A cattle panzootic in early fourteenth-century Europe

Agricultural History Review

Volumn 57, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 155-190

  Newfield, Timothy P ^a  

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References (257)

1. '⋯ quar nous avoms perdu deinz cest an et demy pluis qe mil boefs et vaches et alters bestes'. J. B. Sheppard (ed.), The letter books of the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury (3 vols, 1887-89), I, pp. 58-9.
2. On the famine see W. C. Jordan, The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the early fourteenth century (1996);
3. H. S. Lucas, "The Great European Famine of 1315, 1316 and 1317", Speculum 5 (1930);
4. I. Kershaw, 'The Great Famine and agrarian crisis in England, 1315-22', Past and Present 59 (1973);
5. M. Desai, 'The agrarian crisis in medieval England: a Malthusian tragedy or a failure of entitlements?', Bull. of Economic Res. 43 (1991);
6. M. Davis and J. Kissock, 'The feet of fines, the land market and the English agricultural crisis of 1315 to 1321', J. Hist. Geography 30 (2004) p. 218;
7. B. M. S. Campbell (ed.), Before the Black Death: studies in the crisis' of the early fourteenth century (1991).
8. G. Fleming, Animal Plagues (1871), pp. 33-122;
9. C. A. Spinage, Cattle plague: a history (2003), pp. 81-101.
10. With limited knowledge of the temporal and spatial parameters of the pestilence, some scholars have already considered the outbreak 'totally unknown. R. Britnell, Britain and Ireland, 1050-1530: economy and society (2004), p. 492;
11. Jordan, Great Famine, p. 39;
12. Desai, 'Agrarian crisis', p. 253.
13. Evidence sufficient enough to articulate in any detail or certainty the extent and impact of earlier pan-European livestock pestilences may not exist. Of course, large panzootics occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Spinage, Cattle plague, pp. 103-216 and
14. L. Wilkinson, Animals and disease: an introduction to the history of comparative medicine (1992).
15. A panzootic is the animal equivalent of a human pandemic, epizootiology is the equivalent of epidemiology, and epizootic is the equivalent of epidemic.
16. Restocking may have been particularly difficult in the English environment of heavy taxation and purveyancing. If the panzootic hit major cattle producing regions, the situation would have only been worse. Ultimately, variation in restocking should be expected and would have resulted from differences in purchasing power, fear of losing cattle again to disease and, importantly, the desire to fully repair herds. While some herds were repaired by the mid- to late 1320s, most it seems were not. B. M. S. Campbell, 'The land' in R. Horrox and W. M. Ormrod (eds), A social history of England, 1200-1500 (2005), pp. 184-5.
17. Other reasons may also account for slow recoveries, see P. Slavin, 'Between death and survival: Norfolk cattle, c.1280-1370', Fons Luminis, 1 (2008), p. 26.
18. A. R. Bridbury's suggestion that animal losses would have been quickly repaired appears to be based on the restocking rates of sheep at Bolton Priory and is, consequently, poorly founded. Sheep reproduce more rapidly than cattle and were significantly cheaper. Moreover, it is still unknown whether sheep were as affected as cattle during the Great European Famine and therefore if sheep were harder or easier to acquire. It must not be forgotten, however, that flocks and herds in the north of England were also subject to Scottish raids during the famine year and that the impact of these raids on livestock numbers is difficult to gauge. 'Before the Black Death', EcHR 30 (1977), p. 403, n. 1.
19. Of course, the panzootic's impact would have been more marginal in those areas where horses supplied traction.
20. On sheep mortalities in England during the Great European Famine, see Kershaw, 'Great Famine', pp. 14-5, 20-22, 24, 27-32, 46.
21. Stocking densities of cattle and horses influence yields far more than those of sheep or swine. Mortalities of plough animals could significantly reduce a harvest, raise prices and cause subsistence crises as well as result in vacant holdings and shortages of tenants. Kershaw, 'Great Famine', p. 42;
22. Desai, 'Agrarian crisis', 246, 256-7;
23. D. Stone, Decision-making in medieval agriculture (2005), p. 67. We must not, however, be too deterministic. Cattle mortalities meant good business for those with plough horses to rent or sell. The ability of fourteenth-century farmers to actively absorb crises by effectively managing their operations in response also cannot be dismissed.
24. This is result of the panzootic being readily apparent in manorial accounts across England as Ian Kershaw emphasized in 1973. Though limited, Kershaw's account of the pestilence is the most thorough to date, 'Great Famine', pp. 14-5, 24-6, 28-9, 32 n. 159, 34, 42, 45.
25. Also see B. M. S. Campbell, English seigniorial agriculture, 1250-1450 (2000), pp. 23, 167-8, 233, 416-7;
26. C. Dyer, Making a living in the middle ages: the people of Britain, 850-1520 (2002), pp. 229;
27. id., Standards of living in the later middle ages: social change in England, c.1200-1500 (1989), pp. 40-1;
28. M. Bailey, 'Peasant welfare in England, 1290-1348', EcHR 51 (1998), p. 241;
29. id., A marginal economy? East Anglian Breckland in the later middle ages (1989), p. 201;
30. Stone, Decision-making, pp. 46, 54, 66, 72;
31. id. 'Medieval farm management and technological mentalities: Hinderclay before the Black Death', EcHR 44 (2001), pp. 629-30;
32. John Langdon, Horse, oxen and technological innovation: the use of draught animals in English farming from 1066 to 1500 (1986), pp. 164-8;
33. M. Mate, 'High prices in early fourteenth-century England: causes and consequences', EcHR 28 (1975), p. 12;
34. S. H. Rigby, 'Introduction: social structure and economic change in fourteenth-century England' in Horrox and Ormrod (eds), Social history of England, pp. 14, 18;
35. J. E. T. Rogers, Six centuries of work and wages (1903), p. 217;
36. Slavin, 'Death and survival', pp. 15, 36, 40-51.
37. Also see B. M. S. Campbell, 'Nature as historical protagonist: environment and society in pre-industrial England', EcHR (forthcoming).
