Beginning in 1315, a devastating famine swept across much of northern Europe. Years of relentless rain, failed harvests and food shortages brought widespread starvation and disease, making the Great Famine one of the worst disasters of the Middle Ages. The crisis would last for years, leaving medieval societies struggling to recover.
Two important books on the subject are The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century, by William Chester Jordan, and The Third Horseman: A Story of Weather, War, and the Famine History Forgot, by William Rosen. Drawing on these works, here are ten things to know about the Great Famine.
1. The Great Famine Affected a Vast Area
A medieval depiction of Famine and Death from an Apocalypse manuscript produced in Erfurt, Germany, around 1315–1317, during the Great Famine. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
William Chester Jordan explains that the Great Famine affected Ireland, Great Britain, France, the Low Countries, much of Germany, and parts of Poland, Austria and Scandinavia. This was an area of approximately 400,000 square miles, home to an estimated population of 30 million people.
2. Years of Heavy Rain and Flooding
The year 1315 saw drastic weather conditions, most notably lengthy periods of rain that caused flooding and left agricultural fields waterlogged. William Rosen adds that flooding and storms were particularly devastating for coastal areas, as rising seas reclaimed shoreline communities. For example, he writes:
more than two thousand acres of onetime marshland that had been converted to cropland in eight villages in Sussex were submerged.
Dunwich, which was one of the five wealthiest ports in England in the late thirteenth century, was so devastated by one flood after another that 269 houses (including crofts and barns), 10 other buildings, and 2 shops disappeared – fully a quarter of the entire port town. By the 1330s, most of the five parishes of the town, and up to 600 houses, had been ‘reclaimed’ by the newly unstable sea.”
3. Agricultural Yields Plummeted
A thirteenth-century German depiction of agricultural labour by an anonymous artist from the Middle Rhine region. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
The constant rains of 1315, which continued into 1316 and 1317, left farmland in such poor condition that it could no longer sustain the yields typical of medieval farming. While it is believed that, in the thirteenth century, farmers could harvest as much as ten bushels of wheat for every bushel sown, during the early years of the famine this production fell by between one-third and one-half. Similar declines affected other crops.
4. Farm Animals Suffered Too
Chroniclers also described how sheep, cows and horses suffered from the bad weather, which contributed to outbreaks of diseases known as “murrains”. Herds were depleted as animals weakened and died. Records from Ramsey Abbey in England show that cattle losses could be catastrophic. On one manor, only 6 of 48 animals survived, while on another, the number of cows fell from 45 to just 2.
5. Entire Villages Were Abandoned
Jordan notes that some peasant communities in Europe were simply abandoned, especially in Ireland and the Lübeck region of northern Germany, as their inhabitants decided these settlements could no longer recover. Coastal areas in the Netherlands also experienced large-scale population declines, as flooding forced people to find new homes. In the following years, many chroniclers reported roaming bands of landless peasants arriving in cities in search of work or food.
6. Even the Wealthy Were Affected
Deaths from famine – British Library MS Royal 15 E IV fol. 187
The landowners of medieval Europe — monarchs, nobles and the Church — saw the value of their estates collapse and their revenues plummet. Lands were sold, often at drastically reduced prices, while many landowners needed loans to survive. Some smaller monasteries and nunneries decided to close, while larger institutions, such as Canterbury Cathedral Priory, sold relics to pilgrims in order to raise money.
7. Attempts to Provide Famine Relief
Medieval governments and individuals attempted to find ways to mitigate the disaster and provide relief to those suffering from the famine. These measures included introducing price controls and arranging for food to be imported from southern Europe.
Jordan writes:
there was a spate of hospital and hospice foundations in the years of the Great Famine that gives one pause. Perhaps not all of the foundations were direct response to the famine, but the founders’ timing could hardly have been indifferent to the suffering they saw about them.
