Society and Population
Introduction
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| The Ship of Fools, by Hieronymous Bosch |
There are all sorts of topics encompassed by the heading of "social history" and your textbooks try to touch on most of the bases. I wish to draw your attention to two topics in particular: the series of demographic crises that struck Europe from the early 14th century onward, and a consideration of social hiearchy and social groupings.
The Demographic Crisis
The most significant socio-economic event of the late Middle Ages was without doubt the advent of the Black Death in 1347. It killed roughly one out of three people, moving through Europe like a scythe in the space of less than five years. More important historically, the plague returned with devastating frequency over the next three centuries. Over the span of our course (up to 1500), populations failed to reach their pre-plague levels. The effects of the advent and especially the recurrence of the plague were profound.
The population growth of the High Middle Ages (1050-1300) were already over by 1347, however. Famine was striking more and more frequently. Arable land was getting scarce. Trade routes with the East were being disrupted. The growth of cities was beginning to have a significant impact on rural society. All of these factors combined to make Europe far more vulnerable to an epidemic in 1347 than it would have been in 1247 or 1147.
The really significant thing about the Black Death, though, isn't the extent of population loss between 1347 and 1352, but the chilling fact that it returned over and over again for another three hundred years. With less impact on Europe as a whole, certainly, but it nevertheless struck more localized populations with equal or even worse severity. The effects can be seen everything, though their extent and import are much debated among historians.
Even so, there was nothing of greater impact on the society of Europe during our course that the combined impact of climate change and epidemic.
Status and Position
The second topic concerns social hierarchy and forms of social organization. This is fundamental to understanding not only late medieval society, but its politics, art, politics, and even its economics. There are many misconceptions on this topic, mostly stemming from two incorrect assumptions: that medieval society was not fluid, and that it was strongly hierarchical. Closely related to these perceptions is that medieval society was rigid and unchanging over time.
None of that is true. Our textbooks directly address these topics and will start you on your way to an understanding of the richness and diversity of medieval society, so I won't belabor the point here. The central point I wish to make in this Introduction is that there were multiple layers or lines of social organization (for example, family, neighborhood, parish, guild or brotherhood, citizenship, etc.), and that to the neglect of any of these yields a caricature, not a picture.
Other Comments
The title of this course is "Late Middle Ages" and the next course in the catalog no longer has "Middle Ages" in its title. It will therefore be worth asking here and in all our sections: what ended? To answer this question fully you will need to take the Reformation and early modern courses we offer, so you can compare the two eras, but there is no doubt that change was afoot, in the social arena as well as in the political or economic arena. As you work through the readings, ask yourself this question from time to time. Perhaps by the end of the course, you may be able to formulate some answers.