Chapter 8 Section 5 Mr. Jeror
group 5
The Black Death
The Black Death was a Global Epidemic. Many people died from this Crisis. In the autumn of 1347, a fleet of Genoese trading ships loaded with grain left the Black Sea port of Caffa and set sail for Messina, Sicily. They did not know rats were aboard the ship. The rats carried diseased fleas that started infecting people do. It spread through Europe, Asia, and North Africa but had subsided. The sickness was called the Bubonic Plague. This new epidemic was rapidly spreading. It almost wiped out the entire population. It continued into the 1400's and they didn't recover for another 100 years.
Upheaval in the Church
The Church was unable to provide the strong leadership needed in this desperate time. In 1309, Pope Clement V had moved the papal court to Avignon outside the border of southern France. It remained there for about 70 years under French domination. In Avignon, popes reigned over a lavish court. Critics lashed out against the worldly, pleasure-loving papacy, and anticlerical sentiment grew. Within the Church itself, reformers worked for change.
The hundred year' war
After a hiatus, Henry V of England renewed the war and proved victorious at Agincourt conquered Normandy and then attempted to have himself crowned as the future king of France by the Treaty of Troyes But his military successes were not matched by political successes: although allied with the dukes of Burgundy, the majority of the French refused English domination.