The Past and Present Society

The Great Famine and Agrarian Crisis in England 1315-1322 Author(s): Ian Kershaw Source: Past & Present, No. 59 (May, 1973), pp. 3-50 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/650378 Accessed: 08/06/2009 22:52 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Oxford University Press and The Past and Present Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Past & Present.

http://www.jstor.org

THE GREAT FAMINE AND AGRARIAN CRISIS IN ENGLAND 1315-1322* THE EXPANSION OF THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIESIS A

commonplaceof economichistory. Substaniialpopulationgrowth broughtrisinglandvalues,risingcorn prices,and fallingrealwages. Pressureon the land led to a considerableextensionof the areaof culiivaiion as woodland,fen and waste were reclaimedfor the plough. With a populationof possiblymore than five millionsby the turn of the fourteenthcentury,the countrysideof Englandmay have been as full as at any time before the eighteenthcentury.1 Equallycommonplaceis the contractionof the later middleages as thesetrendswereall reversed. In an eraof fallingpopulation,wages rose as corn pricesa$d land valuesdwindled. Arabledroppedout of use, much of it never againto be tilled, tenementsfell vacant, villages were deserted,and encroachingwoodlandsin some areas took partialrevengefor the earliervictoryof the plough.2 If all this seemsclear,the reasonsfor the reversalof the population riseandeconomicexpansionandthe dateof the crucialturning-point are anythingbut self-evident. It once seemed obvious:the Black Death of I348-9 was the clear divider between expansionand contraction,a freakepidemicwhich cut the populationby at least a third. Butsincethe lastwareconomichistoriansin WesternEurope, notablyin EnglandProfessorM. M. Postan,havecometo arguethat the seedsof the populaiiondeclineandagrariancontractionareto be found in the very periodof expansion,that this expansionhad the makingsof its own nemesis. The plough was forcedto take over poor, marginalsoils which after a while brought diminishing returns; and as the very limits of cultivationwere reached,the colonizationof new landmoreor less peteredout. Yet all this while populationhadbeengrowingandthe poverty-stricken ruralproletariat of landlessand near-landlessincreasingits numbers. By the early fourteenthcenturypopulationhad outgrownresources;Englandhad * I have benefited greatly from the comments and suggestions of Dr. J. R. Maddicott and Miss B. F. Harvey while preparingthis paper. I am also most grateful to Dr. D. L. Farmer and to Dr. J. Z. Titow for allowing me to make use of their theses and other unpublishedmaterial. 1 Cf. M. M. Postan in The CambridgeEconomicHistory of Europe,vol. i, 2nd edn. (Cambridge,I966)) pp. 56I-2, 570. 2 Cf. esp. M. M. Postan, "Some Economic Evidence of Declining Population in the LaterMiddle Ages", Econ.Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., ii (I949-50), pp. 22I-46.

4

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

too manymouthsto feed. "In these conditions",wrotePostan,"a fortuitouscombinationof adverseevents, such as the successionof bad seasonsin the second decade of the fourteenthcentury,was sufficientto reversethe entiretrendof agricultural productionandto send the populationISgurestumbling down".3 In other words, a Malthusiancheckhas been substitutedfor a pestileniialfreak;the famineand agrariancrisisof I3I5-22 replacesthe BlackDeath,now reducedto anaccelerantof existingtrends,as the mainturning-point. This thesis has not gone unchallenged. ProfessorJ. C. Russell arguedrecentlythat Englandwas a prosperouscountryin all but the worstyearsof the earlyfourteenthcenturyand that demographically the famineandconcurrentepidemicdiseasewerenot sufficientto have madeany significantimpacton the populationtrend.4 Anotherdissenting argumentcame about the same time from Miss Barbara Harvey,who based her case on land valuesand the topographyof settlement. She arguedthatlandvaluesdid not generallyfall before the BlackDeath; that land was siill cominginto culiivationin the earlyfourteenthcentury;and,discardingthe theoryof soilexhaustion, that there were relativelyfew cases of land vacancies-and these occurringboth on and of marginalland. She concludedthat there is no evidencethatthe famineinaugurated a long-termdeclinein the populationtrend,whichremainedfairlystablein the decadesbefore the greatplague.5 In so far as her attackwaslevelledat the claimthatthe population figureswere "tumblingdown",Miss Harveymadeher point. But the questionof whetherthe famineyearsformedthe turning-pointin ending the previous economic expansionand populaiiongrowth remainsunanswered. Postaninsistedthathis casewasno morethan "a workinghypothesisand a pretextfor publicdebate",6yet in the midstof all this speculationaboutdemographic andeconomictrends of the earlyfourteenthcentury,much of it centringon the agrarian crisisof the seconddecade,a surprisingfactis thatso littleis knownof the crisisitself its scale,severity,andimmediateeffects. Weknow hardlyanythingother than what the chroniclestell us. This has encouragedme to look in some detailat the famineyearsthemselves in the context of social and economicdevelopmentsof the early 3 M. M. Postan, "Histoire economique: Moyen Age", IXe CongresInternationaldes SKiencesHistoriques,i, Rapports(Paris, I950), p. 235. 4J. C. Russell, "The Pre-Plague Population of England", 1. of British Studies,v (I966), pp. I-2I. 6 B. F. Harvey,"The PopulationTrend in Englandbetween I300 and I348", Trans.Roy. Hist. Soc., sth ser., xvi (I966), pp. 23-42. 6 Postan, Rapports,p. 24I.

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

5

fourteenth century. How severe was the crisis? What were its immediate effects? Was it serious enough to provoke a long-term change in economic trends, to bring to an end the population rise or, still further, to begin a decline lasting to the precipitous fall of the Black Death? In sum, what is the evidence that the crisis of the second decade of the fourteenth century amounted to a turning-point of major significance in the social and economic trends of the middle ages? This paper offers no more than a preliininarydip irlto the evidence and a summary of first findings. Much regional and local analysis of social and economic trends in the early fourteenth century needs to be undertaken before a more balanced appraisal of this complex question can be attempted. My paper is also confined to England, though the great famine and agrariancrisis certainly afflicted a wide area of northern Europe.7 In one valuable regional study at least, of the Paris area, it was suggested that the turning-point in the economy did come in the famine period; it was from I3I5 that a conjunction of crises "werlt to usher in an era of contraction".8 However, little work has been done on the continent on the effects of the agrariarl crisis arld although it is now accepted orthodoxy that contraction in the agrarianecorlomyset in well before the Black Death,9 the varying chronology of this transition still awaits analysis. In the early parts of the paper I shall describe the nature of the agrarian crisis, paying particular attention to its chronology and to price fluctuaiions both of which were only superficiallydealt with by H. S. Lucas.l? Secondly, based on the evidence of manorial records, I shall discuss the scale of the crisis, followed by an assessment of its effects on landlords and on the peasantry. Finally, in a more speculative section, I intend to consider the role of the crisis in the early fourteenth-centuryeconomy and the guestion of whether it could have inaugurated a long-term contraction in the agrarian economy. and I3I7" I3I6, 7 Cf. H. S. Lucas, "The Great EuropeanFamine of I3I5, in E. M. Carus-Wilson(ed.), Essaysin EconomicHistory,vol. ii (London, I962), Curschmann, F. and (I930); v pp. 49-72, repr. from Speculum, There is no Hungersnoteim Mittelalter (Leipzig, I900), pp. 33, 208-I7. M-J. Larenaudie,"Les evidence of a famine in southernEurope in I3I5-I7: famines en Languedocaux XIVe et XVe siecles", Annalesdu Midi, lxiv (I952), P- 37 8 G.

Fourquin,Les Campagnesde la RegionParisiennea la Fin du MoyenAge (Paris, I964), p. I9I. 9 E.g. B. H. Slicher van Bath, The Agrarian History of WesternE2erope A.D. SOO-I850 (London, I963), pp. 87-go, I37; G. Duby, Rural Economyand CountryLife in the Medieval West (London, I968), pp. 306-8, 3I8-20. 10Lucas, Op. Cit.: the chronologyis not always clear and there is no real price analysis.

6

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

II During the early years of the fourteenth century England experiencedsubstantialprice inflation. The prices of livestock, dairyproduce,andmostotherfoodstuffsroseconsiderably fromabout I305, chieflyas a resultof currencydepreciation and the largeinflux of foreign silver coined into sterling.ll By the end of the first decadeof the fourteenthcenturymanypricesstoodas muchas 25 per cent higherthan at the time of the last recoinageof I299.12 Grain prices, more affectedby the qualityof the harvestthan by strictly monetaryfactors,followeda somewhatdifferentpattern. Afterthe high pricesof the mid-I2gosa seriesof favourableharvestsbrought relaiivelylowpricesfor overa decade,thoughthe harvestsof I308-I0 weresufficientlypoorto bring heavypriceincreasesand a situation approachinga dearthin some parts of the country. In Scotland, comingon top of the warfareand generaldistresswhich faced the country,a dearthhad alreadyreachedfamineproportionsby I3Io.l3 By I3I5 the price situaiionwas alreadyserious. Remintingthe coinage,which had proveda successfulexpedientin price control underEdwardI, wasnot attempted.l4 ButParliament,sittingin the Lent of I3I5, put pressureon the king to issue an ordinancefixing maximumpricesfor livestockandvictuals.l5 The priceswerefixed at levels only slightlylower than those prevailing,so the ordinance was apparentlyaimed at stabilizingratherthan reducingprices. No attemptwas madeto regulatecornprices,and clearlythis would have been utterly impossibleduring the extremescarcityof I3IS and after. In fact the harvestof I3I4, only garneredwith difflculty because of the wet conditions,l7was proving deficientand grain 11J. E. Thorold Rogers, A History of Agricultureand Prices in England, i (Oxford, I866), pp 344-5, 352, 357-8, 43I-2; D. L. Farmer,"An Examination of Price Fluctuationsin CertainArticles in the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and early FourteenthCenturies"(Universityof Oxford D.Phil. thesis, I958), pp. 36, 84, 97, I35-7; and his "Some Livestock Price Movements in Thirteenth Century England", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xxii (I969), pp. I2-I4; M. Prestwich "EdwardI's MonetaryPolicies and their Consequences",ibid.,pp. 4I2-I6. 2 Farmer, thesis ?. cit., p. 203. 3 Scotichronicon3rohannis deFordun,ed. T. Hearn(Oxford,I722), iV, p. I,005. 4 Farmer, "Livestock Prices", pp. I2-I3; thesis op. cit., p. 203. l6Rotuli Parliamentorum,i, p. 295; 3rohannisde Trokeloweet Henrici de BlanefordeChronicaet Annales,ed. H. T. Riley (Rolls Series, I866), pp. 88-go; Vita EdwardiSecundi,ed. N. Denholm-Young (London, I957), p. 59. 6 Farmer,thesis op. cit., p. 204. 17 Vita Edw. Sec., p. 64. The Westminsterversionof the FloresHistoriarum, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Ser., I890), iii, pp. I60-I, refers to very heavy rainfall in I3I4 but this almost certainlyshould refer to the followingyear. A number of chroniclersare very waywardin their chronology of the famine: e.g., the ChroniconIIenriciKnighton,ed. J. R. Lumby (Rolls Ser., I889), i, pp. 4II-I2, has the famine and dearth stretching from I3I7 tO I3I9 and the Eulogium Historiarum,ed. F. S. Haydon (Rolls Ser., I863), iii, p. I95, has I3I9 tO I32I.

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I 3 I 5-I 322

7

pricesrose sharplyin the summermonthsof I3I5, partlyno doubt in anticipationof the prospectsof the next harvest.l8 Manypeople mustalreadyhavebeen in seriousstraitsbeforethe full extentof the In the summerof dearthwasfelt in the firstfamineyearof I3I5-I6. of impendinggloombroughton by political I3I5, in an atmosphere troublesand the wretchedweatherwhichwas destroyingthe crops, the archbishopof Canterburyorderedthe clergyto performsolemn, barefootedprocessionsbearingthe Sacramentand relics, accompanied by the ringing of bells, chanting of the litany, and the celebrationof mass. This wasin the hopeof encouragingthe people to atonefortheirsinsandappeasethe wrathof Godby prayer,fasting, alms-giving,and othercharitableworks.l9 The harvestof I3I5 was a disaster. Chroniclersand manorial recordsconcurin attributingthe troubleto the torrentialrainwhich poured down throughoutthe summermonths of I3I5, producing widespreadfloodingandthe ruin of hay and corn cropsalike.20 It has been suggestedthat underlyingclimaticchanges,resultingin a long-termtrendtowardscoolerandwetterweather,beganaboutthis time and help to explainnot only the extremitiesof the famineyears but also the generaleconomicdepressionin westernEuropeduring the later middle ages.21 Unpredictableand extreme weather conditionswere certainlyexperiencedin the decadeI3I5-25, but it is neverthelessdifficult,from a comparisonof harvestqualitiesin Englandduringthe thirteenthandfourteenthcenturies,to agreewith the assertionthat the famineyearsmarkedthe onset of a long-term in the weather.22 deterioration 18Rogers, op. cit., i, pp. I96-7, 230, D. L. Farmer,"Some GrainPrice Movements in Thirteenth-CenturyEngland",Econ.Hist. Rav., 2nd ser., x (IgS7-8), p. 92. p. 212 Trokelo?ve, Appendixto 8tk Report(London, 188t) 19HzstoricalManllscriptsCommission: pt. I, pp. 352-3: I owe this referenceto Mr. P. S. Brown. Cf. also, "Annales I and EdwardII, ed. W. Stubbs of the Reignsof EdZward Paulini"in ChronicZes (Rolls Ser., I882), i, p. 278. p. 93; Chrons.of Edw. I and II, i, p. 278 20 Vita Edw. Sec., p. 64; Trokelowe, ChroniconAbbatiedLeParco Lude, ed. E. Venables (Lincs. Rec. Soc., I89I) ed. }3.A. Bond (Rolls Ser., I867), ii, p. 332 de Melsa, p. 24; ChronicaMonasterSi J. Z. Titow, "Evidence of Weather in the Account Rolls of the Bishopric of pp. 385-6. Winchester, I209-I350", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xii (I959-60), H. J. Hewitt, MedzevalCheshzre(Manchester,1929), pp. 32-4 has referencesto flooded meadows and a wet harvest in Frodshamin I3I5 (mistakenlygiven by Hewitt as I 3 I6). 21 G. Utterstrom, ;'ClimaticFluctuationsand PopulationProblems in Early Modern History", ScandinavianEcon.Hist. Rev., iii (I955), esp. pp. I5-2I. 22 This is the opinion of Mr. P. S. Brown, who is makinga careful study of harvest qualitiesin this period. After the very wet weather and unfavourable conditions of the famine years, there were long stretches of good harvests betweenthe famineand the BlackDeath and againin the late fourteenthcentury. (cont. on p. 8)

8

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

Appallinglybad thoughthe I3I5 harvestwas, the availabilityof new cornsuppliesmitigatedthe severityof the dearthin the autumn months. But ChristmasI3I5 could not have been a joyousseason for the many sufferingfrom the renewed,but even steeper,rise in priceswhichduringthe springandsummerof I3I6 reachedunprecedented heights.23 The averageprice of a quarterof wheat in the firstdecadeof the fourteenthcentury,accordingto ThoroldRogers's figures,was 5S. 7id.24 But the modest8s. a quarterwhichmanorial lordsweregettingfor theirwheatin the autumnof I3I5 hadrisento as muchas 26s. 8d. by the summerof I3I6.25 The scarcitywasfelt in everypart of Englandand the price of all types of grainrose in sympathywith wheat (thoughoats, which croppedbetterthan any other grain in I3I5 and I3I6, rose less vigorouslythan rye and barley).26 In fact the pricerise as demonstrated by the evidenceof manorialaccountsdoes not fully indicatethe extent of the dearth. The chroniclersgive a varietyof exceedinglyhigh,but not incredible, prices which presumablyrepresentthe retail value of corn in the marketsof large towns. Trokelowestated that wheat, which had sold for 20S. a quarterin the summerof I3I5, rose to 30s. by June I3I6, thenclimbedto 40s.27 The AnnalesLondonienses recordprices of 20s., 30s. and sometimes40s. for a quarterof wheat.28 The Bridlingtonchroxiiclernoted that wheatsold commonlyin England for 30s. a quarter,sometimesfor 32s., and certainlynot for less tha 24s.29 A Canterbury chroniclehas a summa (equivalentto a quarter) of wheatsellingat 26s. 8d. and a summa of barleyat I6S.3? In the marketat Leicesteras muchas 44s. waspaidfor a quarterof wheat.31 But in the west countrypricesremainedat a moremodestlevel. At Chepstowin I3I6 wheatfetchedonly I6S. a quarter,servants'corn (presumablymixedgrain)I2S., and oats ss.32 (note 22 cont.)

