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Origins of the Black Death
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/206309.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/206309.php

Impact on Society
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/plague/effects/social.php

Impact of the Black Death in London
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/medieval/black-death.htm

Impact on Towns and Cities
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval-england/the-black-death-of-1348-to-1350/

Impact of Infected People
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval-england/the-black-death-of-1348-to-1350/

Total Number of Deaths
http://www.infoplease.com/cig/dangerous-diseases-epidemics/bubonic-plague.html

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_(disease)

This photo was probably not captured from back then but it shows the rat eating the humans food stock which could've infected their food and the disease could've spread that way too.

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https://www.emaze.com/@AIZFZCOR/plague

This photo shows the plague's affect at different stages as the more infected people are on the ground, dying, while there are some still able to walk and others helping the infected to walk as well.

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https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/08/27/black-death-plague-back-correction-never-left-thanks-evolution/

The people in this image look like they have been infected for a while as they are all collapsed on the floor unable to move or take care of themselves. The people by the water fountain are drinking water and they have a baby with them, it looks like the woman is trying to protect her child.

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http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/you-think-ebolas-bad-try-the-black-death-112985

In this image it shows the infected people being treated by others and the pope and people with the pope holding a sign with a skull on it signalising the Black Death.

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http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320hist&civ/chapters/06plague.htm

This image shows places where the Black Death spread and infected people from different countries during different years.

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The Black Death, has existed for thousands of years. 244 BCE, China, was the first case of the plague recorded. The outbreak in Europe had the most impact. Over a span of 5 years from 1347 to 1352, 25 million people were killed by the plague. One third to one half of Europe's populations was completely wiped out.

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Bubonic Plague

Ring around the rosy,

A pocket full of posies,

Ashes ... ashes,

We all fall down.

A familiar nursery rhyme that children have recited as a harmless play song for generations ironically refers to one of Europe's most devastating diseases. The bubonic plague, better known as the "The Black Death," has existed for thousands of years. The first recorded case of the plague was in China in 224 B.C.E. But the most significant outbreak was in Europe in the mid-fourteenth century. Over a five-year period from 1347 to 1352, 25 million people died. One-third to one-half of the European population was wiped out!

The first symptoms of bubonic plague appeared within days after infection: fever, headache, and a general feeling of weakness, followed by aches in the upper leg and groin, a white tongue, rapid pulse, slurred speech, confusion, and fatigue. By the third day, a painful swelling of the lymph glands in the neck, armpits, and groin occurred, and these enlarged areas were called "buboes." Bleeding under the skin followed, causing purplish blotches. Dark-ringed red spots on the skin from infected fleabites, or "ring around the rosy," eventually turned black, producing putrid-smelling lesions. The victim's nervous system collapsed, causing extreme pain and bizarre neurological disorders. This was the inspiration for "Dance of Death" rituals. Fragile nasal capillaries led to excessive sneezing. By the fourth day, wild anxiety and terror overtook the sufferer. Finally, a sense of resignation registered as the skin blackened, giving rise to "The Black Death." The simplistic words in the famous nursery rhyme capture the essence of plague's horror.

Infectious Knowledge

The excessive sneezing of plague suffers led Pope Gregory VII to coin "God Bless You" as a holy response when someone sneezes.

The rhyme also describes highly aromatic flowers and herbs, the "pocket full of posies," that people carried with them and held near their faces to ward off the horrid odor associated with the plague. Many corpses were uncharacteristically cremated-the "ashes, ashes,"-and finally, death would come, and we would "all fall down."

Plague infects both people and rodents, with rodents helping to transmit it further within the population. Fleas feeding on infected rodents can transmit the disease to people as well. Once infected, people can infect others by coughing, sneezing, or close talking.

The origin of "The Black Death" dates to an outbreak in China during the 1330s. During this period, China was an important trading nation, and international trade via the Silk Road helped create the world's first pandemic. Plague-infected rats on merchant ships spread the disease to western Asia and Europe. In the fall of 1347, Italian merchant ships with crewmembers dying of plague docked in Sicily, and within days the disease spread to the city and the surrounding countryside. The disease killed people so quickly that the Italian novelist Giovanni Boccaccio, whose father and stepmother died of plague, wrote that "its victims ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise." By August, the plague had spread as far north as England.

Infectious Knowledge

The English writer Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, wrote graphically about the plague years 1664-1665. "It is scarce credible what dreadful cases happened in particular families every day. People in the rage of the distemper, or in the torment of their swellings, which was indeed intolerable, running out of their own government, raving and distracted, and oftentimes laying violent hands upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their windows, shooting themselves, mothers murdering their own children in their lunacy, some dying of mere grief as a passion, some of mere fright and surprise without any infection at all, others frightened into idiotism and foolish distractions, some into despair and lunacy, others into melancholy madness."

For five years, the disease would disappear in winter, when fleas were dormant, and resume its killing spree each spring. The impact of the plague was enormous, as governments, trade, and commerce virtually ceased. Faith in religion decreased because many clergy died and prayer failed to prevent sickness and death. Because trade was difficult, the prices of goods were grossly inflated. A decimated work force required higher wages, leading to peasant revolts in England, France, Belgium, and Italy.

