Gone Medieval What Are the Late Medieval Ages?
Apr 3, 2026
They trace 14th and 15th century turmoil from the Great Famine and Little Ice Age to the Black Death and its social fallout. They cover peasant revolts, shifting warfare and the rise of gunpowder. They explore papal schism, calls for religious reform, deposed kings and the Ottoman capture of Constantinople. They debate whether neat period labels fit diverse regional histories.
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Loss Of Faith Sparked Lay Religious Movements
- The church's inability to explain disasters eroded popular trust and spurred new religious movements.
- Eleanor Janega links ineffective spiritual answers during famine to rising heresies and lay-led responses like flagellants.
Prague Records Show Clerical Hypocrisy
- Ordinary voices revealed widespread clerical hypocrisy in the 14th century.
- Eleanor Janega cites 14th-century Prague records of priests renting wooden huts in churchyards to see sex workers as evidence of corruption.
Combined Crises Shattered The Feudal Social Contract
- War, plague, and famine together undermined the medieval social contract and spurred revolts.
- Matt Lewis and Eleanor Janega link the Hundred Years' War, Black Death, and Great Famine to uprisings like England's 1381 Peasants' Revolt.