<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
  <teiHeader>
    <fileDesc>
      <titleStmt>
        <title type="main" level="a">Social Inequalities and the Great Famine in the County of Flanders (1315-7)</title>
        <author>
          <persName n="1" ref="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7094-0231" type="ORCID">
            <forename>Mathijs</forename>
            <surname>Speecke</surname>
            <placeName type="affiliation">Ghent University, Belgium</placeName>
          </persName>
          <persName n="2" ref="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5587-5128" type="ORCID">
            <forename>Thijs</forename>
            <surname>Lambrecht</surname>
            <placeName type="affiliation">Ghent University, Belgium</placeName>
          </persName>
        </author>
        <respStmt>
          <resp>This is a section of <title>Socio-Economic Inequalities during the Conjuncture of the Fourteenth Century</title>(DOI: <idno type="DOI">10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8</idno>) by </resp>
          <name>Davide Cristoferi</name>
        </respStmt>
      </titleStmt>
      <publicationStmt>
        <publisher>Firenze University Press</publisher>
        <pubPlace>Florence</pubPlace>
        <date when="2025">2025</date>
        <idno type="DOI">https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8.12</idno>
        <availability>
          <p>Available for academic research purposes</p>
          <p>Open Access</p>
          <p>Copyright Author(s)</p>
          <licence source="text" target="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode">
            <p>Content licence CC BY 4.0</p>
          </licence>
          <licence source="metadata" target="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode">
            <p>Metadata licence CC0 1.0</p>
          </licence>
        </availability>
      </publicationStmt>
      <sourceDesc>
        <p>This is original content, published for academic research purposes</p>
      </sourceDesc>
    </fileDesc>
    <encodingDesc>
      <appInfo>
        <application version="2.2" ident="Booksflow">
          <desc>Digital edition XML powered by Booksflow</desc>
        </application>
      </appInfo>
    </encodingDesc>
    <profileDesc>
      <abstract xml:lang="en">
        <p>The Great Famine of 1315-7 is one of the key moments in the social and economic history of Northern Europe during the late Middle Ages. The adverse weather conditions of 1315-6 combined with high demographic pressures resulted in extreme poverty, famine and ultimately crisis mortality. In this paper we focus on the impact of these events in the Low Countries and the county of Flanders in particular. The aim of our paper is twofold. In the first part, we present new data about the effects of the adverse weather conditions of 1315 on agricultural output and food prices. Our data indicate that Flanders was particularly vulnerable to food shortages and famine due to its reliance on grain import from neighbouring regions. The second part focuses on the socially differentiated impact of the famine. Whereas large farms were able to secure enormous profits due to high food prices, smallholders were forced to sell their holdings to survive.</p>
      </abstract>
      <textClass>
        <keywords>
          <list>
            <item>Middle Ages</item>
            <item>14th century</item>
            <item>Flanders</item>
            <item>peasants</item>
            <item>Great Famine</item>
            <item>inequality</item>
          </list>
        </keywords>
      </textClass>
    </profileDesc>
  </teiHeader>
  <text>
    <body>
      <p>It is available online at https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8.12<ref target="https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8.12" /></p>
      <div>
        <listBibl>
          <head>References</head>
          <bibl n="200390">
            <bibl>Albini, Giuliana. “Carestie in area lombarda tra fine Duecento e met&amp;#224; Trecento. Uno sguardo attraverso le cronache coeve.” In La congiuntura del primo Trecento in Lombardia (1290-1360), a cura di Paolo Grillo, e Fran&amp;#231;ois Menant, 171-207 (Collection de l’&amp;#201;cole fran&amp;#231;aise de Rome, 555). Rome: &amp;#201;cole fran&amp;#231;aise de Rome, 2019</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.4000/books.efr.37555</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200517">Arnoux, Mathieu. “Famines, bl&amp;#233;s marocains, marins g&amp;#233;nois et pirates fran&amp;#231;ais &amp;#224; Sandwich (1316-1318).” Dans Orbis disciplinae : hommages en l’honneur de Patrick Gautier Dalch&amp;#233;, &amp;#233;d. par Nathalie Bouloux, Anca Dan, et Giorgos Tolias, 509-26. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017</bibl>