The disease receded in 1353, but never really went away. Smaller outbreaks continued for centuries, affecting all of European society, rich and poor. Two hundred years of recurring death immeasurably changed government, the arts, science, and religion.

Plague epidemics ravaged London in 1563, 1593, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665, reducing its population by 10 to 30 percent during those years.

The Italian plague of 1630 claimed between 35 and 69 percent of the population. The German plagues between 1709 and 1713 were equally devastating, and in 1720, plague reduced the population of Marseille by 40 percent. The bubonic plague is believed to have killed 137 million people during its 400-year reign of terror.

Solving the Plague Mystery

In 1894, two scientists, Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin and Shibasaburo Kitasato, seperately described organisms they found in the swollen lymph nodes, blood, lungs, liver, and spleen of dead plague patients. To confirm their findings, they used cultures taken from patient specimens to infect a variety of animals. All the animals died within days. The same rod-shaped organisms found in the original specimens were also found in the animal organs.

On the island of Formosa, residents considered handling dead rats a risk for developing plague. These observations led P. L. Simond in the late 1890s to suspect that fleas might play a role in the transmission of plague. He observed that people contracted plague only if they were in contact with recently dead rats. They were not affected if they touched rats that were dead for more than 24 hours. Simond showed that the rat-flea transmitted the disease. In a now classic experiment, a healthy rat separated from direct contact with a recently killed plague-infected rat, died of plague after the infected fleas jumped from the first rat to the second.

Buboes: Signs of the Plague

Unlike smallpox, the plague is still a threat in some parts of the world. Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, is transmitted through rat-tainted fleabites in densely populated cities and in countries with poor hygiene, or in the open country from infected wild rodents. The most common form of human plague is a swollen and painful lymph gland that forms buboes.

Bubonic plague should be suspected when a person develops a swollen gland, fever, chills, headache, and extreme exhaustion, and lives in a region with infected rodents, rabbits, or fleas. Infection of the lungs causes the pneumonic form of plague, resulting in a severe respiratory illness. This form of the disease can spread rapidly and is more highly fatal.

A person usually becomes ill with bubonic plague two to six days after being infected. When left untreated, the plague-causing bacteria invade the bloodstream and kill 50 to 90 percent of people who get it. Antibiotic therapy effectively treats bubonic plague.

Pneumonic plague is more difficult to treat, and even with antibiotics, victims can die from it. Pneumonic plague occurs when the infectious bacteria infects the lungs. The first signs of illness in pneumonic plague are fever, headache, weakness, and a cough that produces blood or watery sputum. The pneumonia progresses over two to four days and, without early treatment, death ensues.

Can I Catch the Plague?

Bubonic plague is still prevalent in more than 20 countries. In the United States, the last rat-borne epidemic occurred in Los Angeles in 1924-1925. Since then sporadic cases have occurred, mostly in western states. Sources of cases today are wild rodents, especially squirrels, prairie dogs, and other burrowing rodents.

Plague is found in parts of Russia and China and regularly occurs in Madagascar. Severe outbreaks have occurred in recent years in Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire, Mozambique, and Botswana. Plague also has been reported in western and northern Africa. In South America, plague is found in parts of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil. There is no plague in Australia, and Europe has not seen a case for more than 50 years.

Why Is Yersinia So Successful?

Potent Fact

The genome sequence is the entire complement of DNA in the cells of an organism. Mapping the genome sequence of the bug that causes plague was valuable because it helped researchers to learn about its evolution. The large number of genetic changes in the organism over time explain its ability to succeed as a disease-causer over hundreds of years.

Genome sequences are becoming available for more and more organisms. The human genome has been sequenced as well. There are many useful pieces of information that will help us fight all kinds of infectious and genetic diseases that come from sequencing of genomes.

A team of scientists recently mapped the entire genetic structure (or genome sequence) of Yersinia pestis, the plague-causing bacterium. The genome displays many irregularities due to genetic exchange with other microorganisms, and many of its genes appear to have been acquired from other bacteria and viruses. The evidence suggests that plague has undergone large-scale genetic change leading to rapid evolution, which makes it able to adapt to survive in many different environments.

Plague Vaccine

Plague vaccines have been used since the late nineteenth century, but their effectiveness is uncertain. Vaccination reduces the incidence and severity of disease resulting from the bite of infected fleas, but it isn't 100 percent effective. The plague vaccine is licensed for use in the United States and is available for adults at high risk-people who live in the western United States, people who will be in parts of the world where plague is still endemic, and people who are around rodents. Severe inflammatory reactions are common, and plague vaccine should not be given to anyone with a known hypersensitivity to beef protein, soya, casein, or phenol. Finally, the vaccination routine is complex and requires frequent boosters to maintain its effectiveness.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Dangerous Diseases and Epidemics © 2002 by David Perlin, Ph.D., and Ann Cohen. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Bubonic Plague

Ring around the rosy,

A pocket full of posies,

Ashes ... ashes,

We all fall down.

