A.D. 1125 England. Great flood on St. Lawrence's Day; famine in consequence of destruction of crops, &c. 1126 "Incessant rains during the summer, when followed in all England a most unheard-of scarcity. A sextarius of wheat sold for 20 shillings." England. Great drought and famine. 1135-37 1141 1154 1176 1183 Famine, said to have lasted twelve years.-Short. From rains, frost, tempest, thunder, and lightning. Pestilence, followed by great dearth. Wales. A great famine and mortality. 1193-96 England. Famine occasioned by incessant rains. "The common people (Vulgus pauperum) perished everywhere for lack of food; and on the footsteps of famine the fiercest pestilence followed, in the form of an acute fever.”—Walter Hemingford. A great mortality and famine, from long rains. Famine from a rainy summer and severe winter. A very dry winter and bad seed-time, whence followed a great famine. Famine and plague; 20,000 persons die in London; people eat horseflesh, bark of trees, grass, &c. -Short. England. Great famine, "people eat their children."-Short. A.D. 1239 1248 "By reason of embasing the coin a great penury followed." No rain from Whitsuntide to autumn; no grass; hence arose a severe famine; great mortality of man and cattle; dearness of grain and scarcity of fruit. The inundations of autumn destroyed the grain and fruit, and pestilence followed. North winds in spring destroyed vegetation; food failed, the preceding harvest having been small, and innumerable multitudes of poor people died. Fifty shiploads of wheat, barley, and bread were procured from Germany; but citizens of London were forbidden by proclamation against dealing in same. "A great dearth followed this wet year pest, for a quarter of wheat was sold for 15 and 20 shillings, but the worst was in the end; there could be none found for money when-though many poor people were constrained to eat barks of trees and horseflesh, but many starved for want of food-20,000 (as it was said) in London."-Penkethman. A violent tempest and inundation, followed by a severe famine in the entire district of Canterbury. Short speaks of a twenty-three years' famine commencing this year. England. A tempest destroyed the seed, and corn rose to a great price. A.D. 1289 1294 Severe famine; many thousands of the poor died. No grain or fruits, "so that the poor died of hunger."-Camden. Hail, great concussion of elements. -Short. 1298 1302 1314 "Calamitous" pestilence. famine and England. 26 Edward I. "A great famine in England, chiefly want of wine; so that the same could scarcely be had to minister the communion in the churches."Penkethman. England and Scotland. Famine. England. Grains spoiled by the rains. Famine "so dreadful that the people devoured the flesh of horses, dogs, cats, and vermin." Parliament passed a measure limiting the price of provisions. 1316 1336 1341 Universal dearth, and such a mortality, particularly of the poor, followed, that the living could scarcely bury the dead. Royal proclamation: no more beer to be made. Famine again; this is regarded by some writers as the last serious famine in this country. rains. Famine occasioned by long Scotland. Desolated by a famine. England, Scotland. Great dearth in this and following year. People ate A.D. 1353 1355 1358 1369 1390 1392 horses, dogs, cats, &c., to sustain life.-Holinshed. England. Great famine.-Rapin. Great scarcity; grain brought from Ireland afforded much relief. "A great dearth and pestilence happened in England, which was called the second pestilence." Penkethman. Great pestilence among men and larger animals; followed by inundations and extensive destruction of grain. Grain very dear. Great famine arising from scarcity of money to buy food. Great scarcity for two years; people ate unripe fruit, and suffered greatly from "Flux." The Corporation of London advanced money and corn to the poor at easy rates. -Stow. Short attributes the famine of these three years to the " "hoarding of corn." Penkethman gives further details regarding the assistance rendered by the Corporation of London, as follows: "The Mayor and Citizens of London took out of the Orphans' chest in their Guildhall, 2,000 marks to buy corn and other victualls from beyond the sea; and the Aldermen each of them layd out twenty pound to the like purpose of buying corn; which was bestowed in divers places, where the poore might buy at an appointed price, and such as lacked A.D. 1427 1429 1437-38 money to pay doune, did put in England. Famine from great rains. England. Wheat rose from its ordinary Bread was made from fern-roots. -Stow. Rains and tempests.-Short. "In the 17th yeere of Henry the Sixt, by meanes of great tempests, immeasurable windes and raines, there arose such a scarcitie that wheat was sold in some places for 2 shillings 6 pence the bushell." -Penkethman. : (18 Hen. VI.). "Wheat was sold at London for 3s. the bushell, mault at 13s. the quarter, and oates at 8d. the bushell, which caused men to eat beanes, peas, and barley, more than in an hundred years before wherefore Stephen Browne, then maior, sent into Pruse (Prussia), and caused to be brought to London many ships laden with rye, which did much good; for bread-corne was so scarce in England that poor people made their breade of ferne rootes."-Penketh man. A scarcity. Scotland.-A famine. |