Which event caused labor shortages and weakened aristocracy?

• A. The Hundred Years' War
• B. Canterbury Tales
• C. Black Death reached England
• D. Hamlet

Answer: (C)

A drastic population collapse reshaped medieval society by shrinking the labor pool and weakening feudal control. When the Black Death reached England, it killed a large portion of the population. With so many workers gone, the surviving laborers could demand higher wages and better terms, and feudal obligations that tied peasants to the land were challenged. Landowners found their economic and political grip on the countryside loosened as labor became scarce and more valuable, accelerating the decline of aristocratic authority. The other options describe a war, or literary works, which do not directly explain a systemic labor shortage or the weakening of feudal power in the same way.