Crisis and the Limits of Urban Community in Late-Medieval France

How did the succession of wars, plague epidemics, famines, and revolts that ravaged Europe in the late Middle Ages reshape the ways that urban populations interacted with those individuals who had entered their city limits from away? Based on ongoing dissertation research, my talk will address this question by comparing the immediate and long-term effects of crisis on relations between locals and outsiders within three diverse urban communities in late-medieval France. As hubs of commerce and intellectual activity, Montpellier, Lyon, and Rouen attracted merchants, students, and pilgrims from around Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. For their markets and universities to flourish, each of these cities needed to maintain an openness towards outsiders. Yet during times of crisis, the same outsiders who had once been trading partners, neighbors, and students could threaten or seem threatening to the wellbeing and integrity of the wider population. As urban communities suffered through catastrophic demographic decline and extended periods of insecurity, they faced the challenge of balancing a need for self-preservation with a need to maintain the connections that allowed their cities to prosper. By analyzing how local populations negotiated this balance with municipal and royal authorities and the outsiders who had ventured into their cities, this paper will offer insights on the forces that sustained commercial and intellectual networks in the Late Middle Ages and the tensions and anxieties that could lead to their dissolution.