38. To varying degrees, Lucas, Kershaw and Jordan demonstrated that sources of this nature survive. Lucas, 'Great European Famine'; Kershaw 'Great Famine'; Jordan, Great Famine. Before these authors, F. Curschmann presented some textual evidence of the cattle pestilence in his Hungersnote im Mittelalter (1900) as did Fleming, Animal Plagues. This paper builds upon the work of these scholars. Price indices, constructed primarily from manorial accounts, also exist, though in general prices are not accurate proxies for the pestilence's geographical or temporal dissemination. Nor are they a reliable indicator of the magnitude of losses sustained. Many variables affect prices. Price fluctuations in a region may reflect speculation and fear of disease, the effects of large cattle losses in neighboring regions, or totally unrelated phenomena. cf. Jordan Great European Famine, p. 204, n. 114.
39. As Mavis Mate pointed out, the price of cattle in England rose markedly in the early fourteenth century, before the panzootic arrived; 'High prices', pp. 1, 7-8.
40. The health of animals sold is also often unknown. Irregularities in cattle, hide and grain imports and exports as well as labour inputs c.1320 may also tell of the pestilence, though these too are affected by a variety of variables. While no veterinary or agricultural treatise is known to mention the panzootic, some early fourteenth-century legislation against the selling of diseased meat survives in England. E. L. Sabine, 'Butchering in mediaeval London', Speculum 8 (1933), p. 337. Philip Slavin also finds that medieval masses against livestock disease appear ingreater abundance in English missals during the early fourteenth century.
41. For rinderpest, the favourite diagnosis to date, see Kershaw, 'Great Famine', p. 24;
42. for anthrax see M. Lyons, "Weather, famine, pestilence and plague in Ireland', in E. M. Crawford (ed.), Famine: the Irish experience, 900-1900. Subsistence crises and famines in Ireland (1988), p. 43;
43. for foot-and-mouth disease, see A. Grant, 'Animal resources' in G. Astill and A. Grant (eds), The countryside of medieval England (1988), p. 154, and
44. Astill and Grant, 'Medieval countryside', in the same volume, p. 216. I am preparing a full review of the diagnosis of the panzootic.
45. S. K. Cohn, Jun. The Black Death transformed: disease and culture in early Renaissance Europe (2003), p.8.
46. Pathogens known to modern science, which may also have existed historically.
47. See comments on supposed rinderpest outbreaks in the 370s, 590s and 810s in Newfield and Slavin, 'Cattle pestilences in pre-industrial Europe', in preparation.
48. Fleming, Animal plagues, pp. 97-117;
49. Spinage, Cattle plague, pp. 84.
50. H. Harrod's work on Heacham (Norfolk), which begins in 1347, gives no indication of significant mortalities of cattle. 'Some details of a murrain of the fourteenth century, from the court rolls of a Norfolk manor', Archaeologia 41 (1867), pp. 1-14.
51. Unless otherwise noted, the translations of Latin passages presented here are my own. 'Generalis pestilencia animalium in tota Polonia', in G. H. Pertz (ed.). 'Annales Polonorum', MGH SS, XIX (1866), p. 652;
52. 'Mortalitas magna extitit et commestio bourn prohibebatur', in id., 'Annales Colmarienses majores A. 1298, 1299' MGH SS, XVII (1861), p. 224.
53. 'pestis animalium per omnes terras gravissime invaluit', in id., 'Chronicon Elwacense edente' MGH SS, X (1852), p. 39;
54. 'maxima pestilentia animalium et maxime vaccarum per totum mundum suborta est', in id., 'Annales Endorfenses' MGH SS, X (1852), p. 6.
55. 'Indulgentia magna in Roma. Pestilentia pecorum', in E. Jorgensen (ed.), 'Annales Essenbecenses', Annales Danici medii aevi (1920), p. 148;
56. 'omnia pecora in Gutlandia moriebantur', in J. Langebek (ed.), 'Annalesfratrum minorum Wisbyenses ab An. 67 ad 1525', Scriptores rerum Danicarum (9 vols, 1772-1878), I, p. 257.
57. 'Pestilentia pecorum', in Jorgensen (ed.) 'Essenbecenses', p. 148;
58. 'pestilentia pecorum', in J. Langebek (ed.), 'Chronologia rerum memorabilium ab anno 1020 usque ad an. 1323', Scriptores rerum Danicarum, II, p. 528.
59. These texts may be independent. 'fuit maxima pestilentia pecorum in Dacia', in J. Langebek (ed.), 'Chronicon breve Danicum, 1275-1347' Scriptores rerum Danicarum, VI, p. 253.
60. 'Pestilentia hominum et pecorum atque pecudum facta est magna, in G. H. Pertz (ed.), 'Annales Matseenses' MGH SS, IX (1851), pp. 825.
61. Badr ad-Din al-'Aini (1361-1451), V. G. Tizengauzen (trans.), Istoriya Kazakhstana v Arabskikh Istochnikakh (2005), p. 359;
62. 'Patriarshaia ili Nikonovskaia Letopis' in Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisej, X (1885), p. 171;
63. 'Moskovskij Letopisnyj Svod Kontsa XV Veka' in Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisej, XXV (1949), p. 159;
64. D. Morgan, The Mongols (1987), p. 165. I thank Philip Slavin for these references.
65. Note that Irish annals also document cattle mortalities in 1296 (Annals of Innisfallen), 1298 (Annals of Ulster), 1302 (Annals of Connacht and Loch Cé) and 1308 (Annals of Connacht, Loch Cé, and Annals of Clonmacnoise). This, however, should not confuse the articulation of a cattle panzootic spreading east-west c.1315-25, as these entries are nearly all attributed to poor weather, not disease, and as notable cattle mortalities do not appear in manorial accounts in these years. Furthermore, the mortalities recorded in 1296 and 1298 may refer to the same mortalities noted in 1302. For references see n.72.
