Agriculture during the medieval time was a very complex system. The
weather played a major role in the harvest. A week of unpleasant rain in May,
followed by an abnormal cold, humid summer might have thrown off the summer
harvest, resulting in a shortfall of food. Due to a surplus left over from the
previous harvest, no one went hungry. But after a couple of bad harvests, the
surplus began to run out. This happened in Europe in 1044. The Famine reared
its ugly head, in part, caused by years of unfavorable harvest and inadequate
crops, but it was also complicated by a plague that s…
