The Black Plague had an intensely negative affect on European society; not only tipping the balance of economic, political, and religious relations in each country, but also exposing the English's feeling of dominance over the Jewish.
The Black Plague completely devastated the economic system, creating a hopeless mess that, when attempted to be controlled, only was made worse. Because so many people were killed by the black death, obviously they were not there to fill their work quota. This made the noblemen crazy, for if they did not find replacement workers, they would not be able to maintain their wealth. For the poor that had not had jobs before the plague, this was an economic opportunity. The noblemen begged them to work, and if the poor man did not like the salary, he asked the nobleman to make it a little larger. The King could not stand for this, watching his kingdom's economy falling apart, so he said that "he[the poor man] shall be bounden to serve him which so shall him require; and take only the wages, livery, meed, or salary, which were accustomed to be given in the places where he oweth to serve, the twentieth year of our reign of England, or five or six other commone years next before." Every man must work for what is offered, no more, no less. This ordinance created a whole new economy for the English people.
Amidst all of the confusion about the economy and other matters, there were many peasant uprisings. No one understood the terrible killer that was taking over, and so all the people knew to do was fight back. The peasants tried going for the knights, the people who had held superiority over them for as long as they could remember. The peasants went "without any armour saving with staves and knives, and so went to the house of a knight dwelling thereby, and brake up his house and slew the knight and the lady and all his children great and small and brent his house" The attacks continued endlessly, because the king could not control anyone. It was complete and utter chaos.
Of course every person wondered why all of these devastating occurrences were coming after them. And, the Christians found that there is no one easier to blame it on than the Jews. They were accused of many things, including poisoning the drinking water. The Christians believed the Jews to be poisoning the water they drank, and that that was what was killing them all, and oddly enough, many Jews "confessed." Because of the multiple threats and accusations thrown at them by the Christians, the Jews just told them that they had done whatever deed they were accusing them of. The Jewish people were burned and killed, and many even converted their children to Christianity so that they could live. This only pushed England further into a state of chaos, and not much could be done to fix it.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/seth/ordinance-labourers.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/froissart2.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1348-jewsblackdeath.html
Nice job on the thesis. And nice use of quotes in your supporting paragraphs. But when you say things like "This ordinance created a whole new economy for the English people." -- what exactly do you mean? What was the economy before and what developed after? Be specific.
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