66. For example, H. Geraud (ed.), Chronique latine de Guillaume de Nangis de 1113 a 1300 avec les continuations de cette chronique de 1300 à 1368 (1843), p. 22;
67. R. Sprandel (ed.), Die Weltchronik des Monchs Albert, 1273/77-1454/56 (1994), p. 205;
68. G. H. Pertz (ed.), 'Annales Colbazienses (Pomerania)' MGH SS, XIX (1866), p. 717.
69. 'pestilentia hominum et brutorum animalium', in G. H. Pertz (ed.), 'Annales Bohemiae brevissimi a. 1236-1330', MGH SS, XVII (1861), p. 720.
70. 'equos, oves, et boves et universa pecora campi necuit pestilentia huius anni', in K. Hofler (ed.), 'Chronicon Regiae Aulae', Fontes rerum Austriacarum, Scriptores, VII (1866), p. 379. I have been unable to consult the Chronicle of Dalimil (or its mid-fourteenth-century German translation), which may also document livestock disease in early fourteenth-century Bohemia.
71. 'Ita magna fames erat et pestilentia grandis bourn et peccorum', in Curschmann, Hungersnote, p. 215.
72. The fifteenth-century Polish chronicler and canon at Kraków, Jan Długosz does not document any early fourteenth-century livestock mortality in his voluminous history of medieval Poland. M. Michael (ed.), The annals of Jan Dlugosz (1997).
73. '[E]t valida fames invaluit adeo quod plerique pauperes (si fas est dicere) cadavera pecorum sicuti canes crude corroderent, et gramina pratorum sicuti boves incocte commederent.' H. Bruch (ed.), Chronographia Johannis de Beke (1973), p. 279. Beka emphasizes that the poor were eating forbidden meat. The Old Testament prohibits the consumption of carrion: Exodus 22:30; Deuteronomy 14:19; cf. Edmond of Dynter and Johannis de Trokelowe below.
74. 'Millenum tricentenum quinum quoque denum / Annum transactum die post verbum caro factum / Quum fame plere pecus et homines periere', in G. H. Pertz (ed.), 'Annales Egmundani', in MGH SS, XVI (1859), p. 479. This text appears to be independent of William's work below.
75. 'Nec solum hac miseria hujusque taedio populus hoc triennio affligitur sed etiam in fine hujus mortalitate pecorum aggravatur. Morte famis cocto M, ter C que, bis octo / Cum reliquis binis; doluit pecorum nece finis', in C. Pijnacker Hordijk (ed.), Willelmi Capellani in Brederode postea monachi et Procuratoris Egmondensis chronicon (1904), p. 91.
76. 'Eodem anno Domini MCCCXVIII viguit mortalitas inter vaccas adeo magna, quod de decern vix una permansit. Eapropter tunc temporis populus nullas carnes bovinas, et specialiter carnes vaccines, audebat comedere aut manducare', in 'Edmundi Dynteri chronicon' in P. F. de Ram (ed.), Chronica Nobilissimorum Ducum Lotharingiae et Brabantiae ac Regum Francorum, II (1856), p. 497.
77. I have not been able to consult the works of these authors and am uncertain if they wrote of mortalities of cattle or other livestock. Lucas, 'Great European Famine', p. 358 n. 6.
78. In an entry for 1315, 'En celle année, commancèrent moult grant pluyes en France, qui durèrent entour II.ans; et fut moult grant famine et grant mortalite de gens et de bestes', in Martin Bouquet (ed.), 'Fragment d'une chronique anonyme', Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, XXI (1869), p. 151 n. 19.
79. e siècle en faveur des Cisterciens', Bibliothèque de l'école des Chartes 69 (1908), pp. 365-6.
80. Notably, the contemporary, Gilles Li Muisis of Tournai seems not to have mentioned the pestilence. J.-J. de Smet (ed.), 'Chronica Aegidii Li Muisis' Corpus chronicorum Flandriae, II (1841).
81. 'Siccitas magna et sterilitas fuit; tunc pecorum mortalitas', in E. Jørgensen (ed.), 'Annales 1098-1325', Annales Danici medii aevi (1920), p. 200.
82. Also, 'siccitas magna et sterilitas fuit, et peccorum mortalitas', in Langebek (ed.), 'Annales Danici ab anno 1131 ad an. 1325', Scriptores, IV (1969), p. 284.
83. These texts are probably not independent. Jordan, Great Famine, p. 181, suggests livestock also died of disease in Norway and Sweden.
84. 'Sub ejusdem anni [1319] curriculo, tam pestifera armentorum mortalitas per totam Angliam invaluit, quantam non ullus se meminit praevidisse. In qua peste hoc evenit mirabile, quod de pecorum mortuo cadaveribus etiam canes et corvi qui vescebantur, in loco intumuerunt, et infecti obierunt. Unde nullus erat hominum, qui carnes bovinas gustare praesumebat, ne forte de moticiniis eorum intoxicatus succumberet. Tempore quidem Paschali in Essexia incepit, et per annum integrum duravit. Dictum est etiam, quod tota Gallia eadem labe per idem tempus extitit coinquinata', in H. Riley (ed.), Trokelowe, Annales (1866), pp. 104-5.
85. That said, Campbell has uncovered sizable bovine losses resulting from disease and sales on several Westminster demesnes in the account year of 1318/19. Mortalities may have commenced in England in late 1318. Pers. corresp. 15 Sept. 2008.
86. 'In hujus anno [1318] decursu tanta lues animalium regnum invasit Anglorum ac per quatuor regni ipsa mortalitas infinitam multitudinem subito prostravit, ut in diversis partibus pauca relinquens divitibus grave dampnum intulit et pauperibus egestatem', in H. Luard (ed.), Flores Historiarum (1890), pp. 186-7.