          <bibl n="200686">Augustijn, Beatrijs, Hans Rombaut, en Maurice Vandermaesen. Bronnen voor de agrarische geschiedenis van het middeleeuwse graafschap Vlaanderen, vol. 2. Gent: Belgisch centrum voor landelijke geschiedenis, 1990</bibl>
          <bibl n="200436">
            <bibl>Baek, Seung H., Jason E. Smerdon, George-Costin Dobrin, Jacob G. Naimark, Edward R. Cook, Benjamin I. Cook, Richard Seager, Mark A. Cane, and Serena R. Scholz. “A Quantitative Hydroclimatic Context for the European Great Famine of 1315–1317.” Communications Earth &amp;amp; Environment 19, no. 1 (2020): 1-7</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1038/s43247-020-00016-3</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200377">
            <bibl>Bourin, Monique, et Fran&amp;#231;ois Menant. “Les disettes dans la conjoncture de 1300 en M&amp;#233;diterran&amp;#233;e occidentale.” Dans Les disettes dans la conjoncture de 1300 en M&amp;#233;diterran&amp;#233;e occidentale, &amp;#233;d. par Monique Bourin, John Drendel, et Fran&amp;#231;ois Menant, 9-33 (Collection de l’&amp;#201;cole fran&amp;#231;aise de Rome, 450). Rome: &amp;#201;cole fran&amp;#231;aise de Rome, 2011</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1400/187646</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200839">Bruns, Friedrich, ed. Die Chroniken der nieders&amp;#228;chsischen St&amp;#228;dte. L&amp;#252;beck, vol. 2 (Die Chroniken der deutschen St&amp;#228;dte vom 14. bis ins 16. Jahrhundert, 26). Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1899</bibl>
          <bibl n="201107">
            <bibl>Campbell, Bruce M.S. The Great Transition: Climate, Disease and Society in the Late-Medieval World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1017/CBO9781139031110</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200958">Coornaert, &amp;#201;mile. La draperie-sayetterie d’Hondschoote (XIVe-XVIIIe si&amp;#232;cles) : un centre industriel d’autrefois. Paris: Les presses universitaires de France, 1930</bibl>
          <bibl n="200681">Curschmann, Fritz. Hungersn&amp;#246;te im Mittelalter. Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Wirtschaftsgeschichte des 8. bis 13. Jahrhunderts (Leipziger Studien aus dem Gebiet der Geschichte, band 6,1). Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1900</bibl>
          <bibl n="201317">de Lauri&amp;#232;re, Eus&amp;#232;be, &amp;#233;d. Ordonnances des roys de France de la troisi&amp;#232;me race, vol. 1. Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1723</bibl>
          <bibl n="200969">
            <bibl>Dekker, Cornelis, en Jaap G. Kruisheer. “Een rekening van de abdij Ter Doest over het jaar 1315.” Bulletin de la Commission Royale d’Histoire 133 (1967): 273-306</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.3406/bcrh.1967.1505</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201033">Derville, Alain. L’agriculture du Nord au Moyen &amp;#194;ge. Artois, Cambr&amp;#233;sis, Flandre wallonne. Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 1999</bibl>
          <bibl n="201155">Des Marez, Guillaume, et Emile De Sagher, &amp;#233;d. Comptes de la ville d’Ypres de 1267 &amp;#224; 1329, 2 vol. Brussels: Kiessling et Imbreghts, 1909-13</bibl>
          <bibl n="200471">Dh&amp;#233;rent, Catherine. “Maladies et mortalit&amp;#233;s &amp;#224; Douai au XIVe si&amp;#232;cle.” In Sant&amp;#233;, m&amp;#233;decine et assistance au Moyen &amp;#194;ge. Actes du 110e Congr&amp;#232;s national des Soci&amp;#233;t&amp;#233;s savantes, Montpellier, 1985. Section d&amp;#39;histoire m&amp;#233;di&amp;#233;vale et de philologie, vol. 1: 81-92. Paris: &amp;#201;ditions du C.T.H.S., 1987</bibl>
          <bibl n="200486">Dyer, Christopher. “Did the rich really help the poor in medieval England&amp;#160;?” En Ricos y pobres: opulencia y desarraigo en el Occidente medieval. Actas de la XXXVI Semana de Estudios Medievales de Estella, 20 al 24 de julio de 2009, 307-322. Pamplona: Gobierno de Navarra, 2010</bibl>
          <bibl n="200888">
            <bibl>Freedman, Paul. “Rural Society.” In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 6, c. 1300-c. 1415, ed. by Michael Jones, 82-101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1017/CHOL9780521362900.006</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200785">
