Death, Social Change, and Liberty in Europe, 1315 - 1381

The “Silk Road”: Trade Routes between China, India, the Middle East, and Europe

Allowed for the circulation of goods, money, and people

“Silk Road” c. 800 CE…a very well-established network, even this early

The “Silk Road”: Trade Routes between China, India, the Middle East, and Europe

“Silk Road” c. 1300

But the “Silk Road” also allowed for the circulation of disease

And rapid circulation, at that

Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose

was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men a women alike it first

betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumors in the groin or the

armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an

egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli.

From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to

propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which

the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making

their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere,

now few and large, then minute and numerous. And as the gavocciolo

had been and still were an infallible token of approaching death, such

also were these spots on whomsoever they shewed themselves.

A description of the impact of the plague:Excerpts from Giovanni Bocaccio, The Decameron, c. 1370

Population decline in England, as a result of the plague

It was the common practice of most of the neighbors, moved no less by fear of contamination by the putrefying bodies than by charity towards the deceased, to drag the corpses out of the houses with their own hands…and to lay them in front of the doors, where any one who made the round might have seen, especially in the morning, more of them than he could count…

Quite a considerable number of such cases occurred, one bier sufficing for husband and wife, two or three brothers, father and son, and so forth. And times without number it happened, that as two priests, bearing the cross, were on their way to perform the last office for some one, three or four biers were brought up by the porters in rear of them, so that, whereas the priests supposed that they had but one corpse to bury, they discovered that there were six or eight, or sometimes more.

Nor, for all their number, were their obsequies honored by either tears or lights or crowds of mourners rather, it was come to this, that a dead man was then of no more account than a dead goat would be to-day.

Excerpts from Giovanni Bocaccio, The Decameron, c. 1370

14th Century depiction of the plague…can the priests help us?

Or if not the priests, then maybe God will help us directly?

[home] owners, seeing death imminent, had become as reckless of their

property as of their lives; so that most of the houses were open to all

comers, and no distinction was observed between the stranger who

presented himself and the rightful lord...

Excerpts from Giovanni Bocaccio, The Decameron, c. 1370

Death as a great “leveler” of hierarchy

Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph of Death, 1562

King

Skeleton “priests”

Triunfo della Morte (Triumph of Death), c. 1446Death as a great “leveler”:

Bishop

King

priest

In this extremity of our city's suffering and tribulation the venerable

authority of laws, human and divine, was abased and all but totally

dissolved for lack of those who should have administered and enforced

them, most of whom, like the rest of the citizens, were either dead or

sick or so hard bested for servants that they were unable to execute any

office; whereby every man was free to do what was right in his own

eyes.

Excerpts from Giovanni Bocaccio, The Decameron, c. 1370

Death, Chaos, and the Need for Answers

For some, the “answer” was blaming (and burning) “others,” especially Jews and Muslims.

The Plague’s Aftermath: England as a Case Study

Still primarily an agricultural economy, England needed to keep cultivating the land in order to rebuild after the plague.

England land divisions, c. 1300s

And since the land was still owned by only a handful of noble families, and thus divided into huge estates, these landowners needed a lot of laborers to work the land.

Population decline in England, as a result of the plague

BUT, remember, a drastic reduction in England’s population meant a drastic reduction in England’s supply of workers.

The Plague’s Aftermath: England as a Case StudyEngland land divisions, c. 1300s

So, according to “the market” and its “law of supply and demand,” laborers were now more precious, and they could therefore demand more for their services. Whereas they were competing with each other for work before the plague, now employers ought to be competing for them.

The Plague’s Aftermath: England as a Case Study

BUT, the English government passed a series of laws between 1349 and the 1370s meant to keep “peasants” from demanding higher wages, as well as to regulate what these laborers could or could not purchase.

example: the Statute of Laborers passed in 1351, which prohibited increasing wages and prohibited workers from moving from home in search of better wages.

AND, to raise money for rebuilding and for funding a war against France, the government passed a series of taxes. These were collected in 1377, 1379, and 1381. In theory, the taxes were to apply to all citizens, but in practice the “peasants” were the ones who had to pay.

Depiction of the 1381 “Peasant Revolt”

The Plague’s Aftermath: England as a Case Study

What did all this government taxation and intervention in “the market” create? A lot of angry laborers.

When the third tax was levied, in 1381, the laborers (with the help of some nobles also upset with King Richard II) revolted.

The Plague’s Aftermath: England as a Case Study

The revolt was eventually put down by Richard II. BUT, this revolution serves as an early example of a new (for us) idea about the relationship between a government and its citizens.

The killing of Wat Tyler, one of the leaders of the revolt.

Instead of the republican emphasis on government, and participating in government, as being a way to secure freedom, the language of the peasant revolt was that government interfered with freedom.

What the laborers wanted was freedom from government. In other words, they wanted “liberty.” Instead of republicanism, then, this is a new political language of LIBERALISM.