The Great Famine of 1315-1317: Causes

Students often see climate events as temporary or isolated, but the Great Famine’s causes unfolded over years and affected entire societies. Active learning helps them connect cold rain, soil conditions, and social pressures into a living timeline that textbooks flatten into paragraphs.

• Year 7
• History
• 4 activities
• 30 min–45 min

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze the impact of persistent rainfall on medieval crop yields using historical data.
2. Explain how specific agricultural techniques of the 14th century increased vulnerability to crop failure.
3. Compare the food security of different social classes in England during the Great Famine.
4. Predict the immediate social and economic consequences of widespread crop failure in a medieval context.

Case Study Analysis

⏱ 30 min·Pairs

Source Analysis: Weather Chronicles

Provide excerpts from monastic records describing endless rain and failed crops. Students highlight evidence of climate impacts in pairs, then share with the class to build a shared timeline. Conclude with a vote on the strongest cause.

Prepare & details

Analyze the role of the 'Little Ice Age' in causing the Great Famine.

Facilitation Tip: During the Source Analysis: Weather Chronicles activity, have pairs read aloud the same chronicle entry twice, first in a calm voice and then in a hurried, anxious tone, to highlight how persistent rain shaped medieval fears.

Setup: Groups at tables with case materials

Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Case Study Analysis

⏱ 45 min·Small Groups

Farmer Dilemma Cards

Distribute cards outlining medieval farming choices, such as crop rotation or soil type. Small groups debate and rank decisions by risk, using dice to simulate weather outcomes. Groups present their survival strategies.

Prepare & details

Explain the agricultural practices that made medieval Europe vulnerable to famine.

Facilitation Tip: For Farmer Dilemma Cards, set a 90-second timer for each decision round so students feel the pressure of limited time, mirroring the urgency of famine conditions.

Setup: Groups at tables with case materials

Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Case Study Analysis

⏱ 35 min·Whole Class

Famine Mapping Activity

Students plot famine reports on a Europe outline map using colored pins for crop types and weather data. Discuss patterns in whole class, connecting local impacts to continental scale. Add prediction arrows for social effects.

Prepare & details

Predict the social and economic consequences of widespread crop failure.

Facilitation Tip: In the Famine Mapping Activity, provide a palette of only two colors—one for fertile lowlands and one for high, wet moors—to force students to simplify terrain choices like medieval farmers did.

Setup: Groups at tables with case materials

Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Case Study Analysis

⏱ 40 min·Individual

Agricultural Model Build

Individuals construct simple three-field system models with clay fields and yarn fences. Test 'rain' with water sprays to show flooding risks, then journal vulnerabilities.

Prepare & details

Analyze the role of the 'Little Ice Age' in causing the Great Famine.

Facilitation Tip: When building Agricultural Model Builds, supply only short, straight twigs for plows and soft beeswax for soil to keep models crude and historically plausible rather than modernized.

Setup: Groups at tables with case materials

Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Teaching This Topic

Teachers find success when they treat the famine as a systems problem: students trace how weather, soil, population, and trade all fed into scarcity. Avoid presenting causes as a checklist; instead, use activities that force students to layer evidence. Research shows middle schoolers grasp cumulative change best through iterative modeling, not lecture. Keep the focus on how medieval people adapted—or couldn’t—within their constraints.

What to Expect

By the end of these activities, students should trace how prolonged wet weather interacted with medieval farming limits to create widespread starvation, and explain why every class felt the crisis. They will use maps, models, and role-play to show cause-and-effect relationships rather than memorizing causes as a list.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Source Analysis: Weather Chronicles, watch for students treating each rainstorm as a single event rather than part of a multi-year pattern.

What to Teach Instead

Have students create a group timeline on the board, adding one weather event per year from 1314 to 1317, to visualize the cumulative impact of repeated rains.

Common Misconception

During Agricultural Model Build, watch for students designing plows that look modern or assuming crops could be rotated faster than three fields allowed.

What to Teach Instead

Prompt them to label each field with its three-year rotation cycle and to test their plow in a shallow tray of water to see how it bogs down, linking form to failure.

Common Misconception

During Famine Mapping Activity, watch for students shading only coastal or riverine areas as affected, missing upland regions where rain pooled.

What to Teach Instead

Ask them to overlay elevation contour lines on their soil maps and adjust their shading to include high, wet moors that became waterlogged, matching chroniclers’ notes of ‘water standing in the fields’.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

After Famine Mapping Activity, provide students with a blank map of England and ask them to shade regions most likely to suffer from crop failure based on soil type and elevation, then write one sentence explaining their choices and list two specific crops that would have been most affected.

Discussion Prompt

During Farmer Dilemma Cards, pose the question: 'If you were a peasant farmer in 1315, what single decision would you prioritize to survive the famine: saving seed for next year, eating your livestock, or migrating?' Facilitate a class debate where students justify their choices using evidence about medieval farming and the famine's conditions.

Quick Check

After Source Analysis: Weather Chronicles, present students with three short primary source excerpts and ask them to identify which excerpt best illustrates a cause of the famine and explain why, citing specific phrases from the text.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge: Ask students to research and propose one modern agricultural practice that might have mitigated the famine, citing specific climate or soil data.
• Scaffolding: Provide pre-labeled terrain cards with key terms (e.g., ‘moraine soil’, ‘floodplain’) to reduce decision fatigue during mapping.
• Deeper exploration: Invite students to compare medieval crop yields with modern yields per acre using a simple ratio calculation from provided data.

Key Vocabulary

Little Ice Age	A period of colder and wetter weather that began around the 14th century, significantly impacting agricultural productivity across Europe.
Three-field system	A medieval farming practice where one-third of arable land was left fallow each year to restore fertility, a system that reduced overall food production potential.
Marginal land	Land that is less suitable for farming due to poor soil quality, steep slopes, or difficult climate, often the first to fail during adverse weather.
Subsistence farming	A type of agriculture where farmers focus on growing enough food to feed their own families, with little or no surplus to sell.