Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I GOVERNMENT
- PART II ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
- PART III SPIRITUAL, CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC LIFE
- PART IV THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN STATES
- 17 Germany and the Empire
- 18 Hus, the Hussites and Bohemia
- 19 France
- 20 Burgundy
- 21 England
- 22 The Celtic world
- 23 Italy
- 24 The Iberian peninsula
- 25 The Swiss Confederation
- 26 The States of Scandinavia, c. 1390– c. 1536
- 27 Hungary: Crown and Estates
- 28 The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 1370–1506
- 29 Russia
- 30 Byzantium: The Roman Orthodox World, 1393–1492
- 31 The Latin East
- 32 The Ottoman World
- 33 Conclusion
- Appendix Genealogical Tables
- Primary Sources and Secondary Works Arranged by Chapter
- Index
- Frontispiece
- Plate section
- Map 1 European towns in the late Middle Ages
- Map 2 European commerce and trade
- Map 4 Winds and currents facilitating the discoveries
- Map 5 The universities o f Europe in 1400 and 1500
- Map 6 Germany and the Empire
- Map 20 The Roman Orthodox and Ottoman worlds in the fifteenth century
- References
28 - The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 1370–1506
from PART IV - THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN STATES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- PART I GOVERNMENT
- PART II ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
- PART III SPIRITUAL, CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC LIFE
- PART IV THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN STATES
- 17 Germany and the Empire
- 18 Hus, the Hussites and Bohemia
- 19 France
- 20 Burgundy
- 21 England
- 22 The Celtic world
- 23 Italy
- 24 The Iberian peninsula
- 25 The Swiss Confederation
- 26 The States of Scandinavia, c. 1390– c. 1536
- 27 Hungary: Crown and Estates
- 28 The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 1370–1506
- 29 Russia
- 30 Byzantium: The Roman Orthodox World, 1393–1492
- 31 The Latin East
- 32 The Ottoman World
- 33 Conclusion
- Appendix Genealogical Tables
- Primary Sources and Secondary Works Arranged by Chapter
- Index
- Frontispiece
- Plate section
- Map 1 European towns in the late Middle Ages
- Map 2 European commerce and trade
- Map 4 Winds and currents facilitating the discoveries
- Map 5 The universities o f Europe in 1400 and 1500
- Map 6 Germany and the Empire
- Map 20 The Roman Orthodox and Ottoman worlds in the fifteenth century
- References
Summary
territory, population, climate
Central and eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages was home to many ethnic, cultural, political and social systems. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries this region, whose character had been taking shape over a number of centuries, experienced an increase in settlement density, especially in the kingdom of Poland and certain areas of the grand duchy of Lithuania. Together with the growth in rural settlement there came a slow but steady advance in population.
Demographic estimates for the period before statistics merely represent orders of magnitude. About 1370, the kingdom of Poland had 2 million inhabitants with a population density of 8.6 persons per square kilometre. By contrast with western Europe, which was adversely affected demographically and economically by the Black Death, the outbreak of plague in Poland did not have the character of a catastrophe, as can be seen from the increase in internal developments and quite intensive colonisation of the fourteen and fifteenth centuries.
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- The New Cambridge Medieval History , pp. 727 - 747Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998