Part II. The Hansa Lands and France Chapter 26. Woad [October 27, 1347] Cultural Explanations

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	In this chapter Bávlos hears about a plant that eats.
Lone house

In this chapter, Bávlos and Simon witness the ecological disaster that accompanied medieval cultivation of woad (Isatis tinctora). Woad, a cruciferous plant related to cabbage and broccoli, was a valued source of an indigo-like dye in Europe before trade with India made true indigo easily obtainable. The plant has the negative effect of producing seeds that inhibit the growth of surrounding plants, so that woad can quickly come to dominant in a plant assembly and eventually push out all competing species. It will also eventually exhaust the soil, so that after some time, nothing can grow on the land where woad has come to dominate. In the medieval era, when many farmers were unaware of the value of crop rotation or allowing fields to periodically lie fallow, the chemical qualities of woad could destroy a landscape and its agricultural productivity for generations, turning ground water bitter and rendering life in the locale nearly impossible.

Woad was particularly valuable as a crop to medieval farmers because it could be converted directly into something of great value to the aristocracy: blue dye. Blue was a prestige color, and sumptuary laws in the north of Europe severely limited its use to upper-class garments alone. It was also associated with the Virgin Mary and high-prestige products like book illuminations. So producing woad could lead to meaningful profits for farmers in the Hanseatic lands, provided they did not exhaust their soil in the process. The villagers in this story have unfortunately gone too far in their growing of woad and the result has led to the abandonment of the village, something which happened recurrently in this era.

The old woman mentions having originally received seeds for woad from a merchant from Jülich. Jülich was a major medieval trading center and a hub for blue cloth production. It was also the capital of the Duchy of Jülich, a prosperous state in the Rur Valley. As woad production damaged lands closer to the city, merchants were obliged to travel farther afield to find farmers willing and able to supply the plants they needed for the blue dye trade. The idea of the woman's son having brought back seeds from a trip to market is entirely plausible, given this situation. Unfortunately, the son's magic beans do not turn out to be such a boon after all, as they have caused the destruction of the local agricultural economy.

Blaming things on the Jews was a common practice in the fourteenth century, as can be seen in any examination of the Christian response to the Bubonic Plague during the year 1348. Jews were frequently accused of having brought the disease to the locale and tortured until they confessed to the charge. Then they and all other local Jews were executed or driven away. But we are getting ahead of our story. The Plague did not reach the shores of France until November 1, 1347, as you will see in coming chapters.