxation in Flanders, c. 1350 – c. 1500.” In Inequality and the City in the Low Countries (1200-2020), ed. by Bruno Blondé, Sam Geens, Hilde Greefs, Wouter Ryckbosch, Tim Soens, and Peter Stabel, 153-67 (Studies in European Urban History (1100-1800), 50). Turnhout: Brepols, 2020 DOI: 10.1484/M.SEUH-EB.5.120443
  24. Lucas, Henry Stephen. “The Great European Famine of 1315, 1316 and 1317.” Speculum 5, no. 4 (1930): 343-77 DOI: 10.2307/2848143
  25. Lyon, Bryce. “Medieval Real Estate Developments and Freedom.” American Historical Review 63, no. 1 (1957): 47-61 DOI: 10.2307/1847111
  26. Maréchal, Griet. “Het hospitaalwezen te Brugge in de middeleeuwen. Een institutionele en sociale studie.” PhD thesis, Ghent University, 1974
  27. Meeus, Willem. “De ‘Rymkronyk van Vlaenderen’. Een editie en inhoudelijke studie van een korte rijmkroniek.” MA thesis, Ghent University, 2012
  28. Mertens, Jacques. “Les confiscations dans la Châtellenie du Franc de Bruges après la bataille de Cassel.” Bulletin de la Commission Royale d’Histoire 134, no. 3-4 (1968): 239-84 DOI: 10.3406/bcrh.1968.1512
  29. Mertens, Jacques. “Enkele grote Vlaamse hoeven in de eerste helft van de veertiende eeuw.” Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis te Brugge 130 (1993): 45-60 DOI: 10.21825/hvgg.v130i1-2.4576
  30. Mertens, Jacques, and Adriaan Verhulst. “Yield-Ratios in Flanders in the Fourteenth Century.” Economic History Review 19, no. 1 (1966): 175-82 DOI: 10.2307/2592798
  31. Newfield, Timothy P. “A Cattle Panzootic in Early Fourteenth-Century Europe.” Agricultural History Review 57, no. 2 (2009): 155-90 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/25684194>
  32. Peeters, Jean Paul. “Het financiëel-economisch profiel van de stad Mechelen tussen 1311 en 1336.” Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen 97 (1993): 55-123
  33. Pirenne, Henri. Le soulèvement de la Flandre Maritime de 1323-1328 (Commission royale d’histoire. Publications in-octavo, 22). Brussels: Kiessling, 1900
  34. Schofield, Philipp. “Wales and the Great Famine of the Early Fourteenth Century.” Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru | Welsh History Review 29, no. 2 (2018): 143-67 DOI: 10.16922/whr.29.2.1
  35. Schoutteten, Koen. “Het Sint-Janshospitaal te Brugge : een domeinstudie, eind 13de – begin 14de eeuw.” MA thesis, Ghent University, 2003
  36. Slavin, Philip. Experiencing Famine in Fourteenth-Century Britain (Environmental Histories of the North Atlantic World, 4). Turnhout: Brepols, 2019
  37. Slavin, Philip. “The Great Bovine Pestilence and Its Economic and Environmental Consequences in England and Wales, 1318-50.” Economic History Review 65, no. 4 (2012): 1239-66 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00625.x
  38. Sneller, Zeger W., en Willem Sybrand Unger. Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van den handel met Frankrijk, vol. 1 (Rijks geschiedkundige publicatiën. Grote Serie, 70). Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1930
  39. Soens, Tim. “Floods and Money: Funding Drainage and Flood Control in Coastal Flanders from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries.” Continuity and Change 26, no. 3 (2011): 333-65 DOI: 10.1017/S0268416011000221
  40. Soens, Tim. De spade in de dijk? Waterbeheer en rurale samenleving in de Vlaamse kustvlakte (1280-1580). Gent: Academia Press, 2009
  41. Soens, Tim. “Waterbeheer in een veranderende samenleving. Een ecologische, sociaal-economische en politiek-institutionele studie van de wateringen in het Vlaamse kustgebied in de overgang van de middeleeuwen naar de moderne tijden. Testregio: het Brugse Vrije.” PhD thesis, Ghent University, 2006
  42. Soens, Tim, and Erik Thoen. “The Origins of Leasehold in the Former County of Flanders.” In The Development of Leasehold in North-Western Europe, c. 1200 - 1600, ed. by Bas van Bavel, and Philip Schofield, 31-55 (Comparative Rural History of the North Sea Area, 10). Turnhout: Brepols, 2008 DOI: 10.1484/M.CORN-EB.3.313
  43. Speecke, Mathijs. “‘Isti ponerentur in officio scabinatus’: Brugge en het stadsbestuur onder graaf Robrecht van Bethune (1305-1322).” Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis te Brugge 156, no. 1 (2019): 3-49
  44. Speecke, Mathijs, en Thijs Lambrecht. “De nominatieve belastinglijsten van 1304 in het Rijksarchief Gent: reconstructie van een fiscaal-administratief dossier,” forthcoming
  45. TeBrake, William H. A Plague of Insurrection: Popular Politics and Peasant Revolt in Flanders 1323-1328. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993
  46. Thoen, Erik. “Technique agricole, cultures nouvelles et économie rurale en Flandre au Bas Moyen Age.” In Plantes et cultures nouvelles en Europe occidentale au Moyen Âge et à l’époque moderne, 51-68 (Flaran, 12). Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Midi, 1992 DOI: 10.4000/books.pumi.23022
  47. Van Werveke, Hans. “La famine de l’an 1316 en Flandre et dans les régions voisines.” Revue du Nord 41, no. 161 (1959): 5-14 DOI: 10.3406/rnord.1959.2324
  48. Vandenbroeke, Christiaan. Sociale geschiedenis van het Vlaamse volk. Beveren: Orion, 1981
  49. Verhulst, Adriaan. “Die Binnenkolonisation und die Anfänge der Landgemeinde in Seeflandern.” In Die Anfänge der Landgemeinde und ihr Wesen, vol. I. Vortrage und Forschungen 7 (1964): 447-6 DOI: 10.11588/vuf.1986.0.15224
  50. Vervaet, Lies. “Goederenbeheer in een veranderende samenleving. Het Sint-Janshospitaal van Brugge ca. 1275- ca. 1575.” PhD thesis, Ghent University, 2014
  51. Vleeschouwers, Cyriel. De oorkonden van de Sint-Baafsabdij te Gent (819-1321), vol. 2, Uitgave. Brussels: Paleis der Academieën, 1990
  52. Wyffels, Carlos, en André Vandewalle, red. De Rekeningen van de stad Brugge, 1280-1319, 2, 1302-1319, t. 2. Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1995-7
PDF
  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2025
  • Pagine: 223-247

