Population, Plague, and the Sweating Sickness
Demographic Movements in Late Fifteenth-Century England
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10067777 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert S Gottfried (Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1977 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 12-37 |
| Publication date | 1977-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of British Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9371 • E-ISSN: 1545-6986 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1086/385709 |
| PMID | 11632234 |
| OpenAlex | W2166118811 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 14 |
Demographic movements remain a controversial and largely unknown facet of medieval studies. This is particularly true for the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the later middle ages, which in western Europe coincided with the second and most destructive pandemic of plague in recorded history. Most observers of late medieval England agree that population declined from sometime early in the fourteenth century, and that the decline extended to at least 1450, but the precise causes, extent, and chronology of this decline are still very much in debate. A recent analysis of 20,000 testamentary records from East Anglia, London, and Hertfordshire from 1430 to 1480 indicated that epidemic disease was the primary element in controlling and establishing demographic trends. It also showed, however, that this pattern began to change in the early 1470s when child replacement ratios, the generational measure of parents to progeny at fixed periods in time, began to rise for virtually all socio-geographic groups surveyed. By process of elimination, it was concluded that this was the result of an upturn in fertility. Since population increases generally have been attributed to changes in marriage patterns and/or mortality schedules, and since mortality was the major element in regulating population from 1348, the onset of the Black Death and the second plague pandemic, the postulated fertility rise of the 1470s took on even greater interest. Were the events of the 1470s anomalous, or did the projected fertility rise continue on into the 1480s, and even lead to the long-term period of population growth which occurred in the sixteenth century
Ancient history · Archaeology · Chronology · Developed country · Fertility · Fifteenth · Geography · Historical demography · Middle Ages · Plague (disease · Population · Sociology · Demography · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
British Medieval Population
Epidemic Disease in Fifteenth-Century England
Epidemic Disease in Fifteenth-Century England
Epidemic Disease in Fifteenth Century England
Historical Demography
Plague, Population and Economic Decline in England in the Later Middle Ages
The Geographical Distribution of Wealth in England, 1334-1649
Influenza and Inflation in Tudor England
British Medieval Population
| Citations per year | 0.09 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1979 - 1997 (19) |
| Highly cited | No |