20 THE GREEN RISING 



of the years from 1318 to 1320. 4 But these disasters 

 were relatively insignificant in comparison with the 

 ravages of the Black Death which appeared in Eng- 

 land in 1348. Before this scourge had spent its force 

 in 1349, approximately half the population had been 

 claimed by death. Another outbreak of plague oc- 

 curred in 1361 and 1362, and many of the remainder 

 of the population were taken as a result of its rav- 

 ages. To add to the privation and suffering of the 

 people, several disastrous cattle plagues occurred 

 during this time which resulted in great losses in 

 live stock. 



It was inevitable that these adverse conditions 

 would affect the economic status of the rural popula- 

 tion and profoundly change the policy of manorial 

 organization. "The predial services," says Gamier, 

 "which had effected the cultivation of large areas 

 of the manorial soil, ceased, and half the lease-hold- 

 ing husbandmen perished. The free laborers wer 

 either extorting excessive wages on the manor of 

 their birth, or hiring themselves to the highest bid- 

 der elsewhere. Villeins in gross and villeins regard- 

 ant were turning vagrants and going off on the 

 tramp. For the first time in England's history the 

 sturdy beggar appeared on the scenes. Many a land- 

 lord was at his wit's end to find means of refilling the 

 offices vacated by death or desertion. Farmers were 

 unable to till their own lands, much less perform 



4 Agriculture and Prices, Vol. 1, p. 290. 