XML
  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2025

Informazioni sul capitolo

Titolo del capitolo

Social Inequalities and the Great Famine in the County of Flanders (1315-7)

Autori

Mathijs Speecke, Thijs Lambrecht

Lingua

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8.12

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Anno di pubblicazione

2025

Copyright

© 2025 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Informazioni bibliografiche

Titolo del libro

Socio-Economic Inequalities during the Conjuncture of the Fourteenth Century

Sottotitolo del libro

Sources and Methods, Dynamics and Representations (Italy and Europe, c. 1270 - c. 1350)

Curatori

Davide Cristoferi

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Numero di pagine

458

Anno di pubblicazione

2025

Copyright

© 2025 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Editore

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0699-0

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0705-8

eISBN (xml)

979-12-215-0707-2

Collana

Reti Medievali E-Book

ISSN della collana

2704-6362

e-ISSN della collana

2704-6079

0

Download dei libri

0

Visualizzazioni

Salva la citazione

1.410

Libri in accesso aperto

in catalogo

2.682

Capitoli di Libri

4.459.874

Download dei libri

5.064

Autori

da 1080 Istituzioni e centri di ricerca

di 66 Nazioni

71

scientific boards

da 381 Istituzioni e centri di ricerca

di 43 Nazioni

1.311

I referee

da 402 Istituzioni e centri di ricerca

di 38 Nazioni