Crisis of the late Middle Ages

Crisis of the late Middle Ages
c. 1300 – c. 1500
Europe and the surrounding areas in the 14th century
Key events	Great Famine of 1315–1317 Black Death Little Ice Age Great Bovine Pestilence Division of the Mongol Empire Hussite Wars St. Elizabeth's flood Saint Marcellus's flood Wars of the Roses Fall of Constantinople Great Schism Popular revolts in late medieval Europe Hundred Years' War Great Bullion Famine

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The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages refers to a series of events across Europe during the late Middle Ages. These events involved extensive demographic collapse, political instability, and religious upheaval. Collectively, they marked an end to a centuries-long period of relative stability in Europe, and reshaped regional societies. This crisis period coincides with a shift in the regional climate, characterised by the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the beginning of the Little Ice Age.

The events of the Crisis include the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death of 1347–1351, which led to high mortality rates across the region. It was also marked by an increase in warfare and conflict across the continent, and popular revolts. Population levels decreased throughout the period, and did not rise to pre-crisis levels until around 1500.^[1]

Notable conflicts included the English Wars of the Roses, the French Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War, the Hundred Year's War, the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars, and the Bulgarian-Ottoman Wars. The Catholic Church underwent the Western Schism, and the Holy Roman Empire experienced significant decentralization following the Great Interregnum (1247–1273), with separate dynasties of the various German states gaining influence at the expense of imperial authority.