8. Warfare Made the Famine Worse
The ongoing famine was exacerbated by the many conflicts taking place across Europe at the time. Following his victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Scottish king Robert the Bruce was fighting the English along their border and in Ireland. Germany saw a war between Ludwig of Bavaria and Frederick of Austria, while the Kingdom of France continued its conflict with Flanders. There were also ongoing wars in Scandinavia and a revolt in Wales.
These military campaigns depleted resources, while raids and destruction devastated agricultural lands, adding to the general misery of the period.
9. The Survivors Would Later Face the Black Death
Although the massive plague pandemic that struck Europe occurred about thirty years after the Great Famine, the earlier disaster may have contributed to its devastating impact. Children who grow up suffering from malnutrition can experience long-term effects on their immune systems, potentially making them more vulnerable to disease later in life. Those who grew up during the first decades of the fourteenth century may therefore have been more vulnerable when the Black Death arrived.
10. The Great Famine and Medieval Folklore
An illustration from Hansel and Gretel, a fairy tale in which two children are abandoned during a famine. Artwork by Arthur Rackham, published in The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1909). Image: Wikimedia Commons.
The popular German folktale Hansel and Gretel, in which two children are abandoned in the woods by their family during a famine and are almost eaten by a witch, has been linked to the hardships of the fourteenth century. Although its precise origins remain uncertain, it is possible that stories involving famine reflected memories of disasters such as the Great Famine of 1315–1322, when desperate circumstances could lead to the abandonment of vulnerable people and even reports of cannibalism.
Although often overshadowed by the Black Death, the Great Famine deserves its own place among the major disasters of medieval European history. Its effects reached far beyond the fields where harvests failed, revealing how closely the lives of medieval people were tied to the weather, agriculture and the availability of food. The events of 1315–1322 offer a reminder that even a few years of disastrous harvests could transform entire societies.
Jordan, William Chester, “The Great Famine: 1315–1322 Revisited.” In Ecologies and Economies in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Studies in Environmental History for Richard C. Hoffmann, edited by Scott G. Bruce, 45–62. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Beginning in 1315, a devastating famine swept across much of northern Europe. Years of relentless rain, failed harvests and food shortages brought widespread starvation and disease, making the Great Famine one of the worst disasters of the Middle Ages. The crisis would last for years, leaving medieval societies struggling to recover.
Two important books on the subject are The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century, by William Chester Jordan, and The Third Horseman: A Story of Weather, War, and the Famine History Forgot, by William Rosen. Drawing on these works, here are ten things to know about the Great Famine.
1. The Great Famine Affected a Vast Area
William Chester Jordan explains that the Great Famine affected Ireland, Great Britain, France, the Low Countries, much of Germany, and parts of Poland, Austria and Scandinavia. This was an area of approximately 400,000 square miles, home to an estimated population of 30 million people.
2. Years of Heavy Rain and Flooding
The year 1315 saw drastic weather conditions, most notably lengthy periods of rain that caused flooding and left agricultural fields waterlogged. William Rosen adds that flooding and storms were particularly devastating for coastal areas, as rising seas reclaimed shoreline communities. For example, he writes:
more than two thousand acres of onetime marshland that had been converted to cropland in eight villages in Sussex were submerged.
Dunwich, which was one of the five wealthiest ports in England in the late thirteenth century, was so devastated by one flood after another that 269 houses (including crofts and barns), 10 other buildings, and 2 shops disappeared – fully a quarter of the entire port town. By the 1330s, most of the five parishes of the town, and up to 600 houses, had been ‘reclaimed’ by the newly unstable sea.”
3. Agricultural Yields Plummeted
The constant rains of 1315, which continued into 1316 and 1317, left farmland in such poor condition that it could no longer sustain the yields typical of medieval farming. While it is believed that, in the thirteenth century, farmers could harvest as much as ten bushels of wheat for every bushel sown, during the early years of the famine this production fell by between one-third and one-half. Similar declines affected other crops.