Cf. also J. Z. Titow, WinchesterYields: a Study iniMedieval Agricultural Productivity(Cambridge, I972), p. 24; Slicher van Bath, Agrarian Hist. of Testern Europe, p. I6I; and the very sceptical criticism of Utterstffim's argument by E. Le Roy Ladurie, Histoire du Climat depuisl'an mille (Paris, I967), pp t4-I79 23 Trokelowe, p.

94; Vita Edw. Sec., p. 69; Rogers, Op. Cit.) in p. I97; Farmer, thesis Op. Cit.) p. 75. 24 Rogers, op. cit., i, p- 24525 Farmer, "Grain Prices", p. 2I5; Rogers, Op. Cit.) i) p. I97. 26 Farmer,thesis Op. Cit.) pp. 64-7I. 27 Trokelowe, pp 925 94 28 Chrons.of Edw. I and II, i, p. 236. 2a Ibid., ii, p. 48. 30Trinity College, Cambridge,MS. R.ff.41, s.a. I3I6. 31Knighton,i, p. 4I I (s.a. I3I7, but should presumablybe I3I6). 32 nores) iii) pe 34?

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5I322

9

Numerousgrantsof protectionandsafe-conductto merchantsand othersduringthe winterandspringof I3I6 illustratethe lureof high profitsto be made out of long-distancegraintrade. Merchantsof Lincolnandservantsof KirksteadAbbey(Lincs.)wentto Cambridgeto acquirecorn;bllrgessesof Ravenserodd shireandHuntingdonshire and Hull travelledto variousparts of the realmbuying corn; and Richardatte Pole of Hull was given a safe-conductto go overseasto purchase corn and bring it to England.33 Merchants from Cornwall,which seems to have been little affectedby the crop failutesand famine,were also grantedsafe-conductto take food to London.34 And manoxiallords who were accustomedto selling locallywere persuadedto send their grainconsiderabledistancesin searchof maximumprofits.35 Cornpriceswerenot the only ones to rise. Becauseof the lackof solar heat the price of salt quadrupled,soaring to levels as exorbitantas those of wheat prices. The mean price of salt in Englandin the decadebeforethe famine,basedon manorialsources, the meanprice over a wide was just over 3s. a quarter;in I3I5-I6 areaof Englandwasover 3s. a quarter,droppingto justshortof I IS. a quarterin I3T6-I7.36 As witll grain)the chroniclersgive even higherpricesarldspeakof a quarterof salt as fetchingbetween30s. Axl increasealso took place in the price of and 40s. in I3I5-I6.37 dairyproduce.38 In fact, accordingto the chroniclersthere was a Trokeloweclaimedthat greatdearthof all victuals,not evenhorse-meatwastoo expensive,and he and otherwritersreferred to the pOOlZ being forced to eat dogs, cats and other sCunclean things".4? Rumoursof cannibalism- of people stealingchildren pp. 380, 382-3,39o, 397) 399, 400. The 33 Cal. Pat. Rolls, I3I3-I7, just

corn.39

chroniclerJohn Hocsemiusnoted that althoughthe granariesin the city of Liege were actuallyfull in I3I5, the grainwas transportedto the coastalregionswhere the dearth was greater (cited in Curschmann, Hungersnoteim Mittelalter, 44, 4I, 209). Econontyand Societyin the l)uchy of 34 J. Hatcher, R7wral p. 85 and n. 2. I970), (CambRldge, 35 Farmer, thesis op. cit., pp. g I, IIO-I2.

Pp.

CornwallI300-I500

36 Dr. Farmer kindly provided me with a table of, as yet, unpublished salt priceswhich he has calculatedon the basis of a wide range of manorialaccounts. Cf. also Rogers, Op. Cit., i, pp. 458, 480, 484. The high price of salt probably pushed up the price of fish by making it more expensive to preserve it: cf. Rogers, op. cit., i, pp. 609, 6I2. pp. 92, 94, Chron.de Helsa, ii, p. 332; Chrons.of Edw. I and II, 37 Trokelowe, i, pp. 238, 279; zbid.,ii:,p. 48. 38 Farmer, thesis op. cit., pp. g2-3; "Livestock Prices", pp. 5, I4. 99 Chrons.of Edw. I and II, i, pp. 237, 278-g; ibid., ii, p. 48. 40 Trokelowe,p. 95; Vita Edw. Sec., p. 70; The Brut or the Chroniclesof Englandged. F. W. D. Brie, pt. I (Early English Text Soc., I906), p. 2IOAnnalesA4onastici,ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Ser., I866), iii, p. 470.

IO

PAST AND PESENT

NUMBER 59

to eatthem mayhavebeenexaggerated but they horror which this period of extremefamine testifyto the stark impressedupon the memoriesof contemporaries4l. Dr. Farmer'sconclusion,based on livestock manorialaccounts,chieflythoseof the bishopof prices recordedin estates, was that liale or no enhanceddemandfor Winchester's meat resultedfrom the grain shortage.42 His calculationsdemonstrate did not all conformtO the samepatternat this that animalprices osen rose sharplyin I3I5-I6 while the price date. The price of of plough- and horsesfelldrastically, asdidthepriceof cows;thoughchedatafor cartsheep pricesare less thansatisfactory,the sale priceof pigs, animals raised directlyfor consumption,appearsto haverisenvery fimineyears.43The risein the priceof oxenwasnot little duringthe Farmerto growingdemandfor meat during a attributedby Dr. ratherto increasedinvestmentin improvementofgrain shortagebut the plough-teams onthe basis of the high profitsawainablein corn productionat the time.44 Yet the chroniclersclearlystate that there was a accentuated demandfor all types of YiCtUiS, includingmeat,greatly in de wake of the grain shortage. The discrepancy between the chroniclers' reportsand the conclusionsbased mayat leastin partbe explicablein termsof theon manorialevidence pricespaid for livestockby the bishop of contrastbetweenthe Winchester wealthy landlords,with resourcesandbargainingpoweronand other theirside ata ame whenpoveny wasforcingmanyto selIoff theirlivestockin return for cash in hand,and dose chargedfor meat by butchersin themarketsof largetowns, wherethe situationmust have been far more serious. Certainlythe demandfor meatwas sufficientto bring about the recall, in FebruaryI3I6, of the proclamaiionof eleven monthsearlier fixing livestock and meatstock prices. And the Annales Londonienses are quite precise about the reason: "they ordained that the ordinanceregardinglivestock, bestiis et avibusel ovis)shouldnot stand,becausefowl, and eggs (de account of the dearthand lack of victuals".45 few werefoundon There is no doubt that by the springand early England was in the throesof a famineof major summerof I3I6 dimensions.46And 41 Trokelowe, p. 95; Brut, pp. 209-I0; Monasl.,iii, p. 470. Irish writers aIso state that "peopIe used to eat oneAnn. another, widout doubt, throughout Ermn": Annals of Loch Ce, ed. W. M. Hennessy (Rolls Ser., I87r), i, p. 595 s.a. I3I8; Annalsof Ulster,ed. B. 42Farmer thesis op. cit., p. I60.MacCarthy(Dublin, I893), ii, p. 433. 4SIbid.pp. 86-93; Parmer, "LivestockPrices", p. I4. 44 Farmer, thesis op. cit., pp. 88, 94, I60. 46 Chrons.of Edw. I and II, i, pp. 237-8 Rymer, Foedera,ii, p. 286. 46 The de and famine certainlyafflictedScotlandand Irelandat ie same time.Cf. MitaEdw. Sec., p. 60; Annals of Loch Ce, pp. 579, 59S-

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

II

the faminewasaccompanied, duringthe courseof I3r6, by a virulent and widespreadepidemicof an enterictype perhapstyphoidwhich greatly increasedmortalities. The epidemic spread across socialboundaries,for it affectedthe aristocracyas well as the poor.47 Nevertheless,it seemsa mistaketo attemptto separate,as Professor Russelldoes,the mortalitiesof the faminefromthoseof the epidemic. Contemporarychroniclersclearly related the two and expressly mentionedthe greatmortalitiesof the poor in this year.48 There is very little evidence on which to base an esiimate of mortaliiiesduring the famine years. The rise in the number of heriots paid on a group of Winchestermanors,particularlythose paid by the near-landless,indicatesa crude dea rate approaching zo per cent in the famine But in largetownsand ciiies the mortalitiesmust have been much greater. The bodies of paupers, dead of starvation,litteredcity streets;many were burieddaily in everycemetery,and burialcould not be delayedbecauseof the foul siink; accordingto The Brut, "so micheandso fastefolc deiden,that vnnethes men might ham bury".50 No sources survive for an estimateof this mortality,suchas occurin Flanderswherethe city of Ypres has left a remarkableburialregisterrecordingthe burialof 2,794inhabitants- probablyabouta tenthof the city'spopulation-- in only six monthsbetweenMay and OctoberI3I6.51 The social effectsof the faminewere worsenedby reductionsin seigneurialexpenditure. Estate records corroborateTrokelowe's commentthatduringthe faminemagnatesandreligiouscut downon theirfollowings,withdrewtheircustomaryalms,andreducedthe size of their households.52Alms in cash offered by the canons of years.49

47 Cf. the figures from Inquisitions Post Mortem in RusseIl, "Pre-PIague Populaiion",p. 8. 48 Ibid., pp. 8-9; Trokelowe, p. 94; Flores)iii, pp. I74, 34I; Chrons.of Edw. I and II, i, pp. 236-7, 279. 49 M. M. Postan and J. Z. Titow, "Heriots and Prices on Winchester Manors", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., si (I958-9), pp. 399, 407. 50 Br2(t,p. 209; Trokelowe) p. 94; Knighton,i, p. 4I2; Chrons.of Edw.I andII, ii, p. 48. 51 Lucas, op. cit. pp. 66-7 H. Van Werveke, "La famine de l'an I3I6 en Flandreet dans les regionsvoisines")REv?edu Nord, xli (I959), pp. 5-I4. For chronicle reports of the miseries of towns in the Low Countries, see Curschmann, Hungersnoteim Mittelalter, pp. 209-II. Chroniclers also noted very heavy mortalities in German towns: cf. W. Abel, Geschichteder deutschen Landwirtschaft(Stuttgart, I967), pp. II5-I6 and W. Abel, Agrarkrisenund Agrarkonjunktur:, 2nd edn. (Hamburg, I966) pp. 45-6. 62 Trokelowe, p. 93. Cf. also a referencein similar vein in Triniw College Cambridge,MS. R.5.4I, s.a. I3I6: "such was the dearthin Englandthat those who were accustomed to supporting themselves and their dependants in a suitable manner travelledalong streets and through places as beggars".

I2

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

BoltonPriory(Yorks.)weresubstantiallyreduced yearsandthe numberof householdservantsand duringthe famine famuli employedby the priory was halved.53 Despite the evident distress on the Winchesterestatesduringthe famineyears no alms doledout thoughthis wasno newventurehereforof any sortwere practicallyceasedwiththe deathof BishopPeterdes alms-givinghad On manymanorsof this vast estateagricultural Rochesin I238. 54 workerswere again the sufferers;grain liveriesfor famuli were suspended in I3I6-I7, the reasonbeingfranklyadmittedas "on account of the dearnessof corn"55 Trokelowe'sassertionthatthosedismissedfrom households,usedto a delicatelife, hadto turnto crimetoaristocratic survivecannotbe provenbut may well have been true. The problem was,of course,alreadya seriousone facingEdward of lawlessness II's government but the desperationof the famine years probably The commissionto the Keepersof the Peace in accentuatedit. refersto the dangerpresentedby vagabonds,and Kent in I3I6-I7 robberiescertainly account for the vastnumberof offencesdealtwithin these Practically a thirdof all the theftsrelatedto the stealingofsessions. foodstuis verylargelygrainandits products,suchas bread and ale. About 40per cent of the theftsinvolvedthe stealingof livestock, nearly half oftheseinstancesrelatingto sheep. Thefts of cashformedthe bulk ofthe remainder. The proportionatenumber theftof foodstuffsis strikinglylargeand much of cases involving greaterthan in other peace sessionrollsfor otheryearsandothercouniiesthat I haveseen, though admittedlycomparisonis not easy becauseof the particular fullness of the Kentproceedings. 5 7 Forexample,onlyeighteen outof atotalof z69 instancesof theftin the I 3I4 peace sessionsin Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire,Oxfordshire and mention foodstuffs.58And the evidenceof gaol deliveryrollsSuffolk points 53 Cf.my BoltonPriory: theEconomy of a NorthernMonastery(Oxford, I973), pp52,77, I37) I4I-3 54 5a

J. Z. Titow, "Land and Population on the Bishop of Estates I209-I350" (University of CambridgePh.D. thesis, I962), Winehester's p. I26. 55 Farmer,thesis Op. Cit., p. 83* the phrase cited is taken from the aeeount of the manor of Meon (EIants.). The Winchester estate same poliey in the late thirteentheentury: ef. M. M. managerspraetisedthe Postan, TheFamulus:the Estate Labourerin the XIIth and XIIIth Centuries(Econ. Hist. Rev., suppl. no. 2, I954), p 37 66 Kent Keepersof the Peace I316-I7, ed. B. H. (Kent Reeords, xiii, I933),pp. XXii-iii. I do not use any technical or Putnam legal definitionsof stealing; these robberiesembraee burglary,petty and grand lareeny, etc. S7Ibid., p. xiv, and B. H. Putnam, 'sKecordsof the Keepers of the Peace and their Supervisors,I307-27", Eng. Hist. Rev., xlv ssRolls of NorthamptonshireSessions of the (I930), p. 436. I3I4-I6, I320, ed. M. Gollanez (Northants. Rec. Soe., xi, I940), Peace, pp. 8-55; Pub. Ree. Off. (hereafter P.R.O.), Just. Itin. I/850, I395.

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I 3 I 5- I 322

I3

in the same direetion. Out of seventy-sixcases dealt with by the Kent justiees in I3I6-I7, twenty-sixinvolved theft of foodstuffs, whilein the Kentrollfor I308-9 therewereonlysevensueheasesout of II2.59 A greatlyimprovedharvestwas neededin I3I6 if the sufferings of the past year were to be alleviated. But the summerof I3I6 broughtreneweddownpoursof rainanda harvestworse,if anything, than that of the previousyear.60 The highest priees of I3I5-I6 rrsay1lothave been reached,but the price of wheatwas more consistentlyexorbitantirl I3I6-I7 andgrainwaspossiblyin evenshorter supply this rear.6l Taken together, the two years I3I5-I6 and mark a rate of inflationin grain prices which is quite I3I6-I7 unparalleledin English history.62 The chroniclersvary in their estimatesof the durationof the famine,63but therecan be no doubt that the severesthardshipslasted throughoutthe aceountingyear I3I6-I7 until a betterharvestin I3I7 broughtsornereliefand about a fiftyper eent dropin grainp1ices.64 The plentifulharvestof I3I8 markedthe real end of the scarcityand hardship,apartfrom those countiesof northernEnglandwhieh were subjectedto the terrors of Scottishraids.65 In I3I8 "godyerwasageini-come,andgodehep of corn"66as pricesfell to a lower level than any year since I288, with dealersopenly offeringwheat at a price almost seven iimes lowerthan tllat demandedthe previousyear.67 H. S. LucastreatedI3I8 as the end of the erisis and indeedthe mostgraveanddramaticphaseof the faminewasoverby thatdate.68 59 Putnam,I(ent Keepers;P.R.O., Just. Itin. 3lIog I did not analysein full the but I did note that the first fifteen Bedfbrdshiregaol deiivery roll of I3I6-I7, cases considered by the justices included seven that dealt with the theft of foodstuffs(P.R.O., Just. Itin. 31I/2). s?Titow, "Weather",pp. 386-7. 61Farmer,thesis op. cit., pp. 8I, 83; Rogers, Op.Cit., i, p. I98. TheTintern version of the Flores has higher prices for I3I7 tharl for 316: Flores, iii, PP. 340-I . 62 Rogers, op. cit., i, p. I98. 63 Knighton,i, p. 4Il has wo years- Brut, p. 209 has two-and-a-halfyearsVita EdZw.Sec., pp. 64, go has the dearth lasting from I3I5 tO I3I8- and the Chron. de Melsa, ii, p. 332 also has three years; the Bridlington chronicler claimed the dearth lasted continuously for six years, though prices did not Chrons.of Edtv. I and II, ii, remain at the heights they reached in I3I5-I6: P. 48. 64 Farmer, thesis op. cit., pp. 8I-2. 65 Cf. Jean Scammell, "RobertI and the North of England",Eng. Hist. Rev., lXxiii ( I 95 8), pp- 3 85 -40366 The Political Songs of England,ed. T. Wright (Camden Soc., vi, I839), P. 3I4,

6' Farmer, thesis op. cit., pp. ss I ucas, op. cit., pp. 7I-2.