A familiar nursery rhyme that children have recited as a harmless play song for generations ironically refers to one of Europe's most devastating diseases. The bubonic plague, better known as the "The Black Death," has existed for thousands of years. The first recorded case of the plague was in China in 224 B.C.E. But the most significant outbreak was in Europe in the mid-fourteenth century. Over a five-year period from 1347 to 1352, 25 million people died. One-third to one-half of the European population was wiped out!

The first symptoms of bubonic plague appeared within days after infection: fever, headache, and a general feeling of weakness, followed by aches in the upper leg and groin, a white tongue, rapid pulse, slurred speech, confusion, and fatigue. By the third day, a painful swelling of the lymph glands in the neck, armpits, and groin occurred, and these enlarged areas were called "buboes." Bleeding under the skin followed, causing purplish blotches. Dark-ringed red spots on the skin from infected fleabites, or "ring around the rosy," eventually turned black, producing putrid-smelling lesions. The victim's nervous system collapsed, causing extreme pain and bizarre neurological disorders. This was the inspiration for "Dance of Death" rituals. Fragile nasal capillaries led to excessive sneezing. By the fourth day, wild anxiety and terror overtook the sufferer. Finally, a sense of resignation registered as the skin blackened, giving rise to "The Black Death." The simplistic words in the famous nursery rhyme capture the essence of plague's horror.

Infectious Knowledge

The excessive sneezing of plague suffers led Pope Gregory VII to coin "God Bless You" as a holy response when someone sneezes.

The rhyme also describes highly aromatic flowers and herbs, the "pocket full of posies," that people carried with them and held near their faces to ward off the horrid odor associated with the plague. Many corpses were uncharacteristically cremated-the "ashes, ashes,"-and finally, death would come, and we would "all fall down."

Plague infects both people and rodents, with rodents helping to transmit it further within the population. Fleas feeding on infected rodents can transmit the disease to people as well. Once infected, people can infect others by coughing, sneezing, or close talking.

The origin of "The Black Death" dates to an outbreak in China during the 1330s. During this period, China was an important trading nation, and international trade via the Silk Road helped create the world's first pandemic. Plague-infected rats on merchant ships spread the disease to western Asia and Europe. In the fall of 1347, Italian merchant ships with crewmembers dying of plague docked in Sicily, and within days the disease spread to the city and the surrounding countryside. The disease killed people so quickly that the Italian novelist Giovanni Boccaccio, whose father and stepmother died of plague, wrote that "its victims ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise." By August, the plague had spread as far north as England.

Infectious Knowledge

The English writer Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, wrote graphically about the plague years 1664-1665. "It is scarce credible what dreadful cases happened in particular families every day. People in the rage of the distemper, or in the torment of their swellings, which was indeed intolerable, running out of their own government, raving and distracted, and oftentimes laying violent hands upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their windows, shooting themselves, mothers murdering their own children in their lunacy, some dying of mere grief as a passion, some of mere fright and surprise without any infection at all, others frightened into idiotism and foolish distractions, some into despair and lunacy, others into melancholy madness."

For five years, the disease would disappear in winter, when fleas were dormant, and resume its killing spree each spring. The impact of the plague was enormous, as governments, trade, and commerce virtually ceased. Faith in religion decreased because many clergy died and prayer failed to prevent sickness and death. Because trade was difficult, the prices of goods were grossly inflated. A decimated work force required higher wages, leading to peasant revolts in England, France, Belgium, and Italy.

The disease receded in 1353, but never really went away. Smaller outbreaks continued for centuries, affecting all of European society, rich and poor. Two hundred years of recurring death immeasurably changed government, the arts, science, and religion.

Plague epidemics ravaged London in 1563, 1593, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665, reducing its population by 10 to 30 percent during those years.

The Italian plague of 1630 claimed between 35 and 69 percent of the population. The German plagues between 1709 and 1713 were equally devastating, and in 1720, plague reduced the population of Marseille by 40 percent. The bubonic plague is believed to have killed 137 million people during its 400-year reign of terror.

Solving the Plague Mystery

In 1894, two scientists, Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin and Shibasaburo Kitasato, seperately described organisms they found in the swollen lymph nodes, blood, lungs, liver, and spleen of dead plague patients. To confirm their findings, they used cultures taken from patient specimens to infect a variety of animals. All the animals died within days. The same rod-shaped organisms found in the original specimens were also found in the animal organs.

On the island of Formosa, residents considered handling dead rats a risk for developing plague. These observations led P. L. Simond in the late 1890s to suspect that fleas might play a role in the transmission of plague. He observed that people contracted plague only if they were in contact with recently dead rats. They were not affected if they touched rats that were dead for more than 24 hours. Simond showed that the rat-flea transmitted the disease. In a now classic experiment, a healthy rat separated from direct contact with a recently killed plague-infected rat, died of plague after the infected fleas jumped from the first rat to the second.

Buboes: Signs of the Plague

Unlike smallpox