The Black Death, which struck Europe in the mid-14th century, had a profound impact on the manorial system, fundamentally altering the relationship between lords and peasants.
As the plague decimated the population, there was a significant labor shortage. This scarcity of workers gave surviving peasants greater leverage and negotiating power over their lords. Many peasants began to demand higher wages and better working conditions, which forced some lords to adapt to these new economic realities.
Consequently, the manorial system, based on the feudal obligations of peasants to work the land owned by lords in exchange for protection and a place to live, weakened. Many serfs sought to leave the manors to find better opportunities elsewhere, leading to a decline in the rigid social structure that had previously characterized medieval society.
In some cases, lords responded to the crisis by converting their lands into pasture for sheep, focusing on the more profitable wool trade rather than traditional crop farming, which further contributed to the decline of the manorial system.
Ultimately, the Black Death accelerated changes that would pave the way for the end of feudalism and the rise of a more modern economic system based on wage labor and individual rights.