The Year 1315 AD When Rain Would Not Stop — How Europe’s Great Famine Began

🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033InBB... https://open.spotify.com/show/4r9aY3o... Interested in the 12 unexplained human mysteries? Get our book: https://sleepytimehistory.com What happens to a civilization when the rain simply will not stop? In this video, we uncover how the relentless rains of 1315 AD triggered Europe’s Great Famine, turning fertile fields into mud, ruining harvests, and sending grain prices soaring. See how a sudden shift to colder, wetter weather pushed medieval society to the edge. We follow the story from failed crops and hunger to disease, social unrest, and desperate crime. Discover how peasants, towns, kings, and the Church struggled to survive as food vanished and bodies weakened across England, France, the Low Countries, and northern Europe. Drawing on climate history and medieval sources, this episode reveals how the Great Famine reshaped Europe long before the Black Death — and why historians now see 1315–1317 as a true turning point. If you’re interested in medieval history, climate change in the past, or how fragile societies really are, this is a story you don’t want to miss. Subscribe for more in‑depth history videos and explorations of the crises that changed our world. Sources: The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century — William Chester Jordan Famine in Scotland: The ‘Ill Years’ of the 1690s — Karen J. Cullen “The Great Famine (1315–1317) and its Social and Economic Consequences” — Philip Slavin Climate, History and the Modern World — Hubert H. Lamb The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300–1850 — Brian Fagan 00:00 The Rain That Turned Europe Against Itself 04:26 Europe Before the Deluge 12:40 The Climate Turns Colder and Wetter 22:21 Spring 1315: When the Rains Began 32:25 The Harvest That Would Not Ripen 42:54 From Failed Fields to Exploding Prices 51:40 What Hunger Did to the Medieval Diet 1:00:52 The Countryside Under Pressure 1:10:47 Cities Learn They Cannot Eat Money 1:20:14 Hunger, Illness, and the Weakening of Bodies 1:28:00 Animals Starve Too 1:36:57 Church, Charity, and the Search for Meaning 1:45:14 Crime, Desperation, and Social Order 1:53:26 Kings, Lords, and Governments Confront the Crisis 2:02:18 England: A Kingdom of Mud, Shortage, and High Prices 2:11:17 France and the Low Countries: Famine Along Europe’s Densest Corridors 2:19:39 The Wider Northern European Disaster 2:27:25 1316 And 1317: Why the Disaster Kept Going 2:35:46 How Many Died-and What the Sources Can Really Tell Us 2:45:14 The Great Famine’s Long Shadow 2:52:20 When the Rain Finally Stopped Kindly Note: Every story on this channel is rooted in a deep respect for history. We work as directors and editors, using AI tools to assist with research and drafting the script while we shape the narrative and verify the facts. The narration is delivered by a digital replica of a professional voice actor, and the visuals are individually crafted artistic impressions created with AI. Even with these tools, bringing a story of this depth to life takes many hours of work. Please keep in mind that while the narrative is grounded in thorough historical research, its main purpose is storytelling for entertainment and relaxation. It is not meant to serve as a formal academic or scientific source. Thank you for your trust and support.