87. This source was later copied by John Capgrave. F. Hingeston (ed.), Capgrave, The chronicle of England (1858), p. 185. Entries prior to 1306 were prepared in St Albans. The 1318 dating here may be an error on part of the editor of the text. Depending on the condition of the manuscript, dates can be easily confused. See comments below on the Thorney annals.
88. 'Eodem anno maxima mortalitas animalium id est bovum et vaccarum et aliorum animalium, fuit, ita quod vix aut nullatenus homines habuerunt boves ad terras eorum colendas. Et ideo quam maxima fuit caristia equorum, mortalitate praedicta incipiente in Scotia, postea in Anglia, postremo vero in marchia Walliae circa festum Omnium Sanctorum', in Flores historiarum, P. 343.
89. 'Item regnavit generalis morina et pestis omnis generis animalium cornutorum domitorum per totam Angliam, et sicut a pluribus refertur, creditur regnasse per universam Christianitatem', in E. Venables (ed.), Chronicon abbatie de Parco Lude (1891), pp. 24, 27.
90. H.Maxwell (ed.), Chronicle of Lanercost, 1272-1346 (1913), p. 228.
91. '[P]estilenciam bourn', in James Raine (ed.), Historiae dunelmensis scriptores tres (1839), p. 97.
92. id., Scalacronica (1907), p. 69.
93. Grey wrote in the mid-fourteenth century but is thought to have made use of earlier sources. 'Ibi enim pestis sive lues animalium prius est audita. Omnes revera fere curruum boves ad obsidionem ducti subito quasi moriebantur', in V. H. Galbraith, 'Extracts from the Historia aurea and a French "Brut" (1317-47)', EHR 43 (1928), pp. 205, 210. Though this text closely resembles or borrows from the Polychronicon, particularly for the years spanning 1307-27, it is 'a compilation of many sources'.
94. 'Hoc anno fuit maxima morina in Anglia, boum et animalium', in Faith Wallis's translation in preparation. C. Hart (ed.), The Thorney annals, 963-1412 (1997), places the panzootic in 1318, which as manorial accounts illustrate is a mistake. Wallis's translation assigns this passage to 1320.
95. 'Anno domini millesimo CCCmoXVIIIo maxima mortalitas animalium, de genere boum in toto regno Anglie' in R. Haines, King Edward II: Edward of Caernarfon, his life, his reign, and its aftermath, 1284-1330 (2003), p. 402, n. 17.
96. 'Fames enim erat valida et inaudita et mortalitas hominum sed precipue pauperum, et magnas mortalitas armentorum maxima et inaudita, videlicet bovum, vaccarum et vitulorum per multos annos durans ubicumque enim ambulabant vel stabant pre vehementi dolore eos interius anxiante quasi lacrimantes rugiendo intuentibus conquerebantur, et ita subito corruentes exspirabant de domo ista.' As far as I am aware neither an edition nor a translation of this chronicle has appeared. A Latin transcription of this passage can be found in Haines, King Edward II, pp. 97, 402, n. 18.
97. On the deaths recorded by the chronicler, see J. Hatcher, 'Farming techniques: south-western England', in H. E. Hallam (ed.) The agrarian history of England and Wales, II, 1042-1350 (1988), p. 396.
98. 'lues animalium et hominum', in J. R. Lumby (ed.) Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden (1964), p. 308.
99. Higden's later medieval English translators did not expand on his brief observation, ibid, pp. 307, 309.
100. 'Meisme lan avoit y graunt pestilence des beastes en Engletere', in J. Glover (ed.), 'Sepringham continuation, Le livere de reis de Brittanie e le livere de reis Engletere (1865), pp. xv-xvi, 336-337;
101. communisque morina bidentium et aliorum animalium', in E. Bond (ed.), Chronica monasterii de Melsa (1867), p. 333.
102. Adam's record of the entire famine is positioned under the entry of 1315, 'plures villae Angliae comburebantur'. Later, under Robert's entry, 'tanta etiam in diebus ejus caristia tritici, tamque continua mortalitas armenti, quanta aretro seaculis vix visa fuit', in ibid, p. 286.
103. 'magna mortalitas et sterilitas', in E. M. Thompson (ed.), Adae Murimuth continuatio chronicarum Robertus de Averbury de gestis mirabilibus Regis Edwardi Tertii (1965), p. 24.
104. 'saevissima pestis', in W. Stubbs (ed.), 'Vita et mors Edwardi Secundi' Chronicles of the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, II (1965), p. 301.
105. 'dura pestilentia' and 'oues autem communiter perierunt et alia animalia subita peste ceciderunt', in Vita Edwardi Secundi (trans. W. R. Childs, 2005), pp. 110-1, 120-1. This is Childs's translation.
106. 'Similiter mortalitas hominum et morina armentorum tanta, talis et continua fuit, quanta et quails a seculo non est visa. Nec poterant mortuorum corpora propter foetorem diutius reservari quin ante prandium et post cotidie sunt humata', in 'Gesta Edwardi di Carnarvon auctore Canonico Bridlingtoniens', in H. Laurd (ed.), Chronicles of the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, I (1883), p. 48.
107. 'Plures illarum partium coloni, qui in praediis et possessionibus ovium et armentorum uberius habundabant, jam compelluntur per patrieas mendicare', in Gesta Edwardi, p. 81.
108. The Vita et mors, Edwardi Secundi, also near-contemporary, possesses a similar entry. J. Aberth, From the brink of the apocalypse (2000), p. 22, implies that the Gesta Edwardi states that people ate dead cattle. I can find no evidence of this.
109. T. Wright (ed.), 'Poem on the evil times of Edward II', in The political songs of England, VI (1839), pp. 342-4.
110. 'lues magna animalium et hominum maxima', in H. Laurd (ed.), 'Annales de Osneia', Annales Monastici, IV (1869), p. 344.
