Sicily experienced one of the most significant population collapses in Europe in the fourteenth century, falling from approximately 850 thousand in 1277 to approximately 350 thousand in 1376. The population was therefore at an unusually low point at the time of Elizabeth's reign. The most significant contributor to this was the bubonic plague, which ravaged Sicily in the second half of the century. Although the lower population due to the bubonic plague undoubtedly benefited the lower class in the long term, its immediate effects were widespread attitudes of defeatism and uneasiness.