<P> Meanwhile, many of the largest countries, most notably England and Scotland, had been at war, using up much of their treasury and exacerbating inflation . In 1337, on the eve of the first wave of the Black Death, England and France went to war in what became known as the Hundred Years' War . This situation was worsened when landowners and monarchs such as Edward III of England (r . 1327--1377) and Philip VI of France (r . 1328--1350), raised the fines and rents of their tenants out of a fear that their comparatively high standard of living would decline . </P> <P> The European economy entered a vicious circle in which hunger and chronic, low - level debilitating disease reduced the productivity of labourers, and so the grain output was reduced, causing grain prices to increase . Standards of living fell drastically, diets grew more limited, and Europeans as a whole experienced more health problems . </P> <P> When a typhoid epidemic emerged, many thousands died in populated urban centres, most significantly Ypres (now in Belgium). In 1318 a pestilence of unknown origin, sometimes identified as anthrax, targeted the animals of Europe, notably sheep and cattle, further reducing the food supply and income of the peasantry . </P> <P> Before the 14th century, popular uprisings were not unknown, for example, uprisings at a manor house against an unpleasant overlord, but they were local in scope . This changed in the 14th and 15th centuries when new downward pressures on the poor resulted in mass movements and popular uprisings across Europe . To indicate how common and widespread these movements became, in Germany between 1336 and 1525 there were no less than sixty phases of militant peasant unrest . </P>

Which of the following was not a factor in the crises of the third century