4. Farm Animals Suffered Too
Chroniclers also described how sheep, cows and horses suffered from the bad weather, which contributed to outbreaks of diseases known as “murrains”. Herds were depleted as animals weakened and died. Records from Ramsey Abbey in England show that cattle losses could be catastrophic. On one manor, only 6 of 48 animals survived, while on another, the number of cows fell from 45 to just 2.
5. Entire Villages Were Abandoned
Jordan notes that some peasant communities in Europe were simply abandoned, especially in Ireland and the Lübeck region of northern Germany, as their inhabitants decided these settlements could no longer recover. Coastal areas in the Netherlands also experienced large-scale population declines, as flooding forced people to find new homes. In the following years, many chroniclers reported roaming bands of landless peasants arriving in cities in search of work or food.
6. Even the Wealthy Were Affected
The landowners of medieval Europe — monarchs, nobles and the Church — saw the value of their estates collapse and their revenues plummet. Lands were sold, often at drastically reduced prices, while many landowners needed loans to survive. Some smaller monasteries and nunneries decided to close, while larger institutions, such as Canterbury Cathedral Priory, sold relics to pilgrims in order to raise money.
7. Attempts to Provide Famine Relief
Medieval governments and individuals attempted to find ways to mitigate the disaster and provide relief to those suffering from the famine. These measures included introducing price controls and arranging for food to be imported from southern Europe.
Jordan writes:
there was a spate of hospital and hospice foundations in the years of the Great Famine that gives one pause. Perhaps not all of the foundations were direct response to the famine, but the founders’ timing could hardly have been indifferent to the suffering they saw about them.
8. Warfare Made the Famine Worse
The ongoing famine was exacerbated by the many conflicts taking place across Europe at the time. Following his victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Scottish king Robert the Bruce was fighting the English along their border and in Ireland. Germany saw a war between Ludwig of Bavaria and Frederick of Austria, while the Kingdom of France continued its conflict with Flanders. There were also ongoing wars in Scandinavia and a revolt in Wales.
These military campaigns depleted resources, while raids and destruction devastated agricultural lands, adding to the general misery of the period.
9. The Survivors Would Later Face the Black Death
Although the massive plague pandemic that struck Europe occurred about thirty years after the Great Famine, the earlier disaster may have contributed to its devastating impact. Children who grow up suffering from malnutrition can experience long-term effects on their immune systems, potentially making them more vulnerable to disease later in life. Those who grew up during the first decades of the fourteenth century may therefore have been more vulnerable when the Black Death arrived.
10. The Great Famine and Medieval Folklore
The popular German folktale Hansel and Gretel, in which two children are abandoned in the woods by their family during a famine and are almost eaten by a witch, has been linked to the hardships of the fourteenth century. Although its precise origins remain uncertain, it is possible that stories involving famine reflected memories of disasters such as the Great Famine of 1315–1322, when desperate circumstances could lead to the abandonment of vulnerable people and even reports of cannibalism.
Although often overshadowed by the Black Death, the Great Famine deserves its own place among the major disasters of medieval European history. Its effects reached far beyond the fields where harvests failed, revealing how closely the lives of medieval people were tied to the weather, agriculture and the availability of food. The events of 1315–1322 offer a reminder that even a few years of disastrous harvests could transform entire societies.
Further Readings:
Aberth, John, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2010.
Jordan, William Chester, The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
Rosen, William, The Third Horseman: A Story of Weather, War, and the Famine History Forgot. New York: Viking, 2014.
Jordan, William Chester, “The Great Famine: 1315–1322 Revisited.” In Ecologies and Economies in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Studies in Environmental History for Richard C. Hoffmann, edited by Scott G. Bruce, 45–62. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Slavin, Philip, “Market Failure during the Great Famine in England and Wales (1315–1317).” Past & Present 222, no. 1 (2014): 9–49.
Slavin, Philip, “How Great Was the Great Famine of 1314–22: Between Ecology and Institutions” (2009)
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