Feudalism during the Black Death period

¶ … Black Death affected feudalism in the Middle Ages. The Black Death began in 1347 and rapidly spread across Europe. After the plague ended nearly three years later, it had decimated the population, and many historians argue that the Black Death helped end the practice of feudalism.

The Black Death was actually the bubonic plague, a deadly disease that landed in Sicily in 1347 and spread out across Europe. It lasted nearly three years, and some estimates indicate it killed at least 35 million people (Backman 2003, 375). When the plague started, feudalism was still flourishing, but after the Black Death, feudalism began to decline, due largely to the aftereffects of the Black Death, and this was a major historical occurrence. Author Backman states, "The fourteenth century, with all its agonies, was probably the period of the most intense and painful evolution from the medieval to the modern world" (Backman 2003, 369). Feudalism was no longer a sound economic or social practice, and ending it brought Europe closer to the modern world.

The economic fall-out was extreme. Author Backman continues, "The sheer number of fatalities, and the concomitant fear of contact with any others, destroyed agricultural and industrial production and severed trade and distribution networks" (Backman 2003, 377). Entire villages were wiped out, and it spread even more quickly in the crowded cities. People could not work the land of their lords, they could not conduct their businesses, and they could not sell their wares. They were afraid to go out in the streets, and their homes were quarantined if they were found to have the disease, so just about all commerce stopped, trade was halted, and the economy ground to a standstill, literally for three years.

After the Black Plague left the area, the surviving workers knew they were at a premium. They asked for higher wages since there were so few of them, and there were not enough goods to go around, so they commanded higher prices. This led to increases in prices and wages, and led to inflation in many areas. The peasants working for the lords in the country started to ask for lower rents from their masters, because there were so few of them left, they knew the lords would depend on them even more heavily to get agriculture going again. Another writer notes, " "They perhaps go as far back as the period following the Black Death which had significantly loosened the ties of feudalism and created a class of wandering agricultural labourers who were much in demand" (Walsh 2000, 231). This shows how agriculture, and ultimately feudalism was leading to great changes. However, so many people had died that not nearly as much food was needed, and food prices dropped, which hurt the farmers.

Trade started to flourish again with some advances in transportation, and that brought more trade throughout Europe. It also created more jobs in the cities, and many farmers simply left the country to work for better wages in the cities. Landlords also changed the way they did business. Another historian notes, "So landlords in England began to convert land which was traditionally held by the peasants in common into enclosed property upon which sheep would be raised. And the raising of sheep, though lucrative, is not a labor-intensive proposition" (Kreis 2006). In addition, land sales increased after the epidemic ended. Another author notes, "Subsequently, the rate and scale of sales in land increased, but it was not until the fifteenth century that a division between yeomen and agricultural labourers became apparent, culminating in the emergence of capitalist farming during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries" (Layton 1995). The entire face of Europe was changing, both economically and socially.

The Black Death led to changes in lifestyle and society, too. For example, before the epidemic, young men tended to marry later, while young women tended to marry earlier. After the plague, women tended to be closer to their husband's age (Backman 2003, 380). The peasants were not as plentiful, so they could charge more wages, and the lord would or could not pay them, so feudalism started to dissolve. Another author notes, "Landowners could no longer force the landless to work for them for free under the bonds of feudalism -- the shortage of labor was such that the peasants could go elsewhere to get paid real wages" (Browne 2002). As feudalism altered, it changed many other aspects of change and social standing. A historian notes, "As you move away from feudalism, the lord stops eating with everybody and goes to a private chamber and eats with his family, creating the beginnings of family life as opposed to courtly life. And houses change to reflect that the halls shrink and eventually disappear" (Sargent 2007, 114). There were slightly greater opportunities for women after the epidemic, too. There was such a shortage of labor; many women began working, mostly in the textile and beer brewing areas. Therefore, everything from the size of housing, to family life also altered after the plague, and eventually that would lead society from feudalism to capitalism, one of the biggest changes of all.

Because of the Black Death, the prices of goods were higher and food prices lower, the nobles were making less money. They wanted sanctions from the government to fix prices and increase their profits. Around Europe, the governments complied, and peasant revolts began to take place. Author Backman states, "All across northern Europe, peasants were resentful that what they had hoped would be their gain from the epidemic -- decreased rents for tenants and increased wages for rural laborers -- turned instead into increased dependence on the landlords" (Backman 2003, 379). As word of the revolts spread, more peasants began to demand their rights, and one of the largest revolts, called the English Peasant Revolt of 1381, showed that feudalism was a dying cause.