In the late Middle Ages, many travesties occurred that had significant relevance, but there are three universal crisis that all can agree on- the Plague, or the Black Death, the 100 Years’ War, and the Great Schism. There are debates on which opinion is correct, though I believe that the Black Death had the foremost impact on Europe in this time period. Though the other two are just as important, the Black Death effected the other two crisis as opposed to the Hundred Years’ War and the Great Schism effecting the Black Death.
If one were to look at the crisis in a chronological point of view, the first one notices would be the Hundred Years’ War. This war, which actually ranged from 1337 until 1453, was conflicted between two royal houses- the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet. The House of Valois had a King of France, whilst the House of Plantagenet claimed to have ruling rights to both England and France stating that they had French backgrounds. Though the war gave impetus of ideas to both the French and English nationality and that the Great Schism and the Black Death occurred during this period of warfare, the Hundred Years’ War did not actually have any great affect to either of the two.
Next in line we have the Black Death. Conditions from the Hundred Years’ War did make the situation a little worse by not having food or money for medical attention, this is by far the most devastating event of the Middle Ages. The Plague is thought to have originated from the bacteria of the Bubonic plague and killed more than a third of Western Europe’s total population. Population levels would not be the same amount in the thirteenth century until the sixteenth, and in some areas the eighteenth century. Many believed that flagellants would help repent, as well as keeping flowers in one’s pocket. Not only did the Plague shrink the population, but in turn helped decrease the demand for food. The Black Death also had a blow on the Roman Catholic Church, thus...