SCIENTIFIC ARCHIVES: THE IRON RUSH
The Hundred Years' War between France and England is raging, and their armies thirst after iron for body armour and weapons. However, the mining industry suffers from the plague, and the difficulties in iron supply see prices skyrocket. Mines must find ne
War and plague led to a lust for iron and a race to improve mining practices.
The quiet whisper of the autumn wind is suddenly filled with the clatter of metal from heavy armour and weapons. In 1356, thousands of French soldiers and knights march side by side towards yet another one of the Hundred Years' War’s bloody clashes – the Battle of Poitiers.
Many tonnes of metal were used to equip this army. Depending on their rank and wealth, the knights either wear an plate armour suit weighing almost 25kg, or chain-mail armour of some 15kg. Head, hands, and feet are also covered in steel. The 500 knights combined are
wearing at least eight tonnes of metal, and that's without counting all the steel that was used to equip the 17,000 foot soldiers and 3,000 bowmen.
Nevertheless, the heavy armour is not sufficient protection for the 2,500+ soldiers who will soon be killed at Poitiers – including much of the French knight aristocracy. The king was captured.
Bloody warfare in Europe
Since 1337, France and England had fought for the French Crown. Both nations rearmed as never before to get the upper hand in the long conflict. The rivalry was particularly evident in the metal production of the day, an industry which accelerated tremendously.
The increased exploitation of resources was necessary to obtain the many tonnes of iron required for weapons and armour. English mines were unable to meet their king’s demands, so the country had to import thousands of tonnes of iron from the Basque Country and the Austrian province of Styria. Historians estimate that a wellequipped army required about 500 tonnes of iron to prepare for war, but in
reality twice as much was needed to account for production waste. But the iron extraction was not unproblematic. Where previously it had been possible to mine iron ore relatively close to the surface, by the 1300s the majority of the most easily accessible ore layers had been exhausted, and the iron-seeking rulers could only dream of getting at the deeper ore. Nobody yet knew how to divert incoming ground water from deeper mine shafts to enable deeper iron to be brought to the surface.
Plague makes prices rise
Hundreds of years previously, in Roman times, miners could establish deep shafts leading to the ore-bearing layers. They had solved the problem of incoming water by means of linked water wheels operated by slaves who hoisted the water from the bottom of the mine to keep the galleries dry. Archaeologists have discovered a Roman mine in Spain with evidence of 32 water wheels that combined into a lift of almost 80m.
But after the collapse of the Roman Empire, this mining knowledge was lost,
and in addition the plague raged in the mid-1300s, killing 30-60% of the European population, according to historians. And of course many miners were among these victims of the Black Death.
The combination of war and plague made the price of iron rise drastically throughout Europe; prices more than tripled between 1350 and 1400, Belligerent nations were forced to think outside the box, and in the late 1300s they began to make considerable efforts to improve the technologies behind iron extraction. Mine shafts become deeper The most important innovation was water or horse-powered pumps that were to divert water from the mines. Suddenly flooded mines which had been closed since Roman times could be reopened. By the 1400s, English miners had managed to establish new mines at depths up to 50m.
Soon, iron extraction thrived in Europe, but one particular region stood out: the Austrian province of Styria, which produced some 2,000 tonnes of iron a year – twice as much as all England combined.
Modern production, of course, dwarfs such figures – modern Austria produces more than two million tonnes of iron annually. But back then the 2,000 tonnes were enough to make Styria one of the leading iron producers of the time.
This was evident in the forests, where Styria's miners harvested timber to support shafts and galleries. Near the town of Eisenerz, workers removed so much wood in the 1400s that the German Roman Emperor was forced to issue a "Waldordnung" – woodland rules – to regulate logging so that the future of the mining industry would be assured.
Mines are death traps
Iron production required very hard work. The mines were dark, and dust was a constant menace. The particles entered and stuck in the miners' lungs, causing chronic headaches, shortness of breath and eye irritation.
Apart from the dust, the miners also needed to beware of the constant danger literally looming above their heads every day. They risked bone fractures, disablement or death if they were struck by falling rocks or fell from their unsteady ladders. If supports collapsed, or flooding took them by surprise, the miners could be left in desperate situations.
As a consequence it was in the mines of the Middle Ages that the seeds of the first trade unions were sown. It was German workers in particular who contributed to i mproving safety through the establishment of guilds or "Gewerkschaften". The spokesperson for a gang of workers could negotiate working conditions with the mine owner.
Soldiers attack mines
Working conditions seemed less significant, however, when the miners became directly involved in the ruler’s disputes. The wars of the early 1400s were more destructive than ever. The German Roman Emperor’s army destroyed the Czech mining towns of Kutná Hora and Havlíckuv Brod during the Hussite Wars (1419-1434). Local miners and blacksmiths were so key to the enemy’s ability to wage war that the soldiers killed them – after filling the mine shafts with soil and destroying the smith’s shops.
Miners were valued experts who in times of peace could travel freely from country to country to work. Again it was
German workers who took particular advantage of this opportunity, settling in the eastern region of the Alps and elsewhere. Local rulers were happy to receive the newcomers, providing land so that workers and blacksmiths could build workshops and cabins for their families. Indeed the arrival of the miners not only assisted in the extraction of the valuable ore in the ground below their land, it also made for healthier state coffers. The rulers received considerable taxes in payment for the miners being allowed to extract the ore.
The Hundred Years' War ends
Miners and blacksmiths were also responsible for the equipment of the Frenchmen who in 1356 launched one daring attack after another at Poitiers – encouraged by what they believed was an English retreat. But despite being outnumbered by the French, the English stood firm and finally forced the French to take flight. The French king, John the Good, failed to escape the field, and died in captivity several years later.
Not until 1453 were the French able to oust the enemy, causing severe English losses at Castillon. With the Hundred Years' War over, the demand for iron fell. But not for long. As the monk Bartholomeus Anglicus had said much earlier: “In many ways, iron is more valuable than gold.” The iron rush would break out again.