8I-3;

Vita Edw. Sec., p. go.

I4

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

But Lucasgaveinsufficientattentionto anotheraspectof the agrarian crisis- the devastatingseriesof livestockepidemicswhichafflicted most areasof Britainin this period.69 The famineyearsthemselves wereaccompaniedby a widespreadsheepmurrain. Otherlivestock was not badlyaffectedat this date, thoughdiseaseor starvationdid takesometoll in lives.70 But althoughthe depredations of the sheep murrain(the scale of which we will considerlater)7lhad largely passedby I3I7, a new epidemicafflictingonly cattleand oxen and wipingout very largenumbersof them, beganits dreadfulpassage throughBritainin the county of Essex at Easter I3Ig.72 It was probablyimportedfromthe continentwhereFrance,it wasbelieved, was sufferingfromthe diseaseat the sametime.73 The LouthPark chroniclerthought that it had raged throughthe whole of Christendom.74 The epidemicreachedthe northof EnglandandScotland later in I3I9; in the north-eastit was first heardof at the siege of Berwickin the latesummer,whennearlyall the oxenbeingled to the siege died suddenly.76 By I32I the murrainwas ravagingScotland andIreland,andthesame"cow-destruction" returnedagainto Ireland in I324-5.76 The reportsof the chroniclersare substantiatedby manorialevidence,whichpointsto widespreaddestruciionof cattleherdson an unprecedented scaleduringthe accouniingyearsI3I9-20 and I320-I.77 Fully understandable were the sentimentsof a contemporary,that the cattlemurrainwas the comingof: . . . another sorwe that spradde over al the lond A thusent winter ther bifore com nevere non so strong. To binde alle the mene men in mourning and in care, The orf deide al bidene (all the cattle died straightaway), and maden the lond al bare, so faste, Com nevere wrecche into Engelond that made men more agaste.78 69 He passes over the subject in no more than a few lines: op. cit., pp. 57, 59-60. 70 Trokelozoe, p. 92; YitaEdw.Sec.,p. 64; Chron.deMelsa,ii, p. 333; and cf. below, n. II6. 71 Cf. below, pp. 20-2. 72 Trokelozoe, pp. I04-5. The Westminster Floresplaces the epidemic in I3I8, which is certainlyan error; the Tintern version states that the epidemic

began in Scotland, spreadto England, and then finally to the Welsh Marches: I86-7, 343. The incidence of the disease as gleaned from the manorialevidence, however,(cf. below, pp. 24-6) seems betterto fit Trokelowe's explanation,and the Lanercostchronicleralso thought the murrainhad spread northwardsnot southwardsin I3I9: Chronicon de Lanercost, I20I-I346, ed. J. Stevenson (Edinburgh, I839), p. 240.

Flores,iii, pp.

73 Trokelozve, p. I05.

74

C7hron. de ParcoLude,p. 27.

H. Galbraith,"Extractsfrom the Historia Aurea and a French 'Brut' (I3I7-47)", Eng.Hist.Rev.,xliii(I928), p. 2IO. The Lanercostchroniclerwas mistakenin thinkingthat the cattlemurrainhad been ragingfor two yearsbefore I3I9 in the south of England: Chron.de Lanercost, p. 240. 76 Fordun, iv, p. I,OIO; Ann.of Ulster,ii, pp. 437, 439, 44I. 7 7 Cf. below, pp. 28-g. 78 Polit. Songs,p. 342. 75 V.

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

I5

Even now the seeminglyinterminablehardshipsof the protracted agrariancrisiswerenot at an end. Cornpriceshad remainedquite low in I3I9 but rose considerablyin the yearfollowingthe mediocre harvest of the wet autumn of I320.79 This was preparatoryto anotherdisastrousharvestin I32I anda risein cornpricesto inflated thoseof I3I5-I7.8? Somemanorswereableto sell levelsapproaching wheatat higherpricesthan in I3I6 and againlords were willingto send their manorialproducelong distancesto gain maximumprofits from the soaringprices.8l The sale price of barleyon the Merton Collegemanorof Holywellin Oxforddoubledwithinsix monthsof the harvest,swungupwardsat the end of April,and reacheda peak pricein Junebeforefallingslightlyat the end of the month.82 Only one chroniclermentionsthe scarcityof I32I-2 and none the bad weather which presumablycondiiioned the wretched harvest.83 in the northof Englandandthe downfall With Scotiishdepredations of Thomas of Lancaster,the chroniclershad other things on their minds. But it is alsoconceivablethatthe harvestfailureof I32I was occasioned not by heavy rainfall but by the less spectacular prolongeddrought. A possible indicatorof this is the fact that barley,a crop not suited to very dry conditions,appearsto have failedmoreresoundinglyin I32I than in I3I5 or I3I6.84 The more settled agrarianconditions after I322, with better harvestsandlowergrainprices,canbe saidto markthe realend of the crisis in ruraleconomyfor most of the country. But, for southeasternEnglandat least,a greatdroughtin the summersof I325 and I326 coupledwith seriousinroadsof the sea and anotherdevastating livestock epidemic had grave consequences.85Christ Church Canterburyclaimedin I327 to have lost I,2I2 acresto the sea in recentflooding,and 257 oxen, 5II COWSand their issue, and 4,585 dead in the sheep - livestockin all to the value of over ?79? 79 Rogers, op. cit., i, p. 200; Farmer,thesis op. cit., p. 83 and "GrainPrices", p. 2I2; Titow, "Weather",p. 388. 200, 230; Farmer, thesis op. cit., p. 83 and "Grain 80 Rogers, op. cit., i, pp. Prices", p. 2I2. II9. 81 Farmer, thesis op. cit., pp. II0, 82Ibid., p. I I6. as "like the rest not worth praising, 83 Walsinghamdescribes the year I32I

HistoriaAnglicana, wretchedin issue of cropsor fruit . . .": ThomaeWalsingham ed. H. T. Riley (Rolls Ser., I863) i, p. I63. 7i, 83, 283-5. The Winchester estates offer 84 Farmer, thesis Op. Cit., pps little help this year, though such indicationsas there are point to a dry summer: p. 388. "Weather", Titow, E. Britton, A MeteorologicalChronologyto A.D. I450 (London, I937), 8S C. Titow, "Weather",p. 389; R. A. L. Smith, CanterburyCathedral pp. I34-5; Priory (Cambridge,I943), pp. I26, I56.

I6

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

murrain.86For the men of Southampton,too, I325-6 seems to have been a greaterdisasterthan I3I5-I7. The tenantsof Godshouse in Southamptonhad managedto pay off their rent arrears saiisfactorilyin the late thirteenthcenturyand therearefew signs of dislocationin thefamineyears. But in I325-6 largerentarrearsowed by thesetenantshadto be writtenoff andthe tenementstakenintothe lord'shand. Entriesin the marginof the accountsuch as "deadin povertyand so nothing","dieda pauper",or "fledfromthe town as a pauper"supplythe reasonsfor the rent defects.87 The agrariancrisiswas not a single entity. It mustbe seen as a successionof arableand livestockdisasters,88 andst is the cumulative effectof the devastationswhichhas to be weighedin an assessment of whetherthese years did form a turning-pointin the agrarian economyof England. III The granaryreturnsenteredon the dorseof mostmanorialaccounts providesome idea of the scale of difficultiesin arableproduction during the famine years. Of course we can only measuregrain yieldson demesnelandsand haveno directfiguresat all for peasant production. Nevertheless, it is exceedingly ulllikely chat the peasantsbetteredtheir lords a view confirmedby such indirect evidenceas we have and the figuresthereforereflectthe best we could expectfrom the landsof the peasantry. All the majorcrops,with the exceptionof oats, faileddismallyin the harvestsof I3I5 and I3I6. From a fairlyextensivesampleof estatesin the midlandsandsouthof England,thoughweightedby the accountsof the Winchestermanors,Dr. Farmerestimatedthat the overallnet yields(thatis grossproduceless the seed requiredfor the followingyear) of wheat and barleywere little more than half of normal in I3I5.89 Wheat was hardly better the following year, though barleyimprovedto answerfor about three-quartersof its normalyield. Oats,the hardiestcropandthatbestableto withstand healryrainfall,producedreturnslittle differentfromnormal,though evenin goodcondiiionsthe grcssyield of oatswasseldommorethan two-and-a-halftimes its seed. LiteraeCantuarienses, ed. J. B. Sheppard(Rolls Ser., I887), i, pp. 243-6. Bodleian, Queen's College MS. D.D., Box xliii, R.283; Box xliv, R.338; Hist. MSS. Comm.,App. to 6th Rep. (London, I877), pp. 552-67. 88 A point well brought out in the "Poem on the Evil Times of Edward II": Polit. Songs,pp. 34I-2. 89 Farmer, "Grain Prices", pp. 2I7-I8 and thesis op. cit., pp. 74, 8I-2. 86 87

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I 3 I 5- I 322

I7

With the completeyield figuresfor the Winchesterestatesover a period of a centuryand a half now available,we can assess the defectivenessof the I3I5 and I3I6 harvestson some thirty-odd manorsin southernEngland. The meangrossyield90of wheatfrom the manorswas about60 per cent of averagein I3I5 and 55 per cent in I3I6. Barleyansweredfor about 80 per cent in I3I5, fallingto 68 per cent the followingyear. The returnsfor oats wereapproximately89 and 7I percent.9l And the figuresavailablefor rye, mancorn,and drageshow that these cropswerealso seriouslyaffectedin the famine years.92 For the Winchesterestates, therefore, the the harvestof I3I6 was more extremeeven than its predecessor,a fact furtherillustratedby the figuresin Table I. Forthe northof Englandyieldfiguresareless easyto comeby, but on a groupof estatesin the West Ridingof Yorkshire,belongingto BoltonPriory,the yields were consistentlyworsethan those in the south.93 In both I3I5 and I3I6 grossyields of wheaton individual demesnesfell as low as I9 per cent of theirearlyfourteenth-century average. On the extensivehome farmat Boltonitself rye returned 28 per cent of normalin I3I5, falling to only II5 per cent the followingyear. Beansgave half the usual crop in I3I5 but fell to only I2 per cent in I3I6. Barleyprovidedbetterreturnsat 4I per cent in I3I5, recoveringto 7I per cent in I3I6, while oats again sufferedless thanthe othercrops,averaging64 per cent of normalin I3I5 and some 80 per cent in I3I6. From tithe returns,which indirectlyreflectlargelypeasantproduction,it looksas if the priory's parishionersfaredeven worse. Tithe from Skiptonparishin I3I5I6 providedonly 39 per cent for hardcorn(all types of grainexcept oats) and 53 per cent of normalfor oats itself; and from Kildwick parishthe followingyear26 per centfor hardcornand46 per centfor oats.94 Thoughin famineyearspeasantswerepresumablyeven less willing than ever to pay tithe, this must have been at least partly compensatedby the extraeffortsin collectionat sucha time madeby the tithe receivers. Obviouslytherewerewidelydifferingyieldsreturnedin the famine years variationswhich were, on the whole, local ratherthan 90Henceforth all figures are for grossyields. 91 Titow, Winchester Yields,p. I45; it is difficult to be precise about the readingfrom the graphprovidedthere. Cf. also Titow, "Weather",pp. 385-6. 92 Titow, Winchester Yields,pp. 78, I27-34. t3 The yield figures are laid out in Table III of my Bolton Priory,p. 4I: the normalyields for the early fourteenthcenturywere in line with those of estates in other parts of the country. 94 Based on Table VI in ibid.,p. 64.

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

TABLE I GRAINYIELDSON THE ESTATESOF THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTERI3IS AND I3 I6

Number of manors on the estates of the bishop of Winchester with the following yields in I3I5 and I3I6, expressed as a percentageof their average yield I209-I349 (-I00).* % of average yield: I50-9 I40-9 I30-9 I20-9 II0-9 I00-9 90-9

80-9 7o - 9 60-9 5o - 9 4o - 9 3o - 9 20-9 I0-9 0-9

Totals I00%+

50-99 % ?-49%

Barley

Wheat I3 IS

I3 I5

I3 I6

Oats

I3 I6

I3I5

I3I6

O

I

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

I 2 I O

0

3

2 2

I I

4 3 8

I 0 2

4 7

4 3

5 7 I

4 4 2 3 6 2 4

0 2 2 5

2 I O

4 9 3 3 I 0 0

4 4 4 6 5 3 3 I I O

6 7 2 3 3 I

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

I 27 8

4 I3 I8

7 27 I

5 I5 I2

I2 2I 2

4 22 7

35

33

O

O

O

O

O

O

O 0 I I

8 7 5

3 3 5

Total Manors from which figures are available: 36 35 35 32 Manors where I3I5 yield was greaterthan I3I6 yield: Wheat Barley 23

Oats 25

22

Manors where I3I5 yield was less than I3I6 yield: Wheat Barley II

Oats 7

IO

Total number of manors from which comparisonis possible: Wheat Barley 34 32 * Based on Titow, WinchesterYields,pp.

49,

59,

69,

Oats 32

I2I-35.

regionaI.95Soil types,relief,climaticconditionsand otherlocalized factorsmust all have contributedto the varyingresponseof arable land. Manors situated in valley-bottomsand other low-lying ground,especiallyon claysor otherheavysoils, must have been far moreproneto flooding,and thereforeto unsatisfactory grainyields, thanthose,providingtheirsoils weregood,whichlay on the uplands 95

Cf. Farmer, thesis qp. Cit.,

pp.

I88-93.

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3 I5-I322

I9

in an elevatedpositionwith slopinglands and good drainage. On the Bolton Priory estates, for example,the demesne at Malham, some 800 feet abovesea-levelbut situatedon well-drainedlimestone soils,contrastedvividlywiththe otherdemesnesbasedon grits,shales andsandstones,in providingperiectlynormalwheatandbarleycrops in I3I5 and I3I6 with oatsreturninga higheryieldthanon anyother grange.96 And although most manors on the Winchesterestates producedmuch diminishedreturnsin these years often less than halftheirnormalyield the figuresin TableI aboveshowthatsome manorsactuallymanagedto bettertheiraveragecrop. The manorof Farehamin south-east Hampshireis the most notable example, yielding above-averagecrops of wheat, barley and oats in both Farehamlies in an area of low rainfall,high and I3I6.97 I3IS sunshine-level,and on very good, freely-drainedsoils.98 On the other hand, a group of estatesin the north of Hampshire(Burghclere, High Clere, Ecchinswell, Ashmansworthand Woodhay), basedmainlyon clays,sandsandgravelsoils,andin an areaof heavier rainfall,producedabysmallylow yields for almostall crops in the famineyears.99 That a reductionin outputof, say, fifty per cent shouldproducea price-inflationfor grainof somethinglike fourfoldor more is itself suggestiveof a normalstateof affairsin whichresourceswerebarely sufficientto meet demand. And a failurein productionon this scale in two successiveyearswas quiteenoughto createthe prolongedand severefamineconditionswhich EnglandexperiencedbetweenI3I5 The faminewasonlyassuagedby a moderatelysuccessful and I3I7. harvestin I3I7, when all crops apartfrom oats (which produced returnsworsethanthoseof I3I5 and I3I6) yieldedtolerablywell,and a very good harvestin I3I8 in which everythingcroppedwell.l?? Moderatelysatisfactoryharvestsin I3I9 and I320 were, however, followedby the thirdof the greatharvestdisasters,the failureof I32I. The grainyield figuresfor this year assembledby Dr. Farmerare fewer than those of I3I5-I7, mainlybecausethe Winchesteryields cannot be calculated for this year. Those figures which are availableshow greaterfluctuationthan in I3I5-I7 but, on average, suggestthat wheatyields were similarto those of I3I6-I7 and that Cf. my Bolton Priory, Table III, p. 4I. Titow, WinchesterYields,pp. 49, 59, 69, I2I. 98 L. D. Stamp (ed.), The Land of Britain: the Reportof the Land Utilisation Surveyof Britain, pt. 89 (London, I940), pp. 3I3-I5, 32I-2, 325, 33I, 367. 99Titow, WinchesterYields,pp. 49, 59, 69, I27-8; Stamp, op. cit., pp. 3I4, 96

97

330-In 353-5.

