| 1068 | England. Famine and plague after a severe winter. | 1069 | England. Normans desolated England, and in the following | year famine spread over the northern counties of England, | “so that man, driven by hunger, ate human, dog, and horse | flesh”; some to sustain a miserable life sold themselves | for slaves. All land lying “between Durham and Yorke lay | waste, without inhabitants or people to till the ground, | for the space of nine years, except only the territory of | St. John of Bewlake.”—(Beverley.) | | “Divers other parts of his realm were so wasted with | his wars that, for want both of husbandry and habitation, | a great dearth did ensue, whereby many were forced to eat | horses, dogs, cats, rats, and other loathsome and vile | vermin; yea, some abstained not from the flesh of men. | This famine and desolation did specially rage in the | north parts of the realm.”—_Harleian Miscellany_, | III. p. 151. | 1073 | England. Famine, followed by mortality so fierce that “the | living could take no care of the sick, nor bury the | dead.”—Henry of Huntingdon. | 1086 | England. A great murrain of animals, and such intemperate | weather that many died of fever and famine.—Henry de | Knyghton. Excessive rains.—Short. | 1087 | England. Pestilence followed by famine; great suffering. | | 1093 | England. Great famine and mortality.—Stow. | 1096 | England. “Heavy-timed hunger that severely oppressed the | earth.”—_Saxon Chronicle._ “Summer rain, tempests, | and bad air.”—Short. | 1099 | England. Famine from rains and floods. | 1106 | England. From barren land; then plague. | 1111 | England. Winter long and very severe; great scarcity | followed. | 1117 | England. From tempest, hail, and a year’s incessant rains. | 1121-22 | England. “Great famine from long and cruel frosts.” | 1124 | England. “Such a famine prevailed that everywhere in | cities, villages, and cross-roads lifeless bodies lie | unburied.” | | “By means of changing the coine all things became very | deere, whereof an extreame famine did arise, and afflict | the multitude of the people, even to death.”—Penkethman. | 1125 | England. Great flood on St. Lawrence’s Day; famine in | consequence of destruction of crops, &c. | 1126 | England. “Incessant rains during the summer, when followed | in all England a most unheard-of scarcity.