29.3 Europe: a.d. 1401 to 1500  (Page 11/16)

The development of all this over a period of many, many years had helped the food situation throughout France and there were only six general famines between 1200 and 1500, a marked improvement from earlier centuries. (Ref. 260 ) The modern French language appeared fully complete in the works of Francois Villon in this century and Jean Froissart was another great writer of the period. (Ref. 8 , 211 , 50 ) But it is easy to overestimate the extent of true civilization in Europe in past centuries. The whole continent, from the Urals to Gibralter was the domain of wolves and bears. In 1420 wolf packs entered Paris and they were there again in 1438, attacking people. (Ref. 260 )

The netherlands and belgium

This area remained more or less unscathed by the Hundred Years War. In the first half of the century, present day Holland and Belgium were a part of Burgundy and ruled by the Burgundy dukes, essentially as a separate entity. After the duke, Charles the Bold, was killed in 1477, his daughter Mary saved almost all of the Netherlands and Flanders by marrying the Habsburg head and getting his help against France. In the process Burgundy became part of the territories of the Holy Roman emperors Maximilian I and later Charles V. Trade with England became very important to both areas. The Dutch now seized control of the herring industry in the North Sea, the English having granted them the right to seine in their waters and the rise of Amsterdam was made possible by this herring industry. But about 1500 the herring disappeared, whether because of a change in the currents, depredations of larger fish or disease, is not known

In contrast to some parts of Europe, however, meat was commonly eaten in the Netherlands, even in times of famine. Windmills were particularly useful in this country for driving bucket chains, which drained water from the soil and poured it into canals, thus helping in the reclamation of land. The permanent westerly winds from the Atlantic to the Baltic made these mills more efficient than those of some countries. (Ref. 260 )

Bruges in Belgium was one of the four great trading posts of the Hansa, along with Tyskebrugge in Bergen (timber and fish), Peterhof in Novgorod (furs), Steelyard in London (wool and cloth). The first north European stock exchange developed in Bruges in 1409.

At the end of the century, however, Bruges' harbor silted up and the cloth center shifted to Antwerp on the Scheldt and that city developed its own exchange in 1460. (Ref. 8 , 292 ) Coal was used throughout the Low Countries and was exported, but almost all of their salt came from the mouth of the Loire. (Ref. 137 )

As in Bohemia, various "heretical" groups made their appearances in the Lowlands at this time, but more of this later. Many great artists developed, including Herbert and Jan Van Eyck and Roger de la Pasture, also known as Rogier Van der Weyden. Important to note, too, is the birth in this century of Erasmus, skeptic, satirist and humanist who was another forerunner of the Reformation and about whom we shall have much more in the discussion of ENGLAND, in the next century. (Ref. 50 )