100Farmer, thesis Op. Cit.,

pp. 74, 8I-2.

PAST AND PRESENT

20

NUMBER 59

rye, barleyand oats failed even more miserablythan at the earlier date.l?l The few figuresfor the BoltonPrioryestatesin this year, however, suggest that the harvest there, while very poor, was nowherenearso disastrousas in I3IS or I3I6. On the homefarmat Bolton wheat answered about threefold, better than both the previous famine years; rye was little more than half of its early fourteenth-century average,but still almostdoublethe yield of I3I5; barleywas slightly better than I3I5 but notablyworsethan I3I6; beansfailedto reproducethe seed,as theyhaddonein I3I6; andoats, at just overdoublethe seed, were more or less on a parwith I3I5 and I3I6. Malhamagainbelied the generalappearanceof harvest failure with above-averagewheat and oats yields, though barley producedonly about three-quartersof the earlyfourteenth-century averageyield.l02 Generally,from the fact that pricesdid not soar quite so high in I32I-2 as they had done in I3I5-I7,1?3it mightbe presumedthat the harvestfailurewas not so absolute,though the pricelevel couldhavebeenheld downto someextentby the inability of people,afterthe deprivationsof the precedingyears,to pay. IV As we haveseen, arablefailurewasonly one featureof the agrarian crisis of I3I5-22. Estaterecordsfully endorsethe remarksof the chroniclerswho speakof a greatsheepmurrainat this iime, and the crisis was no less severe for pastoraleconomy than for arable cultlvatlon. The effects of the murrain,like the crop failure,variedgreatly; sheep grazing heavy soils and flooded grasslandswere especially vulnerableto diseasessuch as liver-flukespreadby wet pastures.l04 Nor did the worsteffectsoccurat chesametime all overthe country. Even so, there is plentiful evidencethat estates in many widelyscattered areas suffered heavy losses of sheep through disease betweenI3I3 and I3I7, with mortalityamonglambsand yearlings particularlyhigh. At Inkpen,a Berkshiremanorof TitchfieldAbbey (Hants.),the 468 sheep grazingthe pasturesin I3I3 had fallen to only I37 by .

*

@

101 Ibid., pp.74,283-5-

The figuresfor seed and harvest returnsare given in my "Bolton Priory, an economic study" (University of Odord D.PE1. thesis, I969), pp. 424-35. 108 Farmer, "Grain Prices", p. 2I2; Rogers, op. cit., i, pp. 200, 230. '?' R. Trow-Smith, A Historyof BritishLivestochHusbandryto I700 (London, I957),p.I57; Walterof Henley and Other Treatiseson Estate Manaboement and Accounti^g,ed. D. OscEnsky (Oxford, Ig7I),pp.186-7. lOY

I286-I325:

THE AGRARIANCRISIS IN ENGLAND I 3 I 5-I 322

2I

I3I7.1?5 On the king's stock-farm at Clipstone in Sherwood Forest the heaviest losses came in I3I6-I7 with the death of almost half the entire flock, including some 72 per cent of lambs and yearlings. In addition, Isgout of I93 goats and kidsdied that year, and not surprisingly perhaps the remnants of the sheep-flock and goat-herd were sold off the following year. No sheep or goats were kept for the next few years and when next we meet the manor,in I34I-2, it was in the hands of a farmer.l06 Even on the chalk-lands of Crawley (Hants.), where the worst of the murrain was over by I3I5, losses in the three previous years had amounted to close on a fifth of the entire flock and almost a half of the lambs.l07 If the first symptoms of the disease were noticed in time, lords could take the advice of the contemporarytreatises on husbandry and sell their stock quickly to cut their losses.l08 We see this at Teddington (Middlesex), where thirty out of seventy-four sheep died in I3rS-I6 and a note explains that, of the remaining forty-four, thirty-seven were sold "because almost in murrain''.l09 Sale was an expedient adopted too on the king's wealthy manorof Sheen (Surrey). Following the loss of nearly half the flock (including sixty out of sixty-one when the account states there was "common lambs) in I3I3-I4, murrainin the area",large-scalerestockingwas carriedout the following year. In I3I5-I6 the account records sixteen sheep dead before before clipping and the residue of the flock, 4I8 sheep, sold-also clipping. For the next five years there were no sheep at all on this manor, which before the crisis period had close on a thousand. Feeling the crisis over, the king's officials restocked the manor in I32I-2 with 829 sheep, mainly from Essex) but of these more than half the lambs, and 29I sheep in all, died that same year.ll? All these figures are again drawnfrom seigneurial estates but there is no reason to presume that peasant flocks were dealt with less severely. And when we see the difficuliies that some great landowners were facing at this date, it takes little imagination to realize that, without the lords' resources for restocking, peasants could have suffered grievous and lasting consequences through such heavy livestock losses. From the render of tithe-lambs we have an indica105 D. C. Watts, "A Model for the Early Fourteenth Century", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xx (I967), p. 544. 106

p

,.O.,

SC6|953/7-II-

N. S. B. Gras and E. C. Gras, The Economicand Social History of an English Village (Camb. Mass., I930), PP. 400, 406, 4I2. 108 W7alter of Henley, p. 275 ("Seneschaucy",chaps. 32-4). 109P R.O., SC619I8/I4110P R.O., SC6/IOI412-9107

PAST AND PRESENT

22

NUMBER 59

iion of how BoltonPriory'sparishionersfaredduringthe murrain. The parishesof KildwickandLongPrestonhad,in pre-famineyears, sent betweenthemas manyas I60 iithe-lambsto Bolton;in I3I5-I6 the numbersent was twenty-eight,the followingyear thirty-eight. The priory'sown demesneflockhad numberedover 3,ooo head of sheep beforethe famine. In I3I5-I6 it was reducedby over twothirds to only I,005 sheep, falling again the next year to gI3.1ll And amongthe mostdevastatinglossessufferedmusthavebeenthose on the estatesof the greatfenlandabbey of Crowland;over 3,ooo sheep,some28 per cent of the flock,diedin I3I3-I4 - in absoluteif not in proportionate termsby farthe heaviestlosseson the Crowland estates since the first accountsin I257-8 and fewer than 2,000 sheepwereleft in I32I whereonly eightyearsearliertherehad been almostII,ooo.ll2 Thoughan imperfectsource,the customsreturnsgive someindication of the extentto whichthe agrariancrisisaffectedthe exportof England'sstaplecommodity. Withthe sole exceptionof Southampton, all England'smajor ports experienceda substantialdecline in theirexportof woolduringthe decadeof the crisis,as TableII(A) demonstrates. And in the followingdecade,I325/6-I33415,onlythe far-northernportsof Newcastleand Hartlepoolrecoveredto export a greaterquantitythan their averagein the I305/6-I3I4lI5 period. England'swool exportsas a whole declinedby little shortof a third in the I3I5/I6-I324/5 period,and did not fully recoverin the subsequent decade. Reflectingthis fall in exports,customsrevenuesfell from ?Io,7so beforethe crisisto 7,I00 in I3I5-I6, sheep murran addingto the difficultieswith whichthe Englishgovernmenthad to contendat this time.ll3 Of coursemurrainwas not the only factorin causingthe decline. The greatestdrop occursin the ports of Newcastleand Hartlepool, whoseexportswereprobablyas greatlydamagedby the devastations of the Scotsin the northas by the ravagesof murrain. Nor arethe figures necessarilytrue indicatorsin themselvesof the drop in exports. Ipswich,for example,showsa steeperdeclineoverthe two decadesI3I5/I6-I334/5 thanany otherport,but it has been demonstratedby Mr. Bakerthat the customsofficialswere embezzlingon Cf. my Bolton Priory, Table IX, p. 80. F. M. Page, "Bidentes Hoylandie: a medieval sheep farm", Economic History, suppl. to Economic3tl., i (I926-9), pp. 609-II. The dates given by Miss Page are inaccurate:see below n. I33. llS J. R. Maddicott, Thomasof LancasterI307-22 (Oxford, I970), p. I63. 112

23

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

the grandscalein theseyears.ll4 As faras the figurescanbe related to murrain,it looksas if the northandeastof Englandsufferedworse than the south. The fenlands,which must have providedmuch of the woolexportedfromBostonandLynn,wereprobably,as mightbe expectedand as the stockfiguresof CrowlandAbbeysuggest,badly affectedby the murrain. Hull also, taking much wool from the decade. But northernabbeys,sufferedbadlyin the I3I5/I6-I324/5 Londonwas little affectedand Southampton'sexportsactuallyrose wool musthavebeen drawnfrom slightly. Muchof Southampton's TABLE II CENTURY EXPORTOF WOOLIN THE EARLYFOURTEENTH (averagenumber of wool sacksper year exported).* Port Newcastle Hartlepool Hull Boston Lynn Yarmouth Ipswich London Sandwich Southampton ENGLAND

(A) I305/6-I3I4/I5

I,08I 289 55538 9,697 68I 623 856 I4,747 349 2,729 36,I54

I3I5/I6-I324/5

(I00-0) ( I00-0) (I00-o) (I00-0) (I00-0) (I00-0) (I00-0) (100 -0)

(34-6) (36 7) (57-5) (53 I) (48 3) (86 7) (37 7)

375 I06 3,I84 5,I 58

329 54o 323 I I ,784

(80 0)

I72

(IOo-o)

2,950

( I00-0) (I00-0)

25,I76

(49 3) o8 I) (69 6)

I 32516- I 33415 (I25 *3) 343t (I I8-7)

I,3S4

(89 8)

4)974 55945

(6I *3)

635t 6I4 I9I I I,878 I49t 2,792 28,988

t

(93 2) (98-6) (22-3) (80-6) (42 7) ( I02-3) (80 2)

(B)

Port Newcastle Hartlepool Hull Boston Lynn Yarmouth Ipswich London Sandwich Southampton ENGLAND

687 240 3)899 8,743 32I 39 I 592 I6,0I6 I57 2,283 32,9I0

I3I6-I7

I3I5-I6

I3I2/I3-I3I4/I5

( I 00-0) ( I00-0) (I00-0) (I00-0) (I00-o) ( IOo-o) (I00-o) (I00-0) (I00-0) ( I00-0) (I00-0)

478 I 34 I ,7 I 6

(69-6) (5 5. 8) (44-?)

5,760 200 25 I 20 I I o,36 I I 20 I,256 20,I44

(65-9) (62-3) (64-2) (34-?) (64. 5) (76 *4) (55-0) (6I-2)

202 I 95

(29-4)

45468 655 5 I 27 I 408 252 I I,839 I99 2,9I7 27,576

(I I4-6) (74- 8) (84-4) (I04-3)

(8 I . 3)

(42-6) (73-9) (I26-8) (I27-8) (83-8)

* Figures taken from E. Ms Carus-Wilsonand O. Coleman,England'sExport (Oxford, I963), except for the figuresfor Englandas a whole TradeI275-I547 which are those of R. L. Baker, "The English Customs Service, I307-43a Study of Medieval Administration", Trans. AmericanPhilosophicalSociety, new ser., li, pt. 6 (I96I), p. 59. t Port closed I333-4, averagedover nine accounts. A Study of 114 R. L. Baker, "The English Customs Service, I307-43: MedievalAdministration",Trans.AmericanPhilosophicalSociety, new ser., li, pt. 6 (I96I), p. 2I.

24

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

the chalkdowns,wherethe sheeplosseswereprobablymuchlighter, as the figuresfrom Crawleyseem to demonstrate. The first years of the fourteenthcentury saw England'swool exportsat their height and the decennialaveragesin Table II(A) give no indicationthat exports were alreadydecliningbefore the famineyears. Table II(B), therefore,providesan averagefigurefor the years I3I2/I3-I3I4/I5, immediatelyprior to the famine, and comparesthis level withthatin the firsttwo crisisyears,I3I5-I6 and I3I6-I7. Even based on the lower I3I2/I3-I3I4/IS average,it is significantchateveryportwitnesseda steepdeclinein I3I5-I6, though a numberof ports,includingHull, recoveredwell in I3I6-I7. The worst yearsfor exportafter these dates were I3I8-I9 and I32I-2, althoughitisnotablethatthe southernportsof London,Southampton, and SandwichrecordedevenworsereturnsbetweenI324 and I328 presumablybroughtabout at least in part by the severe murrain experiencedin the south-eastat this time.ll5 V

The livestock-farming catastrophes of I3I5-I7 werelargelythough not wholly confined to sheep.ll6 But although other livestock escapedlightly at this date, the most devastaiingand widespread cattle murrain of I3I9-2Ij probably rinderpest,ll7 not only accentuatedthe distressalreadycreatedby the arableand sheepflockdifficultiesbut hit at the very root of arableproduction the supplyof draughtanimalson the land. From every region of the countrythere are signs in manorial recordsof great destructionamongcattle-herdsbetween I3I9 and I32I. On three Huniingdonshiremanorsof Ramsey Abbey the heavymortalitieswererecordedduringthe accountingyear I3I9-20. The figuresarestriking:at Broughton,forty-eightheadof cattledead, leaving six; at Upwood, forty-five dead, leaving two; and at Houghton,fifty-six dead, leavingnine. In a letter to the king in September I3I9, bemoaning the abbey's poverty, the abbot complainedthata "suddenpestilence"hadwipedout so manyanimals Cf. above, pp. IS-I6e 116On the Westminstermanor of Stevenage (Herts.), where relativelylight sheepmortalitiesoccurredin I3 I6-I7, seven out of twenty-threehorsesdied, and in the same year at Clipstone in Sherwood the serious sheep losses were accompaniedby the destructionof the goat-herdmentionedearlierand the death of seven out of twenty-seven horses and ten out of sixty-one pigs. Nearby Wheatley lost a third of its oxen the previous year: P.R.O., SC6/87I/6SC6/gs3/7; SC6/gs4/22. 117R. Trow-Smith deaIs with later outbreaksof rinderpestin his A History of BritishLivestockHusbandry1700-I900 (London, I959), pp. 34-5, 186-7, 3I8.

THE AGRARIANCRISIS IN ENGLAND I 3 I 5-I 322

25

and was still so severe in that area that the abbey no longer had the means of tilling its lands. It was twenty years before the stock totals approximated again to those of the pre-famine period.ll8 The ill-fated royal manor of Clipstone (Notts.) lost 20 per cent of its and almost 40 per cent the following year. cattle-herd in I3I8-I9 In I3I6-I7 there had been a total of I86 head of cattle and oxen on this estate; in I320 there remained only sixty-four, of which thirty-two were described as diseased (morbosi).ll9More than 60 per cent of including twentythe cattle at Sheen died the same year, I3I9-20, three out of twenty-five cows, and some 77 per cent of the small cattle-herd at Teddington. No cattle or oxen were retained there the following year, and at Sheen, where the herd had previouslybeen on averageover eighty head, the number fell to twenty-seven by I32I2, which were all delivered that year to stock the manor of Isleworth, itself presumably badly hit by the murrain.l20 On three scattered manors belonging to Merton College, Oxford, At Cheddington (Bucks.), ten out of the worst year was I320-I. fourteen oxen and six out of nine cows perished, and a few other animals were sold through fear of the murrain. Thorncroft (Surrey) lost seven out of fifteen oxen '
3I9.

