Endless Cold: The Spörer Minimum and its Economic Impact during the 1430ies in Europe

Endless Cold: The Spörer Minimum and its Economic Impact during the 1430ies in Europe

Keywords: climate reconstruction, late Middle Ages, weather impacts, economic crises, famine, vulnerability.

Chantal Camenisch

Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research/University of Berne, Institute of History, Section of Economic, Social and, Environmental History (WSU), Erlachstrasse 9a, CH-3012 Berne, Switzerland. chantal.camensich@hist.unibe.ch

During the 1430ies a period of reduced sun spot activity, the so called Spörer Minimum, caused a sequence of extreme weather events in Europe. Such periods of reduced sun spot activity might lead to an increasing frequency of spells of cold advection in the winter half-year, as has been shown for other periods during the Little Ice Age.

This paper aims to illustrate the vulnerability of late medieval societies and economies to extreme weather events and what kinds of impacts these events had.

During the 1430ies a cluster of extremely cold and very cold winters included six seasons. It was unique in the last Millennium. During the winter season in the years 1431/32, 1432/33 and 1434/35 the Rhine was frozen over in the area of Cologne. The ice shield was thick enough for people to walk or ride on it. Other big water bodies like Lake Constance and the Lagoon of Venice were also covered by ice. During the winter 1436/37 the grain sowed in autumn and the vines were destroyed by the frost. Later in spring frost spells in May also destroyed the summer crop. This was one of the reasons why the grain prices increased in many parts of Europe during the following months. From 1437 to 1439 there was a harsh famine in Europe north of the Alps. Many people starved, other died in consequence of the raging epidemic diseases. Also other reasons need to be taken into consideration like interrupted grain trade, wars or embargoes in different parts of Europe.

This research is based on narrative sources such as chronicles and annals. Narrative sources are of a descriptive and explanatory character and contain weather-sensitive as well as economy and culture related information. They report for instance crop failure, increasing prices, famine, epidemics, and other noteworthy events. The quality of the collected sources allows a detailed description of the events.

Nevertheless, some caution is advisable in dealing with this type of source material. The manner in which such narrative sources were generated and copied during the Middle Ages can cause errors in dating or inaccuracy in the description. For instance, the dating of the sources might be problematic due to the variety of the calendar systems used in the Middle Ages (there were several possible dates for the beginning of the year, e. g. 1st of January, Easter, 25th of March). Therefore a critical source assessment and sufficient density of information are essential preconditions for such a reconstruction as has been made for this paper.