A GREAT FAMINE IN FRANCE.
IN this year of 1437, wheat and all sorts of corn were so extravagantly dear throughout all France and several other countries in Christendom, that what had usually been sold for four sols french money was now sold for upwards of forty. This dearth created a famine, so that very many poor died of want,—and it was a pitiful sight to witness the multitudes in the large towns dying in heaps on dunghills.
Some towns drove the poor out of them, while others received all, and administered to their wants as long as they were able. The foremost in this act of mercy was the city of Cambray. This dearth lasted until the year 1439, and was the cause of many strict regulations respecting corn, which by many lords and towns was forbidden to be carried out of their jurisdictions under the most severe penalties.
A proclamation was made in Ghent ordering a stop to be put to the brewing of beer, and other liquors, from corn, and all the dogs of poor people to be killed, and that no one should keep a bitch-dog unless splayed. Such and other like ordinances were issued in several parts, that the poor, and beggars, might be supplied with a sufficiency to support nature.