The famine was brought about from a change in Europe’s climate. The springs and summers were colder than average and not enough crops could be grown to feed the population after two consecutive years of a shortened growing season.
Yuval Noah Harari quotes a French official in the town of Beauvais describes the scene in the beginning of his book Homo Deus. He writes about how citizens would eat cats and strips of horse flesh. From the slaughter of livestock people would consume the entrails and drink the blood. Nettles, weeds, roots, and herbs would be boiled in water, all in an attempt to get enough calories to see another day.