            <bibl>Geens, Sam. “The Great Famine in the County of Flanders (1315-17): The Complex Interaction between Weather, Warfare, and Property Rights.” Economic History Review 71, no. 4 (2018): 1048-72</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1111/ehr.12605</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201246">Gilliodts Van Severen, Louis. Coutumes des pays et comt&amp;#233; de Flandre. Quartier de Bruges, vol. 1. Brussels: Fr. Gobbaerts, 1874</bibl>
          <bibl n="201247">Gilliodts Van Severen, Louis. Coutumes des pays et comt&amp;#233; de Flandre. Quartier de Furnes, vol. 3. Brussels: Fr. Gobbaerts, 1897</bibl>
          <bibl n="200807">
            <bibl>Heeb&amp;#248;ll-Holm, Thomas Kristian. Ports, Piracy, and Maritime War: Piracy in the English Channel and the Atlantic, c. 1280-c. 1330 (Medieval Law and Its Practice, 15). Leiden: Brill, 2013</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1163/9789004248168</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201185">Jordan, William C. The Great Famine. Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, 1996</bibl>
          <bibl n="201361">
            <bibl>Kershaw, Ian. “The Great Famine and Agrarian Crisis in England 1315-1322.” Past and Present 59 (1973): 3-50</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1093/past/59.1.3</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200359">
            <bibl>Lambrecht, Thijs. “Si Grant In&amp;#233;galit&amp;#233;?: Town, Countryside and Taxation in Flanders, c. 1350 – c. 1500.” In Inequality and the City in the Low Countries (1200-2020), ed. by Bruno Blond&amp;#233;, Sam Geens, Hilde Greefs, Wouter Ryckbosch, Tim Soens, and Peter Stabel, 153-67 (Studies in European Urban History (1100-1800), 50). Turnhout: Brepols, 2020</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1484/M.SEUH-EB.5.120443</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201364">
            <bibl>Lucas, Henry Stephen. “The Great European Famine of 1315, 1316 and 1317.” Speculum 5, no. 4 (1930): 343-77</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.2307/2848143</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201340">
            <bibl>Lyon, Bryce. “Medieval Real Estate Developments and Freedom.” American Historical Review 63, no. 1 (1957): 47-61</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.2307/1847111</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201135">Mar&amp;#233;chal, Griet. “Het hospitaalwezen te Brugge in de middeleeuwen. Een institutionele en sociale studie.” PhD thesis, Ghent University, 1974</bibl>
          <bibl n="201115">Meeus, Willem. “De ‘Rymkronyk van Vlaenderen’. Een editie en inhoudelijke studie van een korte rijmkroniek.” MA thesis, Ghent University, 2012</bibl>
          <bibl n="200847">
            <bibl>Mertens, Jacques. “Les confiscations dans la Ch&amp;#226;tellenie du Franc de Bruges apr&amp;#232;s la bataille de Cassel.” Bulletin de la Commission Royale d’Histoire 134, no. 3-4 (1968): 239-84</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.3406/bcrh.1968.1512</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200907">
            <bibl>Mertens, Jacques. “Enkele grote Vlaamse hoeven in de eerste helft van de veertiende eeuw.” Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis te Brugge 130 (1993): 45-60</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.21825/hvgg.v130i1-2.4576</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201116">
            <bibl>Mertens, Jacques, and Adriaan Verhulst. “Yield-Ratios in Flanders in the Fourteenth Century.” Economic History Review 19, no. 1 (1966): 175-82</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.2307/2592798</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200889">Newfield, Timothy P. “A Cattle Panzootic in Early Fourteenth-Century Europe.” Agricultural History Review 57, no. 2 (2009): 155-90 &amp;lt;https://www.jstor.org/stable/25684194&amp;gt;</bibl>
          <bibl n="200716">Peeters, Jean Paul. “Het financi&amp;#235;el-economisch profiel van de stad Mechelen tussen 1311 en 1336.” Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen 97 (1993): 55-123</bibl>
          <bibl n="201034">Pirenne, Henri. Le soul&amp;#232;vement de la Flandre Maritime de 1323-1328 (Commission royale d’histoire. Publications in-octavo, 22). Brussels: Kiessling, 1900</bibl>
          <bibl n="201035">
            <bibl>Schofield, Philipp. “Wales and the Great Famine of the Early Fourteenth Century.” Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru | Welsh History Review 29, no. 2 (2018): 143-67</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.16922/whr.29.2.1</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201165">Schoutteten, Koen. “Het Sint-Janshospitaal te Brugge : een domeinstudie, eind 13de – begin 14de eeuw.” MA thesis, Ghent University, 2003</bibl>
