Consequences of the Black Death

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The Black Death had a huge impact on society. Fields went unploughed as the men who usually did this were victims of the disease. Harvests would not have been brought in as the manpower did not exist. Animals would have been lost as the people in a village would not have been around to tend them.
Therefore whole villages would have faced starvation. Towns and cities would have faced food shortages as the villages that surrounded them could not provide them with enough food. Those lords who lost their manpower to the disease, turned to sheep farming as this required less people to work on the land. Grain farming became less popular – this, again, kept towns and cities short of such basics as bread.
One consequence of the Black Death was inflation – the price of food went up creating more hardship for the poor. In some parts of England, food prices went up by four times.
Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that many lords were short of desperately needed labour for the land that they owned.
Feudal law stated that peasants could only leave their village if they had their lord’s permission so the government faced the prospect of peasants leaving their villages to find a better ‘deal’ from a lord thus upsetting the whole idea of the Feudal System which had been introduced to tie peasants to the land. Ironically, this movement by the peasants was encouraged by the lords who were meant to benefit from the Feudal System.
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, many peasants had died the plague, fields remained unploughed harvests could not be brought in. animals were dying / there weren't enough people to tend them.

The lords turned to sheep farming grain farming became less popular. , towns and cities had to face food shortage and, , the price of food went up inflaction.

Many lords were in desperate need of labour and / the government had to change the feudal laws these didn't permit peasants to leave their lords' villages.

Peasants became free and, / they knew that the lords needed their labour for their lands, they could demand higher wages.