26

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

caused by murrain. By I32I only fifty-threeoxen and head of other cattle remained. Before the famine thirty-one years, when straitenedcircumstances forcedthe canonsof Boltonto sell off their stockand begin the run-downof theirherds,therehad been almost 500 head of cattleand some 250 oxen.l24 Such was the shortageof oxen followingthe murrain, Lanercost chronicler,chat men had to plough with wrote the Significantly,the only referencein the Bolton accountshorses.l25 usedfor ploughworkoccursin I320-I.126 Ploughingwas to horses exclusively performedby horsesfrom I320 on the Winchestermanor of Wycombe(Bucks.),a decisionagainpresumablyoccasionedbyWest the loss of oxen in the murrain.l27 MertonCollegealso resorted to the importof horses in I320-I to counterbalance the loss of oxen at Cheddington andThorncroftbut here,as on otherestates,the horses wererelievedof their duties as new oxen were purchased.l28 unloadingundoubtedlycontributedgreatlyto the substantial This fall in thepriceof plough-horsesas comparedwith the high oxen prices of the early I320S.129On the Winchesterestates, too, the losses of oxenin the murrainpromptedheavy purchasesof The administrationbought as many as I40 - an plough-horses. unprecedented number - in I3I9-20, thoughit must be said that oxen also purchasedwhere possible, III being bought in I3I9-20 were and I70 inI320-I.13? Likecropfailureandfamine,murrainwasno newcomerto England. Between the NormanConquestandthe end of the thirteenth century, atleast twelve famines and nine murrainswere thought serious enough to warrantmentionin chronicles.l3l Threeof the murrains Cf. my BoltonPriory,Tables XI and XII, pp.96,98. Chron.deLanercost, p. 240. The Tintern versionof the Floresstatesthat "menhad hardly any oxen or none at all for tilling their lands", resulting in adearth of horses: Flores,iii, p. 343. Dr. Farmer's p.5) seem to bearthis out; they show a substantialfigures("LivestockPrices", rise in the price of ploughhorses between I3I9 and I32I. 126 ChatSworth MS. 73A, fo. 442V. 127 Titow, thesis op. cit., p 42 128 Merton College Rolls, 555I-5, 575I (ex inf. P. S. Brown). 129 Farmer, "Livestock Prices", p. 5. 130 Farmer,thesis op.cit., p. 88; the figure for oxen purchasesin I320-I was given to me by Dr. Titow. 124

125

131 Ann.Monast.,i, pp. I2-I3, I5, I7,20,25-6,34,57, I66; ii, pp. I95,230, 247,255,388-9; iii, pp.305-6,430-I,434,462; iV, pp.9, I8,25,4I-2,48, I20,I27, 374-5, 386, 420, 438, 473; II8, Matthaei Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Ser., I880), V, p. 674. Parisienensis

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

27

II03, IIII) were describedmerelyas "mortalityof animals", (II3I) as "mortalityof domesticanimals",and in five years (I20I, I225, I258, I277, I283) the murrainlargelyaffectedsheep. The murrainsin I086, I I03, I20I and I258 accompaniedcrop

(I086,

one

failurebut,theseyearsapart,the faminesmentionedby the chroniclers did not coincidewith outbreaksof murrain. On a local scale there were, of course,manymore livestockmurrains,thoughover a long periodlosses were not so frequentnor as devastatingas one might think from the spectacularmortalitieswhich occurredin individual years.l32 And it is worth rememberingthat the heavy mortalities and recurrentmurrainslargelyaffectedsheep-flocks,whererecovery was oftensurprisinglyquick. Over a long period, in fact, averagelosses even for sheep were lowerthan might be expected. On the CrowlandAbbeymanorof Wellingborough(Northants.), figures from twenty-two accounts between I270 and I3I2 show no seriousmurrainsand an average mortality(for a flock whose normalsize was in the region of 350 ewes and lambs) of I0e5 per cent for ewes and I4@3 per cent for lambs.l33 Figuresfromthe Winchesterestateat Crawley(Hants.), taken from some I37 accounts over practicallythe whole of the thirteenthand fourteenthcenturies,revealeven lower mortality ratesfor adultsheep (averaging5@7per cent for wethersand 5tI per cent for ewes) though the losses among lambs averaged22@2 per cent.l34 Apartfromthe continuallyheavyloss of youngsheep,the dozenor so yearsof outstandingmortalitiesbetweenI208 and I400 werecompensatedby frequentrunsof goodyearsin whichvery few sheep died. The murrainwhichaccompanied the I3I5-I7 faminemusttakeits 132 For examples of severe loss in sheep murrains,cf. Trow-Smith, British LivestockHusb. to I700, pp. I53-4; N. Denholm-Young, SeignorialAdministration in England!(Oxford, I937), pp. 60-2; H. W. Saunders,An Introductionto the Obedientiaryand ManorRolls of NorwichCathedralPriory(Norwich, I930), p. 52; Page, "Bid. Hoylandie", p. 609. 133 Figures calculated by me, based on Wellingborough Manorial Accounts A.D. I258-1323, ed. F. M. Page (Northants.Rec. Soc., viii, I936), pp. I2-II6. I have omitted I257-8, when the sheep losses were exceptionallyheavy (about 70 per cent mortalities), I266-7 and I32I-2, when the flocklargelyconsisted of hoggasters,and I3I3-I4, when no sheep at all were enteredin the accourlt. The mortalityrate of 56 4 per cent given by Miss Page for losses at Wellingborough in "I296-7" i.e. I294-5 ("Bid. Hoylandie") p. 609) seems inaccurate. On the returns in Wellingborough Acsts., pp. 69-70 the figure should be I9 4 per cent. Here and elsewhere I have used the revised dating of the accounts by T. H. Aston, in an additionalnote in the I965 reprintof Wellingborough Manorial Accounts,pp. xxxix-xlii. 134 Pigures calculated by me, based on Gras, Econ. and Social Hist. of an English Village,pp. 398-4I4.

28

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

placeas one of a numberof sheepepidemicswhich England in the thirteenthand fourteenthcenturies. But,affected as the figures aboveshow, murrainwas not the overwhelmingly to flockseven on a localizedscalethat we tend to destructivevisitor And on a nationalscaleit wasevenlessfrequent. Muchofimagine. the seriousnessof the I3I5-I7 murrainwasderivedas muchfromthe extent of the epidemic,spreadingthroughoutthe wholegeographical of the country,as from the severitywith which it ravagedparticularflocks. basis it was probablyrivalledin the thirteenthcenturyonlyOI1this by the murrainof the late I270S. 135 Whenwe turnfromsheepto cattle,we find- perhaps surprisingly that seriousepidemicsseem to be few and far between. From the Crowlandaccountseditedby Miss Page,the heaviest losses were six out of twenty-fiveoxen at Baston,four out of thirty-sixcows at Langtoft,andtwenty-oneout of sixty-ninecalvesat Nomansland, all in I257-8; otherwisethe losses were trivial. At V7ellingborough, apartfrom a few calves from time to iime, there were cattlelosses. And at Crawleytherewas a bad yearin hardlyany I286-7, with nineout of fifty-oneoxen, five out of sixteencows, and eightcalvesdead,but otherwiseveryfew losses duringthesix out of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.l36 The scalewholeof of the catastrophe of I3I9-2I iS, therefore,put into perspective. Especially isthis so whenone remembersthe nation-widespreadof the epidemic andthe well-documented shortageof cattle,especiallyplough-beasts, in many regions of the countryin the I320S. On the Crowland manors-Wellingborough (Northants.),Drayton,Oakington,and Cottenham (Cambs.)- the numbersof oxen in the I32I-2 account werelower than in any year since the first accounts of I257-8.137 Several RamseyAbbeymanorsrecordedbetweenI3I8 and I326 their smallest numbersof oxen and cattlein a periodstretchingfromthe midthirteenth century uniil the demesnes were leased in the fifteenth century.l38 At Crawley,only four oxen remainedat the endof the I320-I account by far the lowest figure recordedin I67 accounts running from I208 to I449.139 These figures are suggestive of a cattIe-plagueunparalleIed in its dimensions,both in l35Ann. Monast., ii, pp. 388-9; and cf.

Denholm-Young, Seign. Admirl., pp . 60- I . 136 F. M. Page, The Estatesof CrowlandAbbey(Cambridge,I934), pp. I89, 206,209; Page, Wellingborough Acsts.; Gras, op. cit., pp. 382-93. 137 Page, Wellingborough Acsts., p. I33; Page, Estates of CrowlaxldAbbey, ppZ 243, 25Iv 258* 38 Raftis, Estates of RamseyAbbey, pp. I32-40. 39 Gras, op. cit., p. 384

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

29

the degree and in the extent of devastation, during the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Arguably, the grave combination, affecting most of the country, of arable, sheep and cattle disasters, lasting in all for some seven or eight years and followed in some areas by further losses of livestock in I324-6, was the worst agrariancrisis faced by England as a whole since the aftermath of the Norman invasion. That it affected an overpopulated countryside and an imbalanced economy adds weight to this argument. Certainly it was the worst agrarian crisis since manorial records begin at the start of the thirteenth century. The most serious famine of that century, in I258, though bearing many hallmarks of the I3I5-I7 catastrophe, can hardly have been as serious. Prices rose, but at most only to half the level reached in I3I5-I7.14? The grain yields of I257, on the Winchester estates at any rate, fell to nowhere near the abysmal depths of I3IS and I3I6.l4l The chroniclers meniion sheep murrainand this is confirmed by the heavy losses on the Crowland manors at this time.l42 But most important of all in the comparison, there is no evidence in I258 of cattle-plague joining forces with famine and sheep murrain.143 And in the cruel combination of adversities in I3I5-22 it was, above all, the annihilationof the cattle-herds that made it so hard for men to recover, as their efforts were rendered vain by the destruction on all sides of their means of production and livelihood. VI The ways in which the agrariancrisis affected seigneurialeconomy naturally varied widely. Wealthy landlords with numerous estates, extensive resources, some control over labour supplies and marketing, and with a large surplus of marketableproduce, proved resilient and had little difficulty in weathering the storm, though even here the crisis could leave its mark. But for the less wealthy, often struggling to make ends meet even in better times, and forced to buy grain and other produce to supplement their own meagre resources, the crisis years did bring great hardships. From lack of evidence, we cannot demonstrate the difficulties which undoubtedly faced many lords of small estates at this time. But their fate was probably not too different from that of many of the less prosperous monasteries, and here the problems were often considerable. 14 Farmer,"GrainPrices",pp. 2I2, 2I4-IS; Matt. Paris., v, pp. 660-I, 673-4, 70 I -2 . 141 Titow, 142 143

PDinchcstcr Yiclds,pp. 45, SS, 65, t45; Titow, "Weather",p. 372. Matt. Paris., v, p. 674; Page, "Bid. Hoylandie", p. 609. Except for the mortalitiesjust mentioned on a few Crowlandmanors.

PAST AND PRESENT

3o

NUMBER 59

The chronicler of Louth Park (Cistercian, Lincs.) bewailed che fact that the crop failures and livestock murrain had ruined all the substance of the house "oxen, sheep, and all kinds of beasts of the field, corn and other necessaries" and what was left was plundered by the king's oflicersat the time of the parliamentof Lincoln (January and February I3I6).144 During the time he was in Lincoln, in February I3I6, the king appointed a keeper for the Cluniac priory of Prittlewell (Essex), which was taken into his protection on account of its "poverty, miserable state, and indebtedness''.l45 This was typical of the fate of many religious establishmentsat this date. Over a hundred grants of protection to religious houses and hospitals are recordedon the Patent Rolls of I3I5-I6 comparedwith a mere handful in any normal year of the early fourteenth century, and the great number of these protections were granted in the spring and summer of I3I6. In I3I8 the king made a grant of alms to the prioress and convent of Elstow (Benedictine, Beds.), "out of compassion for the state of their house which is so greatly impoverished by the scarcity of the past years and diverse other oppressions that the goods of the house do not sufficefor the sustenanceofthe prioressand convent''.l46 And at a visitation by the abbot of Westminster in I3I9, the hospital of St. James at Westminster claimed that the numbers in the hospital could not be maintained "on account of the mortality of animals and the poverty of their resources''.l47 At Bolton Priory (Augustinian, Yorks, W.R.), the famine years prompted measures affecting all sides of the house's economy, resulting in a heavy reductionin the quantityand quality of the foodstuffs consumed at the priory and a real lowering of the standardof living there.l48 Rocester Abbey (Augustinian, Staffs.) was reduced to such poverty through lack of corn and livestock mortalities that the canons were sent out to solicit sustenance from their friends, "almost as beggars (quasi mendicantes)''.l49 Seven years of sterility and livestock murrainleft the monks of Pipewell Abbey (Cistercian, Northants.) so poor that "someiimes they sat down in the refectoryfor three or four days with only black bread and pottage and sometimes they bought their bread from market to market''.l50 Chron.de Parco Lude, p. 24. Cal. Pat. Rolls, I3I3-I7) pp. 387 8146 Ibid., I3I7-2I, p. 227. 147 I am gratefulto Miss Barbara Harveyfor providingme with this reference from WestminsterAbbey Muniments, I7II8. 148 Cf. my Bolton Priory, pp. 78) I49-50* 149 Extractsfrom the Plea Rolls, I307-27, ed. G. Wrottesley (William Salt 144 145

Soc., X, I889), p. 25. 150 Cited in E. Power,

PP- 434-

The Medieval English Wool Trade (Oxford, I94I),

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

3I

That the famine years did not only create diiculties for impecuniousmonasteriesand strugglinghospitalsis shown by the reactionof Thomas of Lancaster,holderof the greatestseigneurial estatein England. Lancaster'shuge incomegenerallyfailedto meet the extraordinarily high levelof his expenditureandthe famineyears undoubtedlyworsenedhis position. Contraryto his estate policy of convertingdirect exploitationto demesne leasing,the earl was forced to take up abandonedland throughlack of tenantsas rcnts fell drasticallyon some manors. And his attemptsto maximize profits,before and after the famineyears, led to high-handedand extortionatemethodsof raisingcashfromhis tenants.l5l On a numberof greatestatesthe agrariancrisisdoesappearto have marked a turning-pointin demesne productionand exploitation. On the RamseyAbbeyestates,wheredirectexploitationwas already decliningin the late thirteenthcentury,a notablerevivalin the early fourteenthcenturyendedafterabout I320. A majorfactorwas the abbey'sinability,in straitenedcircumstances,to providesuicient capitalinvestmentto replacelivestockwiped out in the murrainof I3I9-20. The reeves were left to rebuild by their own available resourcesover the next fifteento twentyyears.l52 This fits almost exactlywith the tighteningup of financialcontrolon the estatesof St. Swithun'sPriory,Winchester,where greaterfinancialburdens wereimposedon reevesandsergeantsin a ten-yearburstof auditorial activitybeginningabout I3I8.153 On the lands of ChristChurch Canterbury,where wool productionreachedits peak in the years I308-I5, a sizeablefallin woolsalesin I3I5-I6 wasmoreor less made up by I320 but the pre-faminelevel of wool productionwasnever quiteregainedbeforethe catastrophicmortalitiesof I324-6 led to a continued decline in sheep-farming.154An ordinance of Prior Eastry,datingfrom the post-murrainperiodof the early I320S and assigninga varietyof sourcesof manorialincome to restoringthe numbersof livestockon the manors,showshow seriouslythe priory was takingits livestocklosses.l55 In the West Ridingthe agrarian crisis supplementedby Scottishraids certainlymarkedthe end of a twenty-yearperiodof expansionin BoltonPriory'seconomyandthe Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, pp. 3I-5. Raftis, op.cit., pp. I37, 239-4I. 153 J. S. Drew, "ManorialAccounts of St. Swithun's Priory, Winchester" in Carus-Wilson(ed.), Essaysin Econ.Hist.,ii, pp. 2I-4, repr. from Eng.Hist. Rev.,lXll (I947). 15 4 Smith, Cant.Cath.Priory,pp- I 55-6155 Brit. Mus., Cott. MS. E. iv, fo. I77. Smith, op. cit., pp. 2I8-I9 prints the ordinanceand summarizesthe sheep statistics on pp. I52-3. 151 152

