Year 1300-1399

List of contents

 

 

1346-1349: The Black Death and the Flagellants

The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the most deadly pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis. Shortly after 1300 rumours began to circulate in Europe about a plague in Central Asia. The general notion at that time was that this represented nothing but Gods fair punishment of all the disbelievers of Christian faith. This opinion only changed in 1346 when a ship from Crimea arrived to the port of Genua in Italy, with a crew dying of plague. The Black Death had arrived in Europe. Within few years the plague spread to all regions of Europe, the Nordic countries being the last to be affected. The plague came to Bergen in Norway with a ship from England in 1349. This first outbreak of plague was presumably the worst, but was followed four subsequent outbreaks during the 12th century.

The total number of deaths worldwide from the pandemic is estimated at 75 million people, worldwide. The total population in Europe was about 80 million before the plague. In Europe there were an estimated 40 to 50 million deaths, killing almost two-thirds of the population. It has been suggested that the general cooling and the many wet summers since 1300 with associated reduced harvest may have contributed towards making peoble less resistant towards the bacteria infection than else.

Many villages were deserted, and remained a widespread feature of Europe’s cultural landscape until the latter half of the 18th century. Doctors were without means to provide help and cure. The Christian Church recommended prayer, hymns, and a Spartan life in all respects. Spontaneously Flagellant groups arose across northern and central Europe in 1349, except in England. Thousands of flagellants gathered in great processions, singing and with crosses and banners, they marched throughout Europe whipping themselves. The mortification of their own flesh was considered a means of obtaining general forgiveness for personal misdeed committed. In Germany, just to be on the safe side, Flagellants also organised the burning of thousands of Jews opposed to them. One contemporary chronicler noted that anyone who did not join in the flagellation movement was accused of being in league with the devil.

As in other periods of general distress and trouble, when the Black Death was raging in Europe, rational behaviour had to step down in favour of blind faith and simplified, often irrational analyses of cause-and-effect.

 

Spread of the Black Death across Europe 1346-1949 (left). Victims of the plague (center). Flagellants whipping themselves (right).

 

Click here to jump back to the list of contents.

 

 

1362: Grote Mandrenke and the opening of the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands

Map showing the outline of the Netherlands with the developing Zuiderzee around year 100 (left) and around year 1000 (centre), according to Tramplers Geographischer Mittelschulatlas, 8th Ed., Wien. The map to the right shows the distribution of land sea 1658 according to Janssonius Map of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

 

The storm Grote Mandrenke (Great Drowning of Men) strikes the Netherlands in January 1362. Hurricane-force winds with enormous waves and a considerable sea level rise (a storm surge) due to the combined action of push by the wind and lifting of the sea surface because of low air pressure flooded extensive areas of the Netherlands, killing at least 25,000 inhabitants. This number should of cause be seen in relation to the much smaller population at that time than now. The storm also flooded and eroded large land areas in western Slesvig, Denmark, whereby sixty parishes is said to have disappeared totally. Also southern England was severely hit by the storm, with much damage on buildings and infrastructure.

The 1362 storm resulted in severe coastal erosion, contributing to the opening of a pre-existing topographical low in the Netherlands towards the North Sea. This process was already initiated by previous storms, and after a disastrous flood in 14 December 1287 (St. Lucia's flood) the name Zuiderzee came into general usage for this 120 km long pocket-like extension of the North Sea. The 1287 flood is the fifth largest flood in recorded history, and is believed to have drowned somewhere between 50,000 and 80, 000 people. 

The North Sea itself is also, in geological terms, a new feature in Europe. Following the termination of the last ice age about 12,500 years ago, the present North Sea was dry land. But due to the general (eustatic) sea level rise which followed until about 5000 years ago because of the melting of the last remnants of the big ice sheets in Europe and North America, and the reduction of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctic, global sea level rose and the North Sea was flooded. Before the North Sea expanded to its present size, a shallow topographical depression existed where the Zuiderzee later formed. Of cause this area had poor drainage, and over time became partly filled with peat. During storms like the Grote Mandrenke this peat was easily eroded, and the North Sea extended rapidly inland to form the Zuiderzee.

Around the Zuiderzee many fishing villages grew up and several of these developed into fortified towns with important trade connections with other ports in the Baltic Sea and in England. The village Amsterdam at the southern end of Zuiderzee was one of these settlements which later developed into a major city. Later this trade with base in the Zuiderzee developed with connections to most of the world. The associated economy formed the basis for Netherlands later period of status and glory, and the trade activities were also foundation for establishing its colonial empire.

 

Zuiderzee (IJsselmeer) as seen from north (left), and from the southeast (right). The big dam Afsluitdijk can be seen in the centre of the picture to the left. Between this dike and the open North Sea, a complex systems of tidal channels are seen. The distance from the barrier island coastline in the foreground to the innermost part of IJsselmeer is about 120 km. Reclaimed areas, polders, are seen in the foreground of the picture to the right. The city Amsterdam is located at the southern tip of IJsselmeer (the former Zuiderzee). Source: Google Earth.

 

It was a severe storm with new floodings in 1916 that prompted the early 20th century construction a large enclosing dam to reclaim parts of the Zuiderzee. The construction of this dam, the Afsluitdijk, for the first time made it possible to control changes of water level in the Zuiderzee during storms. With the completion of the dam in 1932 the Zuiderzee became the inland sea Ijsselmeer, and large water covered areas could be reclaimed for farming and housing by construction of surrounding dikes and pumping. These newly reclaimed areas are today known as polders.

Click here to jump back to the list of contents.