111. 'Eodem anno cepit morina animalium et durauit per longum tempus', in R. H. Hilton (ed.), Stoneleigh Abbey leger book (1960), p. 75.
112. 'Anno gratiae MCCCXVIII et anno gratiae MC CCXIX magna mortalitas hominum, et lues animalium per totum regnum Angliae, adeo quod homines remanentes non habebant unde terras suas colere nec seminare, et cotitide quam plurimi in quolibet cimiterio fodebantur; et duravit haec pestis per biennium, et sic undique magna desolatio tam ex hiis quam ex Scotis hostibus Anglos apprehendit', in J. Lumby (ed.), Henrici Knighton, Leycestrensis chronicon, II (1965), pp. vii, 412.
113. 'Eodem anno [1319] inaudita pestis animalium, dubium unde nata, succrevit in Anglia; quae circa tempus Paschale incept in Estsexia, et diffusa est in brevi per totam insulam, durans per totum annum et inficiens pene cuncta pecora regionis ⋯Dictabatur etiam, quod tota Gallia per idem tempus eadem peste fuit infecta', in H. Riley (ed.), Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, I (1863), pp. 156-7.
114. 'Hoc anno [1319], fuit pestis bourn, qui tamletifere fuerunt infecti, ut canes, de cadaveribus eorum comedentes, et corvi, quasi toxicati veneno, intumescerent, et mortui caderent. Quamobrem nemo fuit ausus comedere carnes bovinas aut vaccinas', in H. Riley (ed.), Walsingham, Ypodigma Neustrlae (1876), pp. vii, 252.
115. A similar passage is found in his Historia Anglicana, PP. 156-7.
116. Capgrave, Chronicle of England, p. 185.
117. 'In this season, to wit, in the yeare 1319, a great murreine and death of cattell chanced through the whole realm, spreading from place to place, but speciallie this yeare it reigned most in the north, where as in the years before it began in the south parts', in Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, II (1807), p. 557. Holinshed's work was originally published in London in 1586.
118. 'terrae et possessiones immobiles ipsorum magis solito steriles effectae, fructus sibi non afferunt consuetos, propter pestilenciam animalium suorum', in Sheppard (ed.), Literae Cantuarienses, I (1965), pp. 243-5.
119. R. A. L. Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory (1943), pp. 125-6, 156.
120. Pers. corresp. with Slavin, 30 Sept. 2008.I am unaware of the total size of Christ Church's herd and whether the tally of dead cows (vaccae) here includes offspring.
121. 'pro defectibus animalium', in the Letter books of the monastery of Christ Church, I, pp. 44-5.
122. 'ac deinde subita pestilentia in animalia nostra irruente in tanta multitudine mortua sunt quod aer exfetore cadaverum infectus sit, et de pestilentia hominum postmodum verisimiliter timeatur', in J. Raftis, Estates of Ramsey Abbey (1957), p. 319.
123. Kershaw, 'Great Famine', p. 30.
124. 'prater infortunium universale morinae bestiarum, quod aliquamdiu in hoc regno invaluit', in J. Raine (ed.), Historical studies and letters (1873), PP. 306-7.
125. Kershaw, 'Great Famine', p. 42; 'Ante reddicionem com poti omnes boves, vacce, bovette, juvente, bovinculi, juvinculi et vituli sunt mortui, preter xiij capita, videlicet uj boves, uj vacce et i bovinculus', in Slavin, 'Death and survival', p. 41.
126. F. Seebohm (ed.), The tribal system in Wales (1895), p. 27;
127. W. Rees (ed.). Calendar of ancient petitions relating to Wales (1975), pp. 255, 499;
128. A. Carr, 'Wales: economy and society', in S. H. Rigby (ed.), A companion to Britain in the later middle ages (2003), p. 133;
129. id., Medieval Anglesey (1982), pp. 300-2;
130. id., Medieval Wales (1995), p. 100;
131. Lucas, 'Great European Famine', p. 355 n. 3.
132. cuncta fere animalia extinxit', in W. F. Skene (ed.), Johannis de Fordun, Chronica gentis Scotorum (1871), p. 349;
133. D. E. R. Watt (ed.), W. Bower, Scotichronicon VII (1996), p. 11.
134. Above n. 36;
135. William Rees, South Wales and the March, 1284-1415: a social and agrarian study (1924), p. 176 n. 3.
136. H. Maxwell (ed.), Thomas Gray, Scalacronica (1907), p. 69;
137. A. King (ed.), Thomas Gray, Scalacronica, 1271-1363 (2005), pp. xliv, 88-9.
138. A. A. M. Duncan (ed.), John Barbour: the Bruce (1997). PP. 678-81.
139. One editor translated this as 'devotee of Sunday'. Yet with the help of James Acken, I find the translation a 'pestilence of horned cattle' more suitable.
140. It should be noted that the dating of the entries in the Irish annals used in this paper is that provided by CELT, but that CELT'S dating of the relevant entries in the Annals of Ulster c.1320 is three years too early. The chronology of the Annals of Ulster in fact is asynchronous by between one and five years between 1263 and 1378. Based on the similarities of the entries c.1320 in the Annals of Ulster with those in the Annals of Connacht and others derived from the Annals of Connacht or a text related to it, we can conclude, as did the editors of the paper edition of the Annals of Ulster, that the entries collected here refer to events in 1321, 1324 and 1325, not 1318, 1321 and 1322. The dating provided in the paper edition of the Annals of Ulster certainly fits best with the other annals collected here and what is known of the pestilence's westward progression. Likewise, CELT dates the one relevant entry from the Annals of Innisfallen some five years earlier than Seán Mac Airt's paper edition. While the entry likely refers to events in 1325 and not 1320, the Annals of Innisfallen is lacunose from 1322 to 1391, indicating that the entry is likely retrospective and derivative. See S. Mac Airt (ed.), Annals of Innisfallen (1951), pp.435, 574.