PAST AND PRESENT

32

NUMBER 59

level of demesneexploitationachievedin the pre-famineera, once lost, wasneverrecovered.l56Andon the Titchfieldmanorof Inkpen in Berkshirethe sheep-flock,decimatedin the famineyears,was not restoredto its earlierstrengthuntil the very eve of the BlackDeath. Cerealproductionthere never recoveredits pre-faminelevel; by I347-8 it hadfallento a merehalfof its earlyfourteenth-century level and the reductionhad largelybeen broughtaboutby allowingsome arableto revertto pastureand leavingsome land fallowfor two or threeyearsat a iime.l57 Demesne acreagereductions,someiimes temporary,sometimes permanent,can be seen on severalestatesat this date and the land going out of use was by no meansalwaystakenup in tenantleases bringingin increasedrents or pasturedues. Probablyat least 600 acreson BoltonPriory'shome farmand two adjacentgrangeswere lying idle after I320.168 The effect of the agrariancrisis and Scottishraidson demesnecultivationwas still to be seen in this area in I325-6. At Skiptonin that year,forty-eightacresthreeroodsof demesneland,whichbeforethe ScottishattackshadbeenworthIod. an acre,lay uncultivatedthroughlackof tenantsand, thoughvalued as pastureat 4d. an acre,in factbroughtin nothing"throughlackof animalsin the area''.l59 Similarlyin nearbySilsdenthere were no takersfor some fifty-two acres of uncultivateddemesne,nor any income from the land as agistment because of the Scottish destructionand livestockmurrain.l60Demesneculiivationsuffered, too, in southYorkshire. Onlyfour acresthreeroodsof demesneat Carltoncouldbe let in I322; nineteenacreswereleft fallowand the remainingthirty-eightacres lay "wasteand uncultivated(frisce et incuke) . . . throughlackof animalsin thoseparts". The demesneat Cowickwasevenworseaffected,withninetyout of I20 acresuntilled andthe restfallow. At Campsallforty-fiveout of I40 acreshadbeen ploughedbut were not sown with spring crops "becauseof the dearnessof seed in thoseparts",and no profitcouldbe takenfromit as herbage,certainlyowing to the shortageof animalsafter the murrain. On the same grounds thirty-fiveout of I20 acres at Cf. my Bolton Priory, PP. I3-I8* Watts, "Model for the Early FourteenthCentury",p. 544, and his thesis "The Estates of Titchfield Abbey, c. I245 to c. I380" (University of Oxford B.Litt. thesis, I957), PP. I75, I82. 158My Bolton Priory, p. I7. 1S9There may have been a renewedoutbreakof cattle-plague,for the account mentions the loss of thirteen out of twenty-six oxen "in murrain through common infirmity"and six of the carcasseswere fit for nothing but throwingto the dogs. 160P.R.O., SC6/II48/2IE 158

157

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

33

Rothwell and twenty-one out of I69 acres at Seacroft were also left unsown that year.l6l In ocherparts of the country we meet the same phenomenon. The accountant on the Leicestershire manor of Fleckney did not answer in I322 for twenty acres of demesne, valued at ss., because "he could find neither animals to till the land nor even animals in the area to agist it as pasture''.l62 At Sheen (Surrey) there was a striking fall of over a hundred acres of demesne between I3I6-I7 and I32I-2. The whole of this reduction related to the two crops which grow on and it looks as if the worst land was inferior soils - oats and rye being taken out of cultivation.l63 The same was taking place on some of the manors belonging to the abbey of Bec during the early fourteenth century, where there was a slackening in demesne cultivation but no long-term breakdown during the reign of Edward II.164 And on the bishop of Winchester's estates demesne lands were going out of cultivation on a considerable scale in this period. Here the peak of demesne expansion had long passed and substantialreductions in the demesne acreage had already taken place in the latter half of the thirteenth century. Nevertheless yields on some demesnes continued to fall, a fall which would presumably have been more markedhad not the poorer lands been dropping out of cultivation.l65 For the Winchester lands the early fourteenth century was a period when the arableacreageof the demesne declined much further. The total area under seed in the five years prior to the famine (I3IO-II tO I3I4-I5) averagedsome 9,725 acres. In I3I5-I6 there was a drop to 9,375 acres and then in I3I6-I7 a resounding fall to 8,525 acres. There was a slight recovery the following year to 8,737 acres and much of the ground was, in fact, made up by I320-I when the area stood at g,oss acres. But between 132I and I325 there was another sizeable fall of over 750 acres to a figure of 8,292 acres, a level which remained fairly stable over the subsequent decade.l66 The declining demesne was certainly not compensated for by a switch lRl p R.O., SC6/I I45/2 16 P.R.O., SC6/I I46/l7lfi3 p R.O., SC61IOI4/5-8 164 M. Morgan, TheEnglishLandsof the Abbeyof Bec (Oxford, I946), PP. 98IOS. 165Titow, thesis op. cit., pp. 28-35 and his EnglishR?cralSociety I200-1350 (London, I969), PP. 52-3. The most substantialacreagereductionscame in the

land underoats. Titow's recentlypublished WinchesterYieldsnow suppliesthe evidence and full discussion of its problems. The figures allow for the change from 166 Titow, thesis Op. Cit., PP. 2I-2. customary to standard acres which some demesnes were undergoing about this time: cf. Titow, WinchesterYields,pp. 9, IO n.I, ISO-I.

PAST AND PRESENT

34

NUMBER 59

to stock-farming; nor, though some land was let out to tenants, was it partof a generalpolicy of preferencefor rents as againstarableprofits. The letting of demesne land to tenants can only accountfor a portion of the decline in demesne acreage which, as Dr. Titow convincingly argues, is most plausibly explained by the shedding of unproductive lands.l67 For great corn-producing estates with a large surplus for sale, the dearth of the famine years could prove far from unwelcome, as the production failure was more than compensated by the exceedingly high price of corn. Despite the dismal yields and contracting demesne arable, sale of the major grains on the Winchester manors brought in some 23 per cent more in I3I5-I6 than in the previous year.l68 The next year, I3I6-I7, was in fact financially one of the best years in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for the bishop's estates. Total profits, at almost ?6,406, were exceptionally high the product of handsome returns from demesne exploitation, especiallyof coursefrom grainsales, and also of increasedreceiptsfrom tenants.169 The latter were boosted by the rise in revenuesfrom fines of courts which, with the rapid turnover of tenements during the famine years, reached their highest level until the Black Death.l70 On the estates of Christ Church Canterbury,too, the " 'high farming' period par excellence" of peak manorialprofits embraced the years of the agrariancrisis, and profits on the Ely estates were also extremely high between I3I9 and I323. The great fall in agriculturalprofitson these estates began around I325, the beginning of two decades of depression for arablefarmers, with low corn prices and higher labour costs.l7l

As we have been seeing, the agrariancrisis did not affect all areas and all landlords in the same way. For some it was no more than a disturbed, but passing, phase which had no lasting consequences for their economy and demesne exploitaiion. Though it took the Ramsey manors two decades to make good the cattle wiped out in I3I9-20, Merton College was able to replace its livestock losses within Titow, thesis op. cit., pp. 22-8; Titow, Winchester Yields,pp. I-2. Farmer, thesis op. cit., p. 88. l69 Titow, thesis op.cit.,pp. Io, 55-6, 67-68a. Titow defines "profit"in this sense as "receipts corrected,in the case of manorialproduce, for the value of produce sent out of the manor or received from outside other than as a cash transaction":ibid.,p. 9, n. 2. l70sbid.,pp. 6I-3, II3; Postan and Titow, "Heriots and Prices", p. 407, Table I and Graph I. 171Smith, Op. Cit., pp. I43-4; E. Miller, TheAbbeyand Bishopric of Ely (Cambridge, I95I), pp. I05-6. The Winchester estates also experienced a substantialdrop in profits in this period: Titow, thesis Op. Cit., pp. 68-8a. 167 168

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322 35

two years at Cheddingtonand Cuxham.l72 Dr. Harvey'scareful study of Cuxham,a villagesituatedon good light graveland chalk soils,hasno mentionof famineor murrainwhich,as we havenoticed, dealtfairlylightlywiththe Cuxhamherds;on this "classical"manor, the socialandeconomicchangesseemdistinctlya consequenceof the BlackDeath.l73 At ChertseyAbbey(Benedictine,Surrey),the first half of the fourteenthcenturywas the period in which the "high "was raising his farming"abbot, John of Rutherwick(I307-47), house. . . to a positionof economicimportancewithoutparallelin its history,beforeorafter''.l74 Of majorlayseigneurialestates,those of the Clares, situatedpredominantlyin East Arlgliaand Wales, showedfew notablesigns of changein the earlyfourteenthcentury, thoughthis was a periodof stabilityratherthan expansion. Again the significantchangescome at the BlackDeath and after.l75 And a veryrecentstudyof ruraleconomyin the south-westpointsout that the estatesof the earl of Cornwallcertainlyshow no adverseeffects overthis period,though sincethey dealwith revenuesdrawnlargely from rents and other tenant dues the directeffectsof the crisis on agriculturalproductioncannotbe measured.l76 For some major landlords,therefore,the evidence suggests a scarcely interruptedpattern of estate exploitationin the early fourteenth century, though there are seldom signs of notable expansionin demesneeconomyduringthe half-centurybeforethe was a Black Death. For others the agrariancrisis of I3I5-22 turning-pointwhich, succeededby a lengthy depressionfor corngrowersand wool-producersalike,endedor hastenedthe erldof an expandingdemesneeconomy. On such estates recoveryin direct exploitation,whereit was made,tendedto be slow and partial. At enterpriseby these of agrarian bestthe crisiswasa seriousinterruption landlords;at worstit killedit. 172 Cf. above, pp. 24-5 for Ramsey; Merton information supplied by Mr. P. S. Brown. 173 p. D. A. Harvey, A Medieval OxfordshireVillage-Cuxham I240-I400 It is worth noting that the highest recordedprofitof the manor (Oxford, I965). ibid., in the period from I29I to I355 was easily the ?64 I8S. od. of I3I6-I7:

P- 95-

p. 47. 174 D. Knowles, The ReligiousOrdersin England,i (Cambridge,I948), The famine probablybrought a temporaryinterruptionto Rutherwick'sworkin a list of his building achievements, covering thirty-two years in all, only eight yearspass without comment and these include I3I4, I3I6, I3I7 and I3I9: E. Toms, "ChertseyAbbey and its Manors under Abbot John de Rutherwyk I307-47" (University of London Ph.D. thesis, I935), pp. 23-4. 176 G. A. Holmes, The Estates of the Higher Nobility (Cambridge, I957), pp. 88-92. 176 Hatcher, Rural Econ. and Soc. in the Duchy of Cornwall,p. 85.

36

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

VII If the agrarian crisis could create difficulties for great landlords, with their massive resources, it goes without saying that for the peasantry, especially for those substantial numbers with insufficient land to provide for themselves and their families even under normal conditions,l77 the famine years must have brought unimaginable hardships and suffering. The question is whether these years were sufficientlydamaging to marka turning-point in the fortunes of rural society as a whole and a long-term end to population growth. Miss Harvey looked to rents and especially to the topography of settlement notably evidence for land vacancies and deseriions as providing the best guide to the problem.l78 However we must rememberthat where vacancies do occur in the famine years or thereabouts, they are evidence of very grave trouble. Land was not something to be given up lightly, least of all at this date. As Dr. Titow says of the Winchester peasantry in the period before the Black Death, "the choice before a large seciion of the population must have been to cultivate, however poor the holding, or to starve''.l79 If the pressure on the land in the more populous parts of the country was as great as we believe it to have been, the sizeable rural proletariatof landless and near-landlessmust have been only too ready to gobble up any land which came its way. Certainly this is what happened on some estates at the Black Death when exceedingly heavy mortalities sometimes left no immediate tenement vacancies as surviving members of the family, neighbouring tenants still alive, outsiders, and the near-landless jumped readily into dead men's shoes.l80 So where we find cases of substantial difficulty in finding tenants for holdings in the early fourteenth century we must regard the situation as serious. And we ought to look for the most extensive vacancies not in those areas which we know to have been overpopulated or at least very populous, but in the less wealthy, more thinly-settled areas where the hardship involved in making a living from the land might have left the peasantry most vulnerable of all in the agrariancrisis of the early fourteenth century. Cf. Postan in Camb.Econ. Hist. of Europe,i, p. 6I9. B. Harvey, "PopulationTrend", esp. p. 24. Titow, thesis op. cit., p. I2I. 180 Cf. for instance, Miss A. E. Levett's works, The BlseckDeath an the Estatesof the See of Winchester, in P. Vinogradoff(ed.), OxfordSt1ldiesin Social and Legal History, v, and "The BlackDeath on the St. Albans Manors"in her Stadiesin ManorialHistory (Oxford, I938), pp. 248-86. Cf. also J. A. Raftis, "Changesin an English Village after the Black Death", MedSieval Studies,xxix 177

178

179

(I967),

pp. I58-77.

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I 3 I 5-I 322

37

Incomplete though it is, demographic evidence indicates that population growth might have been past its peak in some areas by the end of the thirteenth century. The population had stopped growing by the I280S in some villages in the Lincolnshire fens and had begun to decline in others by the early fourteenth century.l8l From an admittedlysmallsample, ProfessorSylviaThrupp showed that there was a significant downward drift in replacement rates between and I350 0 a number of East Anglian manors, a trend which she I280 considered capable of bearing a Malthusian interpretation.l82 And Postan and Titow were able to illustrate, from the record of heriots received, a notable rise in death-rates and a sizeable degree of overpopulation on some of the Winchester estates. They demonstrated the "calamity-sensitive" nature of society there by pointing to the close relationship of bad harvests, high corn prices, and heavy a connection particularly obvious among the poorer mortalities tenants. Though the number of heriots paid subsided from its famine level, it remained extremely high and did not again fall to its already high pre-famine rate.183 The court rolls which I have looked at do not present a similarly striking rise in the number of heriots. Compared with the Black Death years, when almost every entry mentions a death, the court rolls of the famine period often show nothing untoward unless closely examined. Since the very poor, the worst sufferers, were often sub-tenants or landless labourers, we should not expect court rolls to reveal anything like the whole picture. What they do indicate is a considerable amount of severe rural disturbance and a good number of holdings changing hands. For example, on the manor of Hindolveston (Norf.), belonging to Norwich CathedralPriory, three times as many holdings changed hands in the famine years as in an average year of the early fourteenth century.l84 We get a microcosmic view of what must have been going on in many parts of the country in the Buckinghamshire village of SheriIlgton. Here the smallholders, badly hit in the famine years, were having to sell out to the modest advantageof those families better placed who were able to buy up many minute parcels of land to add to their own holdings. 181 H. E. Hallam, "Population Density in the Medieval Fenland", Econ. pp. 78-9- and his Settlementand Society Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xiv (I96I-2), (Cambridge,I965), p. 22I. 182 S. L. Thrupp, "The Problem of Replacement-Ratesin Late Medieval English Population",Econ.Hist. Rev., znd ser., xviii (I965), pp. I06-7, I 17. pp. 392-4I7. 83 Postan and Titow, "Heriotsand Prices",ibid., xi (I958-9), 184 From figures in Saunders, Obedientiaryand Manor Rolls of Norwich CathedralPriory, p. 40.

38

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

FromSheringtonand the two nearbyvillagesof WestonUnderwood and Olney there survive more than three times as many peasant chartersdaiing from I3I5-24 as from either the precedingor the subsequentdecade.l85 The following figures in Table III, from three Hertfordshire manorsof St. AlbansAbbeyand the largeCambridgeshire manorof Chesterton,belongingto BarnwellPriory,providefurtherillustration of the effectof the agrariancrisis on the land market. TableIII SURRENDER OF HOLDINGS*

Yeart I 307-8 I 308-9 I 309- I 0 I3I0-I I I3II-I2 I3I2-I3 I3I3-I4 I3I4-I5 I3I5-I6 I3I6-I7 I3I7-I8 I3 I8-I9 I3I9-20 I 320-2 I I32I-22 I322-23 I 323 -24 I324-25 I325-26

Park (Herts.)

Codicote (Herts.)

