Une crise de mortalité au XVe siècle à travers les testaments et les rôles d'imposition

A crisis of mortality in the 15th century as observed through the recorded wills and taxation-rolls In the small French town of Valreas (Comtat- Venaissin) a quarter of the heads of family drew up their will between the spring of 1419 and the end of winter 1420. The nominative taxation-rolls officially recorded from 1423 to 1451 made it possible to prove that 70% of the male children reported at that time by their parents -were not to survive infancy. A demographic mortality crisis struck Valreas in 1419-1420, affecting mainly young children. More than half of the families existing before the crisis were to disappear in the following generation due to the lack of male descendents. After 1443 these diminished generations were reaching adult age, and this point in turn is marked in the official lists by a spectacular increase in the number of heirs. Few of them are superseded by men born after the demographic crisis, that is by those born after 1448. The recuperation was thus a slow process and, in spite of the recuperation, there is only a slight variation in the number of fiscal-quotas, due to introduction of new patronyms ; this situation is related to the immigration encouraged by the town authorities.Zerner Monique. Une crise de mortalité au XVe siècle à travers les testaments et les rôles d'imposition. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 34ᵉ année, N. 3, 1979. pp. 566-589