141. Other cattle mortalities mentioned in this paper documented in the Annals of Ulster in 1298 and 1336, and the Annals of Innisfallen in 1296, should also be considered too early. The annals can be viewed at CELT, http://celt.ucc.ie/publishd.html or
142. see A. M. Freeman (ed.), Annals of Connacht (1970);
143. C. Mageoghagan (fl. 1625) and D. Murphy (eds), Annals of Clonmacnoise (1896);
144. W. Hennessy and B. Mac Carthy (eds), Annals of Ulster (1893);
145. W. Hennessy (ed.), Annals of Loch Cé (1965);
146. S. Mac Airt (ed.), Annals of Innisfallen (1951);
147. S. Ó hinnse (ed.), Miscellaneous Irish annals (1114-1437) (1947).
148. The entry from the annals of St Mary's Abbey ('Item, communis morina boum et vaccarum in Hibernia') is found in J. T. Gilbert (ed.), Annales Hibernie', Cartularies of St Mary's Abbey, II (1965), pp. cxv, 362.
149. No early fourteenth-century cattle mortalities are documented in the Annals of the four masters. My reading of the Irish annals here has benefited greatly from the advice of Dan Mc Carthy. For further comment on the history and chronology of the annals, and the interrelationships between them, see his The Irish annals: their genesis, evolution and history (2008), pp. 6-14, 245, 254-55, 342-44, 349-52, passim; and id., 'The chronological synchronization of the Irish annals' at www.irish-annals.cs.tcd.ie.
150. Kershaw, 'Great Famine', pp. 32, 43;
151. Bailey, Marginal economy, p. 204;
152. Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, p. 177. Continental evidence of cattle mortalities in the mid1320s may yet be discovered.
153. Fleming, Animal plagues, p. 96;
154. Gudni Jónsson (ed.), Annalar Islenzkir (1948).
155. Jeff Hartman informs me that the Skálholts annal and Gottskalks annal observe this mortality. Pers. corresp. 10 June 2009.
156. Ancient petitions, p. 255;
157. Carr, Anglesey, p. 302.
158. For the Irish annals see n. 72. The entry in the Annals of Ulster is again dated three years too early on CELT.
159. Kershaw followed Trokelowe and placed the arrival of the cattle panzootic in Britain in Essex, at Easter 1319. But this is approximate, as dating pestilences and other disasters precisely to Easter or other religious holidays was not unknown. Manorial accounts substantiate this rough dating. 'Great Famine', p. 14, and cf. fn. 38 above.
160. The role of Edward's army, specifically the baggage train, may have in fact been quite minimal, if the infection was as acute as it appears to have been. It is unlikely that animals would have been able to trek long distances after falling sick. The army's cattle may have been exposed to the disease in the North or the infection may have made its way there via other movements of cattle contemporaneously.
161. Outbreaks of disease in which 'the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologically almost defenseless'. A. W. Crosby, 'Virgin soil epidemics as a factor in the aboriginal depopulation in America', William and Mary Quarterly 33 (1976), p. 289. However, animals may have simply been unable to develop resistence to the disease and the infection may not have been altogether 'new' to the areas it afflicted.
162. The Poem on the evil times of Edward II, Historia aurea, Chronicon Lanercost and the chronicle of Newenham abbey, as well as the abbot of Ramsey, indicate that cattle died quickly (presumably following the appearance of symptoms). The accounts at Thorncroft refer to the pestilence as the 'sudden death'. Kershaw, 'Great Famine', p. 25. Philip Slavin informs me that the accounts of a Kent demesne also refer to the disease as the 'sudden death'.
163. Newfield and Slavin, 'Cattle pestilences in preindustrial Europe', in preparation.
164. On European trade in cattle prior to the Black Death see, for example, R. Hoffmann, 'Frontier foods for fourteenth-century consumers: culture, economy, ecology', Environment and History 7 (2001), pp. 137-8;
165. W. Gijsbers and P. Koolmees, 'Food on foot: long-distance trade in slaughter oxen between Denmark and the Netherlands (fourteenth-eighteenth century)' Historia Medicinae Veterinariae 26 (2001), p. 116;
166. L. Bartosiewicz, '"There's something rotten in the state": bad smells in antiquity' European J. Arch. 6 (2003), p. 177;
167. E. L. Petersen, 'Production and trade in oxen: 1450-1750', in E. Westermann (ed.), Internationaler Ochsenhandel (1350-1750) (1979), p. 137;
168. id., 'Some problems concerning international oxen trade from a Danish view', ibid., pp. 255;
169. F. Glamann (trans. G. French), 'European Trade, 1500-1700' in C. M. Cipolla (ed.), The Fontana economic history of Europe: the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (1974), p. 469;
170. N. Hybel and B. Poulsen, The Danish resources, c.1000-1500: growth and recession (2007), pp. 377, 392.
171. On the growth of international cattle trades post 1350, see I. Blanchard, "The continental European cattle trades, 1400-1600', EcHR 39 (1986), pp. 427-60.
172. Evidence that these regions were affected by the GEF is also comparatively lacking, yet some schołars stress that both suffered the subsistence crisis. For Scotland see Kershaw, 'Great Famine', p. 6, n. 46;
173. Jordan, Great Famine, p. 99;
174. C. McNamee, 'William Wallace's invasion of Northern England in 1297', Northern Hist. 26 (1990), p. 58.
175. For Denmark see Hybel and Poulsen, Danish Resources, pp. 65-8,113-4,128-9;
176. N. Hybel, 'Klima, Misvákst og Hungersnød i Danmark, 1311-19', Historisk Tidsskrift 97 (1997), p. 40.
177. Długosz claims that Mongol advances resulted in extreme dearths of draught animals in Hungary in the mid- and late thirteenth century. Annals, pp. 184, 228.
178. However, it is possible that the infection's irruption had nothing to do with the Great European Famine or famine-oriented trade in cattle and grain. The infection may have simply entered regular lines of commerce and communication.
