The Black Death was one of the deadliest

pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe

between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to
have been an outbreak of bubonic plague
caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, an
argument supported by recent forensic research,
although this view has been challenged by a
number of scholars. Thought to have started in
China, it travelled along the Silk Road and had
reached the Crimea by 1346. From there,
probably carried by fleas residing on the black
rats that were regular passengers on merchant
ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean
and Europe.

In 1347 a Genoese ship from Caffa, on the Black Sea, came ashore
at Messina, Sicily. The crew of the ship, what few were left alive,
carried with them a deadly cargo, a disease so virulent that it
could kill in a matter of hours. It is thought that the disease
originated in the Far East, and was spread along major trade
routes to Caffa, where Genoa had an established trading post.
When it became clear that ships from the East carried the plague,
Messina closed its port. The ships were forced to seek safe harbour
elsewhere around the Mediterranean, and the disease was able to
spread quickly.

During the Medieval period the plague went by several names, the
most common being "the Pestilence" and "The Great Mortality ".
Theories about the cause of the disease were numerous, ranging
from a punishment from God to planetary alignment to evil stares.
Not surprisingly, many people believed that the horrors of the
Black Death signaled the Apocalypse, or end of time. Others
believed that the disease was a plot by Jews to poison all of the
Christian world, and many Jews were killed by panicked mobs.

The symptoms.
The plague produces several
different symptoms in its victims.
Bubonic, the most common form of
the plague, produces fist-sized
swellings, called bulboes, at the site
of flea bites - usually in the groin,
armpits, or neck. The swellings are
intensely painful, and the victims
die in 2-6 days. The buboes are red
at first, but later turn a dark purple,
or black. This black colouring gives
the "Black Death" its name.
Pneumonic plague occurs when the
infection enters the lungs, causing
the victim to vomit blood. Infected
pneumonic people can spread the
disease through the air by
coughing, sneezing, or just
breathing! In Septicemic plague the
bacteria enters the person's
bloodstream, causing death within

The Black Death reaches England

It isn't clear exactly when or where the Black Death

reached England. Some reports at the time pointed to
Bristol, others to Dorset. The disease may have
appeared as early as late June or as late as August 4.
We do know that in mid-summer the Channel Islands
were reeling under an outbreak of the plague. From this
simple beginning the disease spread throughout
England with dizzying speed and fatal consequences.
The effect was at its worst in cities, where overcrowding
and primitive sanitation aided its spread. On November
1 the plague reached London, and up to 30,000 of the
city's population of 70,000 inhabitants succumbed.
Over the next 2 years the disease killed between 30-40%
of the entire population. Given that the pre-plague
population of England was in the range of 5-6 million
people, fatalities may have reached as high as 2 million
dead.

One of the worst aspects of

the disease to the medieval
Christian mind is that
people died without last
rites and without having a
chance to confess their
sins. Pope Clement VI was
forced to grant remission of
sins to all who died of the
plague because so many
perished without benefit of
clergy. People were allowed
to confess their sins to one
another, or "even to a
woman".

The death rate was

exceptionally high in
isolated populations like
prisons and monasteries. It
has been estimated that up
to two-thirds of the clergy
of England died within a
single year.

Peasants fled their fields. Livestock were left to fend for

themselves, and crops left to rot. The monk Henry of Knighton
declared, "Many villages and hamlets have now become quite
desolate. No one is left in the houses, for the people are dead
that once inhabited them."

The Border Scots saw the pestilence in England as a

punishment of God on their enemies. An army gathered near
Stirling to strike while England lay defenseless. But before the
Scots could march, the plague decimated their ranks. Pursued
by English troops, the Scots fled north, spreading the plague
deep into their homeland.

In an effort to assuage the wrath of God, many people turned to

public acts of penitence. Processions lasting as long as three
days were authorized by the Pope to mollify God, but the only
real effect of these public acts was to spread the disease
further.

By the end of 1350 the Black Death had subsided, but it never
really died out in England for the next several hundred years.
There were further outbreaks in 1361-1362, 1369, 1379-1383,
1389-1393, and throughout the first half of the 15th century. It
was not until the late 17th century that England became largely
free of serious plague epidemics.

Consequences.
It is impossible to overstate the terrible effects of
the Black Death on England. With the population
so low, there were not enough workers to work the
land. As a result, wages and prices rose. The
Ordinances of Labourers (1349) tried to legislate a
return to pre-plague wage levels, but the
overwhelming shortage of labourers meant that
wages continued to rise. Landowners offered
extras such as food, drink, and extra benefits to
lure labourers. The standard of living for labourers
rose accordingly.

The nature of the economy changed to meet the

changing social conditions. Land that had once
been farmed was now given over to pasturing,
which was much less labour-intensive. This helped
boost the cloth and woolen industry. With the fall
in population most landowners were not getting
the rental income they needed, and were forced to
lease their land.

Peasants benefited through increased employment options and

higher wages. Society became more mobile, as peasants moved to
accept work where they could command a good wage. In some cases
market towns disappeared, or suffered a decline despite the
economic boom in rural areas.

It has been estimated that 40% of England's priests died in the

epidemic. This left a large gap, which was hastily filled with
underqualified and poorly trained applicants, accellerating the
decline in church power and influence that culminated in the English
Reformation. Many survivors of the plague were also disillusioned by
the church's inability to explain or deal with the outbreak.

The short term economic prosperity did not last; the underlying
feudal structure of society had not changed, and by the mid-15th
century standards of living had fallen again. Yet for most levels of
English society the Black Death represented a massive upheaval,
one which changed the face of English society in a profound way.