Preliminary Programme

From its spread in the 13th century onwards, short-term leasehold became one of the most common and powerful institutions of land management in Western Europe and beyond. It’s rise is often strongly connected to the commercialisation of agriculture, short-term profit-seeking, and risk-management. Typically, profit-making is considered the antithesis of sustainable management of natural resources. Moreover, the general medieval attitude towards nature too is often framed as basically exploitative, with especially the Central Middle Ages being notorious for its many clearings being undertaken.
However, when looking closely at early short-term lease-contracts, these extensive documents often contain a multitude of clauses on water management, upkeep of the soil and care for the present fauna and flora. These clauses have often been ignored in previous research, or even outrightly dismissed as stereotypes.

This paper presents the first results of my research-project on the ‘environmental’ arrangements in leasehold-contracts in the Southern Low Countries, between 1200 and 1400. The project aims to investigate if short-term leasehold could also entail forms of environmental stewardship, and if so, in which conditions? Here, the first case-studies are presented, wherein the lease contracts of several large institutions are analysed on these arrangements. Which ‘environmental’ clauses were present when and where? How did they evolve through time? And were they followed-up upon? And what does this tell us about sustainable management of natural resources in late medieval Low Countries?
Especially interesting is the relation between these clauses and the many crises that haunted the region in the 14th Century (plague, famine and warfare), as it is often argued that in times of crises, soil and resource conservation got less attention in leases, in order to make the lease more attractive and ensure continued exploitation of the lands. (Show less)

This paper aims to address the issue of forest and grassland management in the Medieval Alps, starting from the case of Valtellina in the late Middle Ages. At this time, the meadows underwent a decisive conversion towards cattle breeding for cheese production. The forests had to cope with the sharp increase in iron and steel activities and timber production, which was directed, via the river, towards the large markets of the Lombardy cities. The contribution will answer the following question: how did Alpine societies react to the environmental risk and sustainability problems resulting from these transformations? (Show less)

The accounts of English manors are among the richest sources for our understanding of the medieval rural economy, recording in unparalleled detail the land, labour and capital necessary for the effective running of demesne lands. It is increasingly apparent, however, that these accounts do not provide a complete picture of medieval agriculture, and that peasants – who were responsible for the greatest part of agricultural output – may have followed practices that were significantly different from those of their lords. It is likely that peasants, with access to little land but abundant labour, utilized a technological complex in which small-scale, labour-intensive technologies increased land productivity at the expense of labour productivity. Through assiduous digging, fertilizing and weeding, these techniques had the potential to improve soil structure, drainage and nutrient recycling. They were also reliant on the extensive use of iron implements which needed maintenance, repair and replacing. This placed pressure on other parts of the economy, exacerbating tensions between overlapping needs within the medieval environment. This paper will address the extent to which such garden-like agriculture was sustainable under the changing and often-adverse economic and environmental conditions of the fourteenth century. (Show less)