How did the Black Death affect the law?

How did the Black Death affect the law?

A Transformation of Governance and Law The Black Death killed one-third of the English population between 1348 and 1351. To preserve traditional society, the king’s government aggressively implemented new punitive legal remedies as a mechanism for social control.

How were cities affected by the Black Death?

Those cities hit with the plague shrank, leading to a decrease in demand for goods and services and reduced productive capacity. As laborers became more scarce, they were able to demand higher wages. This had several major effects: Serfdom began to disappear as peasants had better opportunities to sell their labor.

How did the plague affect populations and cities around the world?

The Black Death was the largest demographic shock in European history, killing approximately 40% of the region’s population between 1347 and 1352. Some regions and cities were spared, but others were severely hit: England, France, Italy and Spain lost between 50% and 60% of their populations in two years.

What law was introduced after the Black Death?

The Statute of Labourers was a law created by the English parliament under King Edward III in 1351 in response to a labour shortage, which aimed at regulating the labour force by prohibiting requesting or offering a wage higher than pre-Plague standards and limiting movement in search of better conditions.

How did the plague weaken the system of feudalism?

When the Black Death swept over Europe and wiped out a third of its population, it also destroyed Feudalism. Peasants were free to leave the lands of the lords to try to find higher wages because of the huge labour shortages. The land that had usually been the primary source of wealth was now worthless.

What effect did the plague have on Europe?

The effects of the Black Death were many and varied. Trade suffered for a time, and wars were temporarily abandoned. Many labourers died, which devastated families through lost means of survival and caused personal suffering; landowners who used labourers as tenant farmers were also affected.

What areas of Western Europe were most affected by the plague rural or urban?

Answer: 1348 Europe suffered the most. By the end of 1348, Germany, France, England, Italy, and the low countries had all felt the plague. Norway was infected in 1349, and Eastern European countries began to fall victim during the early 1350s.

What type of conditions in cities and towns allowed the plague to spread easily?

One of the things that helped the bacteria to thrive was the conditions that the cities encouraged. Yersinia infects fleas, which travel on rats and huge populations of rats could be found in every major city in Europe.

How did the plague impact the Theatre?

Given that the bubonic plague particularly decimated young populations, it may also have wiped out Shakespeare’s theatrical rivals—companies of boy actors who dominated the early-17th-century stage, and could often get away with more satiric, politically dicey productions than their older competitors.

How did the plague affect the growth of the city?

Geographical restraints did not provide an incentive for promoting growth after the plague died down. The city did not return to pre-plague numbers until the 20 th century (Bowsky, 1964). Conversely, other booming cities did not lack the resources to cope with rapid growth after the plague.

How did the Black Death affect cities in Europe?

Pandemics, places, and populations: Evidence from the Black Death The Black Death killed 40% of Europe’s population between 1347 and 1352, but little is known about its spatial effects. The column uses variation in Plague mortality at the city level to explore the short-run and long-run impacts on city growth.

What did people do to get rid of the plague?

“ [Afterwards], wash hands and face with acqua chiara (clean water) mixed with wine or vinegar of roses, with which sometimes all the body should be cleaned, using a sponge.”

What was the population of Ferrara during the plague?

While Henderson says that the same general set of anti-plague measures were taken in cities across Italy, the town of Ferrara, population approximately 30,000, offers a fascinating success story.