Feeding the hungry: Poor relief and famine in northwestern Europe, 1500-1700

Providing food to the needy – or the means to obtain it – is one of the most common reactions when famine threatens. This chapter focuses on the contribution of the locally organized poor relief systems to alleviating the consequences of food shortages. It discusses a middle ground by comparing the contribution of poor relief to the alleviation of famines and food crises between 1500 and 1700 in three regions around the North Sea: southeastern England, northwestern France and the northwestern Low Countries. In Hadleigh, for instance, a for the era unusually elaborate and generous relief system developed in the second part of the sixteenth century. In short, poor relief in the northwestern Low Countries was at least as generous and reliable as in southeastern England, and despite its lack of uniformity it was also comprehensive: poor relief was available in all communities, urban and rural, although at varying levels.