5 5 3 6 4 4 4 5 30 I2 9 6 5 4 IS II

7 IS 6 I0 6 6 7 9 29 38 I3 I0 I|| 7 29 I8 25 22 8

I5 I2

Barnet* (Herts.) 6 I6 8 6 I0 3 I3 20 3I 28

9? sil 5 I0 I9 I3 7 5 oll

Chesterton (Cambs.) 5I 72 76 7I 36 4I 60 42 64 II6

59 70 46 49 I29 64 67 58 49

* Based on the Court Books of Park, Codicote, and Barnet(Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 40625, fos. 4I-64; Stowe MS. 849, fos. 30-49; Add. MS. 40I67, fos. 33vs3v); and the Court Book or Register of Gersums and Fines on the Manor of Chesterton, the "RegistrumPrioratus de Barnewel"(Bodl. Lib., MS. Gough Camb. I, fos. 60-I32). t Regnal years of Edward II (8 July-7 July). + The scribe seems consistently to have attributed the summer court each year to the wrong regnal year of Edward II and I have thereforeadjustedthe figures to bring them into line with those of the other manors. %No winter court recorded. 1INo spring/summercourt recorded.

In all fourplacesthe highfiguresfor I3I5-I7 and I32I-2 standout sharply,a veiled reflectionof the disturbedstate of rural society during the agrariancrisis. On the manor of Codicoteonly the year I342-3 with twenty-fivesurrendersapproximated, in the period 185 A. C. Chibnall, Sherington:Fiefs and Fields of (Gmbridge, I965), pp. I2I, I3I-3.

a Bachinghamshire Village

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I 3 I 5-I 322

39

and I300-49, to the thirty-eight surrenders of holdings in I3I6-I7 and I32I-2.l86 In the fifteen years the twenty-nine in I3I5-I6 before the famine there were on average about eight surrenders a year; in the period I326-48 there were about nine a year; while in the the averagewas as high as nineteen a year (or decade I3I5/I6-I324/5 when no summer court was twenty-one if we discount 13I9-20 recorded). In some cases, naturally,it was a question of transferring propertyto other members of a family an aged parentrelinquishing his hold on a tenement in favour of an able-bodied son or the provision for a newly-married couple, which were normal occurrences in the medieval village. But "family"transactionsaccountedfor only fortyThe vast four surrendersat Codicote between I3I5/I6 and I324/5. majority of the surrenders (I44 out of I92) were taken up by tenants who had no apparent connection with the surrenderingparties.l87 the largest Of these I92 surrenders in the decade I3I5/6-I324/5 entailed no more than a few acres and the vast majority under two acres. It would be wrong to suggest that it was simply a matterof the smallholders selling out to the big men in the village. Nor were the same tenants doing all the buying. Even so there were few if any who were both buying and selling at the same time - investing in purchasing land to re-sell it. On the whole it is a case of gains for some tenants and losses for others. An example of one smallholder probably forced to sell out in the agrariancrisis is Michael Gorman of Codicote. With his wife he surrenderedfive parcelsin all-totalling a messuage, two pieces of land and one-and-a-half acres-between I3I51I6 and I3I61I7. By November I32I, the third famine year, Michael Gormanwas dead. He died, as he had probablylived, in abject poverty. The court book has the stark entry: "no heriot because he had nothing" and his land, such as there was of it, was taken into the lord's hand.l88 At the other end of the scale there were certainly tenants able to consolidate and build up their own holdings on the misfortunes of others. Roger le Heldere, a free burgage tenant at Codicote, may have had other landholdingsin the areato provide him with the capital for investing in property at Codicote. Whether or not this was the case, he was able to make no fewer than twenty-two separatepurchasesbetween I3I5/I6 and I324/5, amountingtosixteenThough I have not made 186 Brit. Mus., Stowe MS. 849, fos. 24v-74v. a similarlydetailedanalysisof the land marketat Park, Barnet,and Chesterton the patternof transactionsat Codicoteseems in no way unrepresentativeof these other manors. 187 Only one holding was taken into the lord's hand following a surrenderand there are few other signs of vacant holdings in Codicote (cf. below, p. 40). fo. 43v. 188 Brit. Mus., Stowe MS. 84,

PAST AND PRESENT

4o

NUMBER 59

and-a-halfacresanda few plotsof land. These acquisitionsaccount for practicallythe wholeof the holdingof twentyacres,a cotland,two messuagesand threeshops with whichhe was creditedin an extent of I332.l89 The rapid quickeningof the land marketat Codicoteand other St. Albans manorsin I3I5/I6-I324/5 undoubtedlyacceleratedthe processof disintegraiion of the traditionaltenementalstructurewhich wasalreadywellunderway. Fromthis dateif not before,half-virgate and ferlingholdingsceasedto bear even a favadeof realityas they splinteredinto manypiecesin the handsof differenttenants. By the I330S tenantswerewillingto pay fines to havethe rents andservices on their disintegratedtenements properly apportioned.l90The complexityof the landholdingpatternis fully indicatedin an entry in the I332 extent, pointingout that Rogerle Dryvereheld a halfvirgate"exceptfor IIi acreswhich II tenantshold''.l9l This state of affairsowed much to the agrariancrisisof I3I5-25. Thoughthe patternof landholdingon the St. Albansestateswas affectedby the crisis,there were no land vacancieson a largescale or lasiingmorethan a shortiime. Nonetheless,Xche courtbooksdo showthat pressurewas put upontenantsto takeup holdingsas they fell vacantduringthis period. Thereappearto havebeen no vacant tenementsat Cashio(Herts.)before I3I7, but xiineholdingswere taken into de lord's hand in I3I7-I8 and reluctanttenants were electedby the homageto takethem. Fourholdings(twoferlingsand two half-virgates) werevacantin I32I-2 andagainthe vacancieswere filledby electionsthe followingyear.l92 Tenantsat Park,too, were orderedin I3I6-I7 and I32I-2 to takeup the few tenementsthatfell into the lord'shand.l93 At Barnettherewereordersto retainseven holdingsor partsof tenementsin the lord'shandin I323-4.194 And at Codicotethree holdings lay apparentlyunwantedin I322-3.195 There wereno signs of unwantedland in the I332 extent,however, apartfroma few vacantplotsin the market-place and sevenshopsin a ruinousconditionfor lackof tenants.l96 Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 40734, fos. I2v.-I3r. Brit. Mus., Stowe MS. 849, fos. s7r., 6Ir. 191 Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 40734, fo. sv 192 Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 40626, fos. 40r-4Sv. For frequent cases of "elections"to unwanted holdings on the Winchesterestates, cf. Titow, thesis Op. Cit., pp. I2I-2 and Eng. Rural Soc., pp. 94-5. Cf. also B. Harvey, "PopulationTrend", p. 35. 93Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 40625, fos S2rn58r94Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 40I67, fos SIv195Brit. Mus., Stowe MS. 849, fo. 45v. 196 Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 40734, fo. ISr. 189

190

THE AGRARIANCRISIS IN ENGLAND I 3 I 5- I 322

4I

Elsewhere,however,the impact of the famine producedmore extensivetenementvacancies. The Hampshiremanorsof Titchfield Abbeysaw no sign of landgoingout of cultivationat this date. But vacanciesat Inkpen,the abbey'soutlyingmanorsituatedon poorsoil in south Berkshire,left suicient rent defectsfor the greatfamine thereto be describedas "a minorBlackDeath''.l97 In Oxfordshire, too, marginalareas struggled in the famine years though their depopulationmay well have been a gradualand slow processgoing back far into the thirteenth century. There had been eighteen holdingsat Langleyin Leafieldin I279; in I3I6 the tax collectors noted that the village containedonly four tenants. Heythropwas reducedto three tenantsin I3I6; Shelswellwas describedas "little and poor";while Asterley,a twelfth-centuryclearingon the edge of WychwoodForest, had its church united with the neighbouring parishof Kiddingtonin I3I6 for reasonsof poverty.l98 The twenty bovatesof landlying uncultivatedat Scawbyin Lincolnshirein I32I wereprobablyonly a smallportionof the totalamountof landwhich had gone out of cultivationin the county.l99 In a petitionto parliament in I32I-2 the men of Lincolnshirepointedout that manyhad left their lands and houses. They asked the king and his council to haveregardfor the damageand lossesthey had sufferedand were still sufferingfromthe murrainof beasts,low-lyinglandssubmerged undersuch a volumeof water,and from crop failure.200 Some of the most clearcutevidenceof vacanciescausedby the agrariancrisiscomes fromthe honourof Tutbury,belongingto the earl of Lancaster. On the Derbyshiremanorsof the honour,rents fell by 3O per cent between I3I3-I4 and I32I-2. On a sampleof fifteenmanors,fifty-fivebovatesand over3,OOO acresof land went out of use during this period. It was said that tenants had abandonedit throughpoverty,that it was too poorto be cultivated, andthatno new tenantscouldbe foundto takeit up, evenas pasture, becauseof a severestockshortagecausedby murrainandthroughthe recentpoliticaldisturbances. 201 97Watts, thesis op. cit., pp. I75, I82.

K. J. Allison, M. W. Beresford,and J. W. Hurst, The DesertedVillagesof OxfordSshire(Dept. of English Local History, Occasional Papers, xvii, Leicester, I965), pp. 5-6; W. G. Hoskins, The Makingof the EnglishLandscape (London, I955), p. 93. 199Cal. Inq. Post Mortem,vi, p. I97. 200 Rot. Parl., i, p. 400b. Cf. W. Abel, Die Wustungen desausgehenden Mittelalters, 2nd edn. (Stuttgart, I955), pp. 74-5, and his Agrarkrisen und Agrarkonjunktur, p. 46, for contemporarydesertionof settlement in Germany. 201 Maddicott, Thomasof Lancaster,p. 3I citing J. Birrell, "The Honour of Tutbury in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries" (University of BirminghamM.A. thesis, I962), pp. 53-7. 198

42

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

Similar, if less spectacular, indications of rural poverty, vacant holdings, and shortage of tenants, often associated with the effects of livestock murrain, can be found for many other regions of England. Oicials were finding it diicult to find tenants willing to take on the farm of holdings, especially capital messuages, in some twenty-eight Herefordshirevillages during the winter of I322, and in the summer of that year it was explained that pasture rents in at least thirteen villages in Devon and Cornwall were lower than usual "through lack of animals".202 It was also hard to persuadetenants to rent pasture on some Wiltshire manors and the same complaint was heard on the bishop of Winchester's estates, the reason being that "almost all the cattle (averia) of the area are dead".203 Nor, for lack of animals, could purchasersof agistment be found on the Leicestershire manor of Stapleford, and a few tenements there and at Newbold (Leics.) were in the lord's hand on account of the poverty of tenants or their inability (impotencia) to culiivate the holdings.204 For the north of England, suffering at this time from political upheaval as well as from famine and murrain,the long roll of ministers' accounts, dealing for the most part with the confiscatedpossessions of Thomas of Lancaster, paints a melancholy picture of poverty in the countryside of south Yorkshire in I322.2?5 Almondbury, near Huddersfield, is one example from many where herbage brought in no income "because of lack of animals in those parts both through the common murrain and through the great depredaiion in the time of disturbance". Shortage of tenants was also a frequent complaint and though, proportionate to the rental income, the vacancies were seldom serious they could occasionally be fairly substantial. In Ackworth, for example, twenty-six bovates were in the king's hand because their tenants "had been destroyed on the arrivalof the king in those parts last year and the land now lies uncultivated and not sown with spring seed on account of the inability (impotencia) of che tenants". At Stainforth there had been a few holdings vacant in Thomas of Lancaster'stime but the loss of 38s. 2d. from nine acres of meadow there was new: the tenants had had to give up the meadow through destitution (propter inopiam) and no new takers could be found. Such difficulties were not necessarily short-lived. Shortage of tenants still accounted for vacancies in numerous villages in 202 203 204 205

P.R.O., SC61II45/6; SC61II46/2I P.R.O., SC6/II45/I2* Titow, "Weather",p. 388. p R.O. SC6/II46/I7The foilowing examples are all taken from P.R.O.,

SC6/II45/2I.

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I 3 I 5- I 322

43

Lancashireand the Forestof Bowlandin I323-4. Thoughthe total extent of the vacantland was only a small proportionof the total rentedarea,someuntenantedholdings such as one of twenty-four acresin Burnley,one of thirty-fouracresin Tottington,and one of fifty-three acres in Briercliffe were of substantial size.206 Uncultivatedland,lackof tenants,andshortageof livestockwerestill noted in the Skiptonareaof the West Ridingin I325-6, and in the same year in the North Riding we find lastingtracesof tenements destroyedby the Scots in Easingwoldand numerousholdingslying vacant,withouttakers"owingto the povertyof the area",in Goathland on the North Yorkmoors.207 Of coursetherewerepartsof Englandwhereassarting,a reflection of steady pressureon the land, continuedafter the famine years. Miss Harvey pointed to a number of such areas though, as she admitted, such reclamationwas never on the heroic scale and amountedfor the most part to "nibblingat the waste".208Her examples could be augmented by others, sometimes of quite extensiveareas. In Gloucestershire anassartof sixty acreswasbeing madein I3I7 "at the Hoarstone";one of ninety acresis registered at Littledeanin I3I9; and an assartof 60 acresat Abenhalloccursas late as I347.2?9 At Laughton,in the Wealdof east Sussex,the last assaulton the wastetook placein I324-5 when over I26 acreswere cleared. The extensionof the cultivatedareahadalreadyreachedits limits in some of Laughton'sneighbouringareasbut otherparishes continuedreclamationinto the I330S and I340S.21?Andat the other end of the country,in Nidderdalein the West Riding,assartingwas going on up tO I3I4 and againin the I340S wllen the documentary sourcesrecommence,thoughclearancewas probablyhaltedbetweeIl these dates by Scottishraids as well as crop failuresand livestock mUrrainS.211

The mere presence of assarting,however, is not necessarily evidenceof pressureon the land. Assartingand vacantland could be foundon the samemanorat the samedate. The largemanorof 206P R.O., SC61II48/6 -07P.R.O., SC61II48/2I (cf. above, p. 32); SC6/II48123. 208B. Harvey, "PopulationTrend", pp. 40-2. 209H. P. R. Finberg, Gloucestershire: the History of the Landscape(London, I955), P. 69. 210 J S. Moore, La^ghton:a Study in the Evolutionof the Wealden Landscape (Dept. of English Local History, OccasionalPapers,six, Leicester,I965), pp. 4I, 430 211 B. Jennings (ed.), A History of Nid.derdale (Huddersfield,I967), pp. 50, 54; and his A History of Harrogateand Knaresborough (Huddersfield, I970), pp. 64-7.

