The Forme of Cury

The fourteenth century started with one failed harvest after another, causing the Great Famine. The year 1348 marked the arrival of an even greater evil, the Black Death. Two years later the disease had wiped out nearly half the population of England. The social change in the aftermath of the Black Death, and the further crippling high taxes resulting from the Hundred Years’ War with France, led to the Peasants’ Revolt. The peasants were angry that they had to suffer so that the elite could wage war and feast in their great halls.