Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

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In this article, we propose to historicize the intense and, why not say, suffered incidence of the successive impacts produced by the mortality crisis in medieval societies of Western Europe – with special emphasis on those arising from epidemics of bubonic plague and famines –, considering particularly the epidemic cycle initiated by the pandemic that, between 1348 and 1352, afflicted three continents, as well as its incidence in the kingdom of Portugal between the 14th and 16th centuries. We intend to consider its main vectors, evolution, motivations and consequences in the context of a civilization that was experiencing the crisis that determined its decline.