          <bibl n="201074">Slavin, Philip. Experiencing Famine in Fourteenth-Century Britain (Environmental Histories of the North Atlantic World, 4). Turnhout: Brepols, 2019</bibl>
          <bibl n="200862">
            <bibl>Slavin, Philip. “The Great Bovine Pestilence and Its Economic and Environmental Consequences in England and Wales, 1318-50.” Economic History Review 65, no. 4 (2012): 1239-66</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00625.x</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200758">Sneller, Zeger W., en Willem Sybrand Unger. Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van den handel met Frankrijk, vol. 1 (Rijks geschiedkundige publicati&amp;#235;n. Grote Serie, 70). Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1930</bibl>
          <bibl n="200828">
            <bibl>Soens, Tim. “Floods and Money: Funding Drainage and Flood Control in Coastal Flanders from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries.” Continuity and Change 26, no. 3 (2011): 333-65</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1017/S0268416011000221</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201214">Soens, Tim. De spade in de dijk? Waterbeheer en rurale samenleving in de Vlaamse kustvlakte (1280-1580). Gent: Academia Press, 2009</bibl>
          <bibl n="200445">Soens, Tim. “Waterbeheer in een veranderende samenleving. Een ecologische, sociaal-economische en politiek-institutionele studie van de wateringen in het Vlaamse kustgebied in de overgang van de middeleeuwen naar de moderne tijden. Testregio: het Brugse Vrije.” PhD thesis, Ghent University, 2006</bibl>
          <bibl n="200455">
            <bibl>Soens, Tim, and Erik Thoen. “The Origins of Leasehold in the Former County of Flanders.” In The Development of Leasehold in North-Western Europe, c. 1200 - 1600, ed. by Bas van Bavel, and Philip Schofield, 31-55 (Comparative Rural History of the North Sea Area, 10). Turnhout: Brepols, 2008</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1484/M.CORN-EB.3.313</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200659">Speecke, Mathijs. “‘Isti ponerentur in officio scabinatus’: Brugge en het stadsbestuur onder graaf Robrecht van Bethune (1305-1322).” Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis te Brugge 156, no. 1 (2019): 3-49</bibl>
          <bibl n="200884">Speecke, Mathijs, en Thijs Lambrecht. “De nominatieve belastinglijsten van 1304 in het Rijksarchief Gent: reconstructie van een fiscaal-administratief dossier,” forthcoming</bibl>
          <bibl n="200959">TeBrake, William H. A Plague of Insurrection: Popular Politics and Peasant Revolt in Flanders 1323-1328. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993</bibl>
          <bibl n="200529">
            <bibl>Thoen, Erik. “Technique agricole, cultures nouvelles et &amp;#233;conomie rurale en Flandre au Bas Moyen Age.” In Plantes et cultures nouvelles en Europe occidentale au Moyen &amp;#194;ge et &amp;#224; l’&amp;#233;poque moderne, 51-68 (Flaran, 12). Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Midi, 1992</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.4000/books.pumi.23022</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201269">
            <bibl>Van Werveke, Hans. “La famine de l’an 1316 en Flandre et dans les r&amp;#233;gions voisines.” Revue du Nord 41, no. 161 (1959): 5-14</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.3406/rnord.1959.2324</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201422">Vandenbroeke, Christiaan. Sociale geschiedenis van het Vlaamse volk. Beveren: Orion, 1981</bibl>
          <bibl n="200786">
            <bibl>Verhulst, Adriaan. “Die Binnenkolonisation und die Anf&amp;#228;nge der Landgemeinde in Seeflandern.” In Die Anf&amp;#228;nge der Landgemeinde und ihr Wesen, vol. I. Vortrage und Forschungen 7 (1964): 447-6</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.11588/vuf.1986.0.15224</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201027">Vervaet, Lies. “Goederenbeheer in een veranderende samenleving. Het Sint-Janshospitaal van Brugge ca. 1275- ca. 1575.” PhD thesis, Ghent University, 2014</bibl>
          <bibl n="201198">Vleeschouwers, Cyriel. De oorkonden van de Sint-Baafsabdij te Gent (819-1321), vol. 2, Uitgave. Brussels: Paleis der Academie&amp;#235;n, 1990</bibl>
          <bibl n="201085">Wyffels, Carlos, en Andr&amp;#233; Vandewalle, red. De Rekeningen van de stad Brugge, 1280-1319, 2, 1302-1319, t. 2. Brussels: Paleis der Academi&amp;#235;n, 1995-7</bibl>
        </listBibl>
      </div>
    </body>
  </text>
</TEI>