The Great European Famine 1315-17

                                   ✳️✳️✳️ Forgotten History ✳️✳️✳️

The Great Famine started with bad weather in spring 1315. Universal crop failures lasted through 1316 until the summer harvest in 1317, and Europe did not fully recover until 1322. The period was marked by extreme levels of crime, disease, mass death, and even cannibalism and infanticide. The famine caused millions of deaths over an extended number of years and marked a clear end to the period of growth and prosperity from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. The Great Famine was restricted to Northern Europe, including the British Isles, northern France, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Germany 🇩🇪 and western Poland 🇵🇱 It also affected some of the Baltic states, except for the far eastern Baltic that was only affected indirectly. The famine was bounded in the south by the Alps and the Pyrenees.

In the spring of 1315, unusually heavy rain began in much of Europe. It continued to rain throughout the spring and summer, and the temperature remained cool. These conditions caused widespread crop failures. The straw and hay for the animals could not be properly dried, so there was no fodder or bedding for the livestock.

In addition to starvation, disease ravaged the people. Pneumonia and tuberculosis exacted a heavy toll. Survivors weakened to such an extent that they struggled to work their fields. Additionally, people consumed so much seed that it made it difficult to restore agricultural yields back to their pre-famine levels once the crisis subsided. The famine killed up to 25% of the population. Real numbers are difficult to determine.

Ireland 🇮🇪 was affected : The Great Famine coincided with, and greatly influenced, the Bruce campaign in Ireland, the attempt of Edward de Bruce, a younger brother of Robert the Bruce of Scotland, to make himself High King of Ireland. At first the Irish-Scottish alliance seemed unstoppable, winning battle after battle and gaining control of most of Ireland in less than a year, seemingly on theverge of  driving the Anglo-Norman settlers out of Ireland altogether. The famine hit Ireland hard in 1317 and had stricken most of the country, making it difficult for Edward de Bruce to provide food to most of his men. He never regained momentum and was defeated and killed in the Battle of Faughart in 1318, ending the last organized effort in many centuries to end English rule in Ireland. Famine had a part in this outcome.

 The Great Famine may have been precipitated by  volcanic events, perhaps that of the volcano of Mount Tarawera, New Zealand, which lasted about five years. There were others in the 13 th century.Ecuador’s Quilotoa volcano, which did erupt in the 12th to 14th centuries. The largest of the all was the Indonesia’s Samalas volcano The eruption occurred in 1257, and it could also be one of the volcanoes that started a 600-year cold period called the Little Ice Age. So it could an impact of many including ; Okataina in New Zealand, El Chichón in Mexico🇲🇽, Quilotoa in Ecuador and Samalas in Indonesia (next to Mount Rinjani).