ABSTRACT
Historians have moved well beyond the preconception that the Empire in the West collapsed into brutish and destructive anarchy. At the heart of the reappraisal has been demography. How much did population fall? How far was this fall directly due to armed violence as opposed to generalised disruption and disease? How far did climate flux, secular or temporary, exacerbate famines and epidemics? When did Europe’s climate start to move towards the ‘little climatic optimum’ that was closely conjoint with the High Middle Ages?
