The Famine of 1258, the Samalas eruption of 1257 and the reign of Henry IIII
Wikipedia, in public domain.
In this year, there was a failure of crops; upon which failure a famine ensued,to such a degree that people from the villages resorted to the city for food; and there upon the famine waxing still greater, many thousand persons perished, many thousands more too would have died had not corn just then arrived from Alemaine
- Reference to 1258 from 'The Chronicles of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London'
Form my reading of Sophie Therese Ambler's 'The Song of Simon de Montfort' , I was reminded of the ghastly famine that hit England in 1258 . Intrigued to find an alleged connection to Indonesia: From page 163 ;
"In the Spring of 1257, on the island of Lombok, in Indonesia, the Samalas volcano erupted. It spewed a mighty cloud of ash into the atmosphere, dimming the skies, cooling the earth, and bringing incessant rain."
The author then draws on Mathew Paris' chronicle
"From early February until the end of March 1258 ( writes Matthew Paris) 'the north wind blew without intermission, constant frost, snow and cold afflicted the poor and suspended cultivation, and killed ....ewes and lambs' "
This follows with the observation that -
"These conditions were all the harder because they followed two years of atrocious weather , 1256 and 1257 had seen deluge and flood, leading to two years of bad harvests".
The consequences of months or even years of excessive rainfall and damaged crops would indeed have been horrific. Grain was used for bread, ale and pottage, and therefore was a staple food for huge swathes of the population. Lack of surplus seed corn would lead to problems in planting the following year's crops even if the weather became more clement. If the supply of fodder for animals was hit, or animals lost in flooding, then this would lead to further misery.
On page 164, of 'The song of Simon de Montforte' , Matthew Paris' well known and quite apocalyptic record of mass deaths through starvation is drawn upon.
,"Their livid and swollen corpses were found everywhere, in fives or sixes, amongst the pigs, on middens and on the muddy streets, the flesh of the bodies wretchedly melting into each other"
It is generally accepted that bodies of those who died from starvation in England were so numerous that they did not need a full coroner's statement and could be buried.
In a subsequent footnote that Sophie Therese Ambler cites research from Transactions of the Royal Historical Society to suggest that the Samalas 1257 eruption was comparable to Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 which led to Europe's 'year without a Summer' in 1816 that inspired Lord Byron's poem 'Darkness'.
The Samalas connection is not unique to 'The Song of Simon de Montfort'. An excavation of some 10,000 skeletons found at St Mary's , Spital Fields, which ended in 2012 had baffled archaeologists. Carbon dating could not connect mass graves -which suggest an increase in death rates - with catastrophes such as the Black Death or the famine of 1315-1315. The conclusion these were the remains of those who died in 1358. The Samalas eruption was invoked as the cause....sulphurous gasses being released high into the air, mixing with water to create a dry fog that shut out sunlight, and would also cause crops to rot.
But there is a distinct lack of evidence that the famine 1258 actually had anything to do with the Samalas eruption. Firstly, if a dry fog stretched across Europe like it did in 1816, then there would be a reports from many different regions. Many people living throughout Medieval times felt that they were living in the End Times and that strange patterns in climate such as lack of sunlight in the Summer would be recorded, and such natural or even supernatural phenomena would be noted. In fact Matthew Paris' emphasis on extreme weather in the writing of the Chronica Majora have been studied in some detail ( see below).
Secondly, Sophie Therese Ambler maintains that three ship loads of grain were sent from the Holy Roman Empire to England .....which was ruled by Richard, brother to Henry III. Darren Baker in his work 'Simon de Montfort and the Rise of the English Nation ' claims that in fact it was fifty ships carrying grain and bread that sailed to England, So has Matthew Lewis in 'Henry III -The Son of Magna Carta.' It is hard to understand why the Holy Roman Empire would have a surplus of grain to export whilst England suffered from lack of grain. A dry fog, similar to the one of 1816, would have an impact on both countries . Certainly the horrendous famine of 1315-1317 had a huge impact on the whole of Europe.
It is indeed unfair to criticise Sophie Therese Ambler' s writing harshly. I am grateful to her for getting my interest going in the question of Medieval famine. But there seemed to be an over emphasis placed on volcanic activity, along with excessive rainfall. Certainly the latter is a key cause of so much misery but other factors needed to be looked at. How often did famine strike in this period -there are accounts of famine from the 1230' and the 1190s ? How much grain was already being exported and imported in England at the time? Is a great rise in population growth, changes in agricultural practices which were damaging to soil or to crop cultivation in general are relevant.
But certainly the famine of 1258 was a fascinating backdrop for the Oxford Provisions, arguably the start of English politics.
Links
Volcano caused mass deaths in London article from 'East London Advertiser' 6th August 2012
Medieval volcano disaster London Graves article from 'The Guardian' 5th August 2012
The Chronicles of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London Online Google book.
Review of the Song of Simon de Montfort by Sophie Therese Ambler from this blog.
Simon 2014 website maintained by Darren Baker
Other Sources
Tales of Wonder in the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris Sarah L Hamilton , University of Reading.
'Henry III-the Magna Carta King' by Matthew Lewis, Anberley, 2016
'Simon de Montfort And The Rise of The English Nation', Darren Baker, Amberley 2018
UPDATE latest history blog by Michael Bully
Bleak Chesney Wold Charles Dickents/ 'dark' 19th century history
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