Crisis of the late Middle Ages

The crisis of the late Middle Ages was a series of events across Europe during the late Middle Ages. These events involved extensive demographic collapse, political instability, and religious upheaval. Collectively, they marked an end to a centuries-long period of relative stability in Europe, and reshaped regional societies. This crisis period coincides with a shift in the regional climate from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age.

The events of the Crisis include the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death of 1347–1351, which caused very high mortality across the region. Population did not rise to pre-crisis levels until around 1500.

Warfare and popular revolts proliferated across the continent, including the English Wars of the Roses, the French Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War, the Hundred Years' War, the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, and the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars. The Catholic Church underwent the Western Schism, and the Holy Roman Empire lost much of its central authority following the Great Interregnum (1247–1273), to the advantage of the German princes.