March 1 - Black Death

March 1 – Black Death

In 1337, King Edward III of Britain declared himself the monarch of France as well and thus began the hundred (+) years war. For the next 116 years or so, this series of wars would define the political craziness that occurred in Europe. So from this point until 1453, every bit of history is set against a backdrop of battles and political uprising.

Until this time, people considered themselves natives of a city or a county, but now they were speaking of belonging to France, England, Scandinavia. The church no longer held power over the people of Europe and in fact, with the move of the papacy to Avignon, France established a right to elect a pope. The countries no longer cared whether or not the church supported their activities. They were glad to disobey if they felt the pope wasn’t offering good leadership. In fact, once the papacy moved back to Italy, France simply had a rival pope elected when they didn’t agree with what was coming from the head of the church. This division caused a great loss of prestige and authority within the church as countries aligned themselves with one or the other of the popes.

The Bubonic plague was brought into the middle of this mess in 1347. Trading was extensive between Europe and the Mediterranean. The plague broke out in the Black Sea, moved to Italy and from there sweat the entire continent within three years, decimating the population. This destroyed economies, increased political turmoil, there were riots. In fact, things were so bad that it took Europe several hundred years to regain stability.

People were terrified and in their misunderstanding, they even slaughtered Jewish communities where the Black Death seemed to leave fewer victims. More than likely, this is because Christians were afraid of cats – associated with witchcraft and refused to have them around. Cats killed rats which carried the plague and were abundant in the Jewish ghettos.

The plague nearly destroyed Constantinople, the seat of the Byzantine Empire. Nearly 88% of the population died there.

Religious leaders were just as afraid of the plague and refused to offer assistance to the people which brought more distrust of the church. The Black Death had come to the continent, it had destroyed much within just a short period of time. It finally abated, but showed up again in smaller forms every decade or so.