179. C. W. Colby (ed.), Selections from the sources of English history (1899), pp. 92-3;
180. Calendar of Close Rolls, 1302-7 (1908), pp. 471, 522;
181. Jordan, Great Famine, pp. 57-8, 171-2;
182. Mate, 'High prices', pp. 1, 7-8, 10-11;
183. Aberth, Brink, p. 22.
184. Export bans on 'meat' (among other things) were also issued in 1317 and 1318; they also signify real shortage pre-panzootic. Calendar of the Close Rolls, 1313-18 (1971), pp. 455, 588.
185. Parco Lude, p. 24.
186. On early fourteenth-century flooding see Jordan, Great Famine, pp. 18-9, 24, 99, 136;
187. M. Bailey, 'Per impetum maris: natural disaster and economic decline in eastern England, 1275-1350' in Campbell (ed.), Before the Black Death, pp. 184-208;
188. J. A. Galloway, 'Storm flooding, coastal defense and land use around the Thames estuary, c.1250-1450' J. Medieval Hist. 35 (2009), pp. 171-88.
189. For example, C. Thornton, 'Introduction', in D. V. Stern, A Hertfordshire demesne of Westminster Abbey:profits, productivity and weather (2000), p. xlviii;
190. Campbell, Seigniorial agriculture, pp. 23, 417.
191. Mike Baillie likewise seems to seek a direct connection between the Black Death and contemporary climatic deterioration, noting that the 1340s were not 'an arbitrary point in time, when a plague just happened to arrive', in New light on the Black Death: the cosmic connection (2006), p. 34.
192. This may be overly reliant on medieval opinion. As Jordan notes, authors contemporary with the Great European Famine 'describe a situation in which terrible weather ushered in or laid the foundation for livestock pestilences'. Great Famine, p. 35.
193. For example, R. B. Stothars, 'Volcanic dry fogs, and plague pandemics in Europe and the Middle East', Climatic Change 42 (1999), pp. 713-23.
194. Stone, 'Farm management', n. 77;
195. Newfield and Slavin, 'Cattle pestilences'.
196. Evidence of mortalities in deer parks at this time would be enlightening. If the panzootic was rinderpest, it may also have had something to do with the decline of wisents and urs in north-western Europe before 1400. T. G. Ahrens, "The present status of the European bison or wisent', J. Mammalogy 2 (1921), p. 58;
197. T. Barrett and P. B. Rossiter, 'Rinderpest: the disease and its impact on humans and animals' Advances in Virus Research 53 (1999), P. 100;
198. Spinage, Cattle plague, p. 81.
199. Stone, 'Farm management', n. 77;
200. id., Decision-making, pp. 46, 72;
201. M. Mate, 'The impact of war on the economy of Canterbury Cathedral Priory, 1294-1340', Speculum 57 (1982), pp. 772, 773;
202. also see her 'The agrarian economy of south-east England before the Black Death: depressed or buoyant?', in Campbell (ed.), Before the Black Death, pp. 92-3;
203. B. M. S. Campbell, 'Ecology versus economics in late thirteenth and early fourteenth-century English agriculture', in D. Sweeny (ed.), Agriculture in the middle ages: technology, practice and representation (1995), p. 77 also notes pestilential mortalities of cattle and sheep in 1334-35. Mortalities of sheep seem to be quite widespread again in the mid-1330s.
204. Knighton records heavy rain and failing crops in England preceding the cattle deaths in 1335; the Annals of Ulster record 'a great plague of snow and of frost' and 'the ruin of grass and corn-fields' as the catalyst of cattle deaths in Ireland in 1336; the Icelandic annals attribute the mortalities to 'great' storms of rain as the cause for the cattle mortalities in 1336; and the Annals of Connacht and the Annals of Loch Cé record much snow, frost and crop failures as the agents of a cattle destruction in 1339. Mageoghagan's book, which does not document any mortality of cattle in the 1330s, does note that in 1339 'all the corn of Ireland was destroyed whereupon ensued a general famine'. The high mortalities reported by Stone and Mate suggest that there may have been two principal causes of cattle mortalities c.1335 or possibly that annals and chronicles misattribute the mortalities. Jeff Hartman advises me that the Skálholts Annal, the Annalbrudstykke of Skálholt, the Flatöbogens Annal and Lawman's Annal all document cattle mortality in Iceland in 1341 and attribute it to heavy snow and a volcanic eruption. Pers. corresp. 10 June 2009. For the Irish annals see n. 72.
205. More attention to losses of cattle attributed to disease in manorial accounts in the 1320s, '30s and perhaps '40s, however, may provide substance to the idea that the pestilence did linger and continually eat away at herds. Campbell reports that on the Kent manors of Canterbury Cathedral Priory herds fell by 68 per cent from disease and bulk selling between 1318 and 1320; were increased by 1328 to 91 per cent of their 1318 level but then registered a 14 per cent fall between 1328 and 1329; and, after an almost full recovery, a 26 per cent fall between 1331 and 1332. Pers. corresp. 15 Sept. 2008.
206. See comments in Slavin, 'Death and Survival', PP. 37-9.
207. For more on diagnosing (and a pessimistic view of its possibilities) see J. Arrizabalaga, 'Medical causes of death in pre-industrial Europe: some historiographical considerations' J. Hist. of Medicine 54 (1999);
208. id., 'Problematizing retrospective diagnosis in the history of disease', Asclepio 54 (2002);
209. A. Cunningham, 'Identifying disease in the past: cutting the Gordian knot', Asclepio 54 (2002).
210. The infrequency with which symptoms are reported has more to do with textual precedent and how medieval authors recorded cattle pestilences then the infection being asymptomatic. Medieval writers very rarely describe disease symptoms in non-human animals. The Devonshire chronicler's note that a 'harsh pain made cattle 'anxious on the inside' may be telling of a stomach, intestinal or digestive issue. On the other hand, this detail may have been borrowed or adapted from an earlier source or invented for literary flair.