59 NUMBER

AND PRESENT PAST

44

(Yorks,W.R.), for instance,was an areawherenew rents Wakefield period.2l2 fornew land continueto be mentionedafterthe famine to references numerous more far by accompanied are Butthe entries rolls court Wakefield the land. In I326-7, for example, unoccupied reclaimed listnew rents from about twenty acres of assartedland, acresof sixty-one over record rolls same the but woodandwaste; from land the same year.2l3 Of coursethe courtrolls noted unoccupied land only when it was being takenup by a new tenant, unoccupied been many butfor everyacrementionedin the rollstheremusthave of the Riding morestill lying vacant and unwantedin the West incompleteness, their despite I320S. In fact if the Wakefieldrolls, arecarefullyanalysed,they point clearlyto a distinctturning-point and I32I, as inthe occupationof the land in that areabetweenI3I7 thefiguresin Table IV show. TABLE IV OF WAKEFIELDI3I2-3I* NEWAND UNOCCUPIEDLANDS ON THE MANOR

Years I3I2-I7 I3I7-22 I 323-3 I I3I2-3I

New Lands Taken No. of No. of Acres Entries 202 23 225

308i

Unoccupied Lands Taken No. of No. of Acres Entries 7

No court rolls survivet 50* 359

57 64

33 I I9 I52

vols.iii-iv, ed. J. Lister, Wakefield, * Based on the CourtRollsof theManorof lvii, lxxviii, cix, I9I7, Ser., Rec. Soc. Archaeol. (Yorks. Walker vol. v, ed. J. W. period I3I2-3I other the in rolls the in gaps numerous are There I930, I944). I3I7-22. span than the five-year in the hands of Thomas of t This was the period when the manor was I3I7 (Maddicott,op. cit.v pp. in Warenne de John dispossessed Lancaster,who 208,

236).

situation. Land values, as representedby entry fines, reflectthemorethan no often In I3I2-I3 entryfines for new landswere low, have been a 6d. an acre and seldom above 2S. There may well the fines because date this after shortly fines tighteningup on entry an acre 4S. tO Xs. for new land from I3I4 tO I3I7 were far higher, often fairly being acre an 7s. being commonplaceand ss. to entries most and slumped fines these I323 encountered.2l4After As cited in B. Harvey, op. cit., p. 40 for example. v, ed. J. T. Walker (Yorks. CourtRolls of the Manorof Wakefield, pp. 79-I34. I944), cix, Ser., Record Soc. Archaeol. in I3I6 to catchup on older assarts 214 An attemptmade by the administration ten years or so. Some 240 previous the in clearance vigorous very reveals made in the main entries in all refer to payments foriv,encroachments (Yorks.Archaeol. Soc. between six and ten years earlier:ibid.,II5-23.ed. J. Lister Record Ser., lxxviii, I930), pp. 88-94, 212

213

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

45

were at a rate of IS. tO 2S. an acre. Even this was higherthan the entryfines chargedfor previouslyunoccupiedland, usuallybetween 6d. and IS. per acre,whichexplainsthe attractionof vacantholdings comparedwiththe pre-I3I7periodwhentenantshadsometimesto be forcedinto takingthem up.2la The fall in landvaluesoccursstrikingly in entriessuch as the one for Horburyin I32s, whereWilliam the son of Alexanderof Wakefieldgives 6d. to takea bovateof land formerly held by Robert of Look for gs. a year, but now at a rent of 6d. a year until a fittingtime when the old unoccupiedn rent could be levied on the bovate.2l6 Most cases of reoccupied tenements,however,involved very small amountsof land; closer analysis might again reveal the more substantialtenants taking advantageof the vacationof holdingsby poorerpeasants. Assartingon the manorof Wakefieldappearsto have continued throughoutthe famine years of I3I5 tO I3I7. Whether,in this pastoralarea, the great cattle murrainof I3I9-21, adding to the earlierdisaster,provedthe turning-pointor whetherit was predominantlythe Scottishraidsof I3I8 and I3I9 iS hardto say. On Bolton Priory'sestatesin the WestRidingthe Scottishraidscertainlycaused extensivesocialupheaval. Rentdefects,neverrisingabove7s. 6d. in any year between I306-07 and I3I4-I5, increasedto almost ?53 between I3I5-I6 and 1322-3, diminishingthe rental incomeof the prioryby littleshortof a third.2l7 The numberof tenementsfalling vacarlt,whichrosein the famineyears,soaredas men fled fromthe Scotsandthoughrecoverywasbeginningby the dateof the lastextant account,in I324-5, extensivevacanciesstill remained. The Bolton estates,however,werein the directpathof the Scottishraidersas they passed up the valleys of the Aire and Wharfe. But there is no evidencethat they reachedanywhereclose to the four townshipsof Holme,Sowerby,HipperholmeandRastrick,wherethe greatamount of unoccupiedland on the manor of Wakefieldwas to be found. Fearof the raidersmightwell explainsomevacanciesbut the likeliest cause is the acute shortageof livestockwhich, as we have already seen, was besettingso many are as of south Yorkshireat this very date.218 The evidencefrom Wakefieldpoints towardsthe second decade of the fourteenthcenturybeing the turning-pointthere, as in some 215 Fines based on ibid., iii-v. For examples of tenants being compelled to take up tenements, cf. ibid., iii, ed. J. Lister (Yorks.Archaeol.Soc. Record Ser. p- 46lvii, I9I7), 218 Ibid-, v, p. 7I23, 25 *217 Cf. my Bolton Priory, pp. Sale of herbagebrought in nothing in Sowerbyin 2t8 Cf. above, pp. 32-3. I322 "becausealmost all the animals in that areawere destroyedby murrain": P.R.O., SC6/I I45 12 I .

46

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

other areas, for land settlement. The calamiiies of these years left many of the most vulnerable members of society poverty-stricken, landless, homeless, and starving. Smallholders scraping a meagre living from their acre or two of land were turned into refugees)tramps, vagrants living a mere shadow of an existence. And although, as we have seen, some land was still coming into use in the early fourteenth century, it hardly seems on such a scale as to compensate for that land lost to cultivation, especially in the areas considered above. By I34I the returns of the NonarumInquisitiones, a source which has often been discounted out of hand simply because it is a taxation record, reveal abundant evidence of large areas of land which had gone out of culiivation.2l9 If the extensive vacancies of the North Riding point largely to the legacy of Scottish depredations, the contractionof some I6,000 acres of former ploughland in the counties of Buckinghamshire,Cambridgeshireand Sussex (apart from 4,ooo acres in Sussex lost to the inroads of the sea), and the retreat of arable in a hundred or so villages in Shropshire and Bedfordshire, seem to have been related in some instances to poor soils, more often to shortage of seed corn, and above all to lack of tenants who had abandoned their holdings through poverty. Areas with lighter population densities tended to be particularly badly affected. Entries like the one for Tugford in south Shropshire,where "the tenants do not cultivate their lands because of poverty, and six tenants are begging", are fairly common.220 of course, no direct line can be drawn between the agrariancrisis of I3I5-22 and the contracting arable of the I34I-2 enquiry; some of the diEculties in I34I were undoubtedly the product of very recent harvest failures and sheep murrain.221 Still, the explanationsfor contractingarableaccord well with the situation I have been able to describe, as it existed in many parts of the country, particularlythe poorerand less populous regions, in the I320S. It is not hard to believe that in many instances such regions had never recovered from the agrarian crisis of I3I5-22. al9A. R. H. Baker,"Evidencein the 'NonarumInquisitiones'of Contracting Arable Lands in England during the Early Fourteenth Century", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xix (I966), pp. 5I8-32. Cf. also his fuller studies of Sussex and Bedfordshire:"Some Evidence of a Reduction in the Acreage of Cultivated Lands in Sussex during the Early Fourteenth Century", Sussex Archaeol. Collections,civ (rg66), pp. 1-5 and "ContractingArable Lands in I34I", Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc., xlix (I970), pp. 7-I7; and B. Waites,"MedievalAssessmentsand AgriculturalProsperityin Northeast Yorkshire, I292-I342", Yorks.Archaeol. 3rourn.,xliv (I972), pp. I34-45. 220 NonarumInquisitiones in CuriaScaccarti,temp.RegisEdwardiIII (Record Commission, I807), p. I86. 221 E.g.ibid., pp.I83-7 for many referencesto storms,floodingof the Severn in Shropshire,and "common sheep murrainthis year". And cf. also Titow, "Weather",pp. 396-8.

THE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

47

And entries in the NonarumInquisitionessuch as the one for Battlesden(Beds.),wherethe lordof the manorhadfortyacreswhich had not been sown for thirty years, show that some of the arable contractionwas of long standing.2 2 2 One claimmadeby manytenantsin I34I was that they had been impoverishedthroughthe weightof taxationand there is no doubt that the extra and heavy impositionson the peasantry'sresources broughtaboutby the increasingburdenof royaltaxationin the early fourteenthcenturycould havepreventedany hope of recoveryfrom the agrariancrisis. The rapidexpansionin the late thirteenthand earlyfourteenthcenturiesof the use of purveyancefor supplyingthe king's army in Scotland,as well as lay subsidiesand the need to furnishmenandarms,fell heavilyon the peasantry,especiallyon the very poor. For if the very poor were exemptfrom subsidies,they were not able to escapethe prise, which was becominga frequerst imposition,whentheircorn,beasts,andfoodstuffwouldbe seizedby the king's officials. The wealthycould buy themselvesprotection fromthe purveyors;the poorhad to suffertheirarbitraryand unjust demands. When we realizethat in such a criticalyear as I3I6 the king's men rode throughthe famine-strickenEnglish countryside demandingover I2,000 quartersof cornand malt,andproducein all it needsno greatpowersof imaginationto realize worthsome?7,???, that suchtaxationcouldmakeall the differencebetweensurvivaland destitutionfor many.223 A growing body of literature,perhaps writtenandcollectedby friarsor the poorerclergy,poignantlyreflects the sense of grievancefelt by the peasantryat this time over royal taxationand shows what effect it could have on their lives. "To seeksilverfor the king,I sold my seed",goesthe so-calledSongof the "whereforemy land lies fallow and learns to sleep. Husbandman, Sincethey fetchedmy faircattlein my fold, whenI thinkof my weal weep. Thus breedmanybold beggars,and our rye is I very 1wearly rotted and ruined before we reap".224And the Song againstthe King'sTaxes,datingfrom I338-9, echoedwith foreboding;"People arereducedto suchill-plightthattheycangiveno more;I fearif they had a leaderthey wouldrebel".225 222Non. Inq. pp. I2, I42e3 Dr. Madlicott, who is preparinga paper on the peasantryand royal taxation in the early fourteenth century (forthcomingin Past and Present),kindly provided me with these figures, based on Rotuli Scotiae, i (I8I4), pp. I60-I. Cf. also the comments of E. B. Fryde on purveyancein "Parliamentand the in T. A. Sandquist and M. R. Powicke (eds.), Essays French War, I336-40", in MedievalHistorypresentedto Bertie Wilkinson(Toronto, I969), p. 258. 4 4 Polzt. Songs, pp. I49-53I82-7. For the date, cf. Fryde, op. cit., p. 263, n. 7I. 225 INid.,pp.

48

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

VIII The hali-century before the Black Death was as a whole a disturbed period for rural economy and society in England. It was a period which saw the end of an expanding demesne economy; contraciing arable cultivation and a drop in agriculturalproduction; declining exports and great uncertainties in the wool trade; the end of the population rise and probably a fall in some areas; increasing distress and widespread poverty for large sections of the peasantry. Such were the trends of the early fourteenth century as a whole. A monocausal explanation would be simplistic. Obviously a number of factors were at work in shaping this situation. In some areas Malthusian causes seem to have been in operation. The drying-up of all available sources of colonizable land, falling crop yields from exhausted soils, proliferationof smallholderson the verge of starvation, and declining opportunities resulting in a drop in marriage- and birth-rates could all have played their part in some places. Taunton, on the Winchester estates, seems to have been one such locality.226 In the north, warfare and political upheaval, adding their weight to the famine and murrains, produced extensive poverty and social dislocation.227 In the south-east, floods and livestock epidemics in I325 and I326 did much grave damage, as we saw earlier.228 And throughout the country, royal taxaiion for fruitless wars againstthe Scots and then the French added to all these manifold mlserles.

The part played by the agrariancrisis in all this is not easy to isolate. It has certainlynot been my intention to claim too much for it, nor to elevate it to a position of sole responsibility for the reversal of agricultural production and population trends. On the contrary, I have been anxious to emphasize the very varied effects of the crisis on different regions and localiiies, on different types of landlord, and on different sectors of the peasantry. But all the evidence does go to demonstrate the gravity of the crisis and the severity of the disruption to the agrarianeconomy during the famine years. The extensive and lasting rural poverty to be witnessed in many parts of England in the aftermath of the crisis is on a scale which, especially when taken in conjunction with that so clearly illustrated in the 226 Postan and Titow, "Heriots and Prices"- Titow, "Some Differences between Manors and their Effects on the Condition of the Peasant in the Thirteenth Century",Agric. Hist. Rev., x (I962), pp. I-I3. 227 Scammell, "Robert I and the North of England"; E. Miller, War in the North (St. John's College, Cambridge,Lecture, I959-60). 228 Cf. above, pP I5 I6

TlIE AGRARIANCRISISIN ENGLAND I3I5-I322

NonarumInquisitiones, is hard to reconcilewith ProfessorRussell's 49 consideredopinionthat "Englandwasa prosperouscountryin all but the worstyears"of the earlyfourteenthcentury.229 The evidencepoints irresistiblyto the conclusionthat for some areasof the country,andfor the estatesof somemajorlandlords,the agrariancrisisdid markthe turning-pointin agricultural production, demesneexploitationand the occupationof the land. The areas worst aXectedwere the less denselypopulatedand poorerregions, wherethereseemsto havebeen a sharpbut protracteddownturnin the fortunesof ruralsocietyat the time of the crisis. And the crisis broughtsevereproblemsevenfor majorlandlords,withconsequential changesin the organizationand exploitationof their estates. Here too the famineyearsoften markeda turning-point. And wherenot themselvesa turning-point,they awcelerated developmentsalready underway, as on the Winchesterestates. On the other hand, in tnanyof the wealthierand more densely populatedpartsof the countrythereis no indicationthatthe agrarian crisis initiateda lastingdeclinein productionand occupationof the land. Clearlythe famineandmurrainshadimmediateconsequences. The manorialeconomyandvillagesocietyweredisturbedandshaken in these years. But there is no evidencethat in the long-termthe crisis was a turning-pointfor such areas. Though even in wellpopulated,and especiallyin over-populated,localities,where the mottomustoftenhavebeen"cultivateorstarve",too muchshouldnot be made of the fact that rents were paid and vacanciesfew as an argumentfor the generalwell-beingand prosperityof ruralsociety. If thereareno clearsignsof decline,the keynoteis usuallystagnation not buoyancy. Regions of expandingrural economy such as Cornwall- areseldomto be foundin the earlyfourteenthcentury.230 It is again hard to providea satisfactorygeneralanswerto the questionof whetherthe mortalitiesof the famineandits concomitant epidemicdiseasewere seriousenoughto have triggeredoff a lasting fall in population. Certainlythere was depopulationin some parts of the countryduringthe agrariancrisisbut one'simpressionis that this was morethroughmobility peasantsbeingforcedby poverty to relinquishholdingsand becomevagrants- than throughheavy faminemortalities(thoughnaturallythe two arenot unrelated). The loss of, say,ten percent(ata guess)of the population andthosethe poorerand weakermembersof societyfor the most part oughtto 229 ?30

Russell, "Pre-PlaguePopulation",p. 2I. Hatcher, Rural Econ. and!Soc. in the Duchy of Cornwall,pp.

80-IOI.

5o

PAST AND PRESENT

NUMBER 59

have been recoverablefairly quickly.23l Nevertheless, it is arguable that the increasing poverty of early fourteenth-century rural society was suflicient both to put an end to previous populationgrowth and to prevent any early recovery from famine mortalities being made. The low grain prices of the I330S and I340S may not point to population figures "tumbling down" but they aresuggesiive of an impoverished society in which, certainly in the late 1330S) a shortage of money checked the purchasing ability of the populace and heavy taxation created a general deflaiionarysituation.232 And the rise in agriculturalwages between the famine and the Black Death points to either increased demand for labour (which would be odd at a iime of arable contraciion and depressed prices) or a shortage of labour which is all the more striking when we recall both the reduced scale of arable cultivation and the many uprooted and landless peasants who must have been desperate for work at this date.233 In the final analysis, it seems Postan's view234that the reversal of agricultural production and population trends came some decades before the Black Death has much to commend it, if one bears in mind the need to modify the generalizationin the light of local and regional variations. To look to the "succession of bad seasons in the second decade of the fourteenth century" as a turning-point is also acceptable, if one remembers that the agrariancrisis was far from the sole agent of social, economic and demographicchange at this date; that its significanceis as one element, though an importantone, among many involved in bringing about an end to previous expansion and the beginnings of a recession in the rural economy of England.

University of Manchester

IanKershaw

231 The famine might even have been followed by a temporarilysharp rise in marriage and birth rates. Cf. Fourquin, Campagnes de la Region Parisienne,p. I92 and n. 6 for a suggestionof this in the Parisarea,where there is no indication that the famines instigated a marked and lasting fall in population. 232 Fryde, op. cit., pp. 264-S. 233 Rogers, op. cit., i, pp. 264, 269 and his Six Centuries of Workand Wages, gth edn. (London, I908), pp. 2I7-I8; Lord Beveridge,"WestminsterWages in the Manorial Era", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., viii (I955-6), pp. 20-2, 24; Titow, Eng. Rural Soc., p. 52, n. 28. I am gratefulto Dr. Farmerfor allowing me to see the figures which he has prepared,based on substantialirlformation from a wide area, for the forthcomingAgrarianHistory of Englandand Wales, vol. ii. 2S4 Postan, Rapports,p. 24I, and cf. above, pp. 3-4.