211. There are exceptions, for example C. Gillmor, "The 791 equine epidemic and its impact on Charlemagne's army', J. Medieval Military Hist. 3 (2005), pp. 23-45.
212. Manorial accounts give us the opportunity to test the assertion that texts do not regularly observe non-bovine livestock pestilences. For example, no medieval chronicler appears to have mentioned the mortality of geese recently uncovered by Philip Slavin in manorial accounts from several English counties c.1320.
213. M. MacKinnon, Production and consumption of animals in Roman Italy: integrating the zooarchaeological and textual evidence (2004), p. 86.
214. As Kershaw noted: 'Great Famine', pp.14, 24;
215. id., Bolton Priory: the economy of a northern monastery, 1286-1325 (1973). P. 98.
216. Langdon, Horses, oxen and technological innovation, p. 294.
217. W. C. Jordan, Europe in the high middle ages (2001), p. 293,
218. suggests that herds were often reduced by more than 90 per cent, while Aberth, Brink, p. 22, states that English losses ranged between 20 and 70 per cent.
219. Meanwhile H. F. Diaz et al., 'Climate and human health linkages on multiple timescales', in P. D. Jones et al. (eds), History and climate: memories of the future? (2001), p. 275, make the unevidenced claim that over half of Europe's oxen died.
220. It is quite probable, however, that more cattle (not necessarily a higher percentage but simply more animals) would have died in England had the disease irrupted there c.1315. The initial harvest failures of the Great European Famine may have forced the sale and slaughter of many animals. Some cattle may also have succumbed to conditions related to malnutrition or even the consumption of rotten or toxic fodder. Had the infection made its way to Bolton Priory in 1314, for example, the number of dead would have greatly exceeded the losses sustained c.1320. Kershaw, Bolton Priory, pp. 14,16-7, 97-8.
221. Ibid., 96-8;
222. id., 'Great Famine', pp. 25-6, n. 159;
223. J. A. Tuck, "The northern borderlands', in E. Miller (ed.), The agrarian history of England and Wales, III, 1348-1500 (1991). P. 35;
224. Bailey, Marginal economy, pp. 201.
225. These may be the same mortalities Bailey refers to in Medieval Suffolk: an economic and social history, 1200-1500 (2007), p. 88;
226. M. Coleman, Downham-in-the-Isle: a study of an ecclesiastical manor in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (1984), pp. 94, 130;
227. Campbell, English seigniorial agriculture, pp. 167-8;
228. S. Wright, 'Barton Blount: climatic or economic change?', Medieval Arch. 20 (1976), p. 149;
229. Jordan, Great Famine, 38;
230. Raftis, Ramsey Abbey, pp. 137-40, 240, 319;
231. Mate, 'Agrarian economy', p. 86.
232. See also Slavin, 'Death and survival', p. 41-3.
233. The demesnes Campbell refers to here are Eaton, Gateley, Hemsby, Hinderclay, Hindolveston, Hindringham, Martham, Monks Granges, Plumsted, Sedgeford, Taverham, and Thornham. Pers. corresp. 15 Sept. 2008.
234. Kershaw, 'Great Famine', pp. 24-7.
235. Stone, Decision-making, p. 72;
236. id., 'Farm management', n. 73, n. 77.
237. Stern, Hertfordshire demesne, pp. 145,175;
238. pers. corresp. with Campbell, 15 Sept. 2008.
239. Slavin, in preparation; id., 'Death and survival', pp. 41-3;
240. Tuck, 'Borderlands', p. 35;
241. Kershaw, 'Great Famine', pp. 25, 42.
242. N. S. B. Gras, The economic and social history of an English village (Crawley, Hampshire), A.D. 909-1928 (1930), p. 384.
243. Mate, 'Impact of War', p. 771.
244. Mate, 'High prices', p. 12.
245. C. McNamee, The wars of the Bruces: Scotland, England and Ireland, 1306-1328 (1997), pp. 107-8;
246. E. Searle, Lordship and community: Battle Abbey and its banlieu (1974). P. 285, n. 38.
247. C. Thornton, 'Efficiency in medieval livestock farming: the fertility and mortality of herds and flocks at Rimpton, Somerset, 1208-1349' in P. R. Coss and S. D. Lloyd (eds), Thirteenth-century England, IV (1992), p. 33;
248. Kershaw, 'Great Famine', p. 42.
249. Fleming, Animal plagues, p. 93, states that
250. J. E. Thorold Rogers observed a cattle mortality at Southampton in his A history of agriculture and prices in England (7 vols, 1866-1902), II, 1259-1400. However, I find no evidence of such an observation in volume I or II of this work. Fleming may have read too much into Roger's price indices. G. H. Tupling notes that a large number of cattle died from murrain in Rossendale but does not provide any specific dates, though he implies the early fourteenth century. The economic history of Rossendale (1927), pp. 26-7.
251. McNamee, Wars of the Bruces, pp. 107-8.
252. Slavin, in preparation; Slavin, 'Death and Survival', pp. 41-3.
253. T. Barrett et al., Rinderpest and peste des petits ruminants: virus plagues of large and small ruminants (2006).
254. For further comment, see Campbell, 'Nature as historical protagonist'.
255. Many complications, however, must be overcome both when extracting viral or bacterial DNA or RNA from bones and when attempting biomolecular detection of 'modern' pathogens in pre-modern remains. Threats of contamination and false positives are real. Even if the disease did affect the skeleton, interpreting and diagnosing lesions is not a simple exercise. T. Waldron, Palaeopathology (2008), pp. 21-23, 83-4;
256. C. Roberts and K. Manchester, The archaeology of disease (2005), pp. 167, 179-81, 220;
257. S. Hummel, Ancient DNA typing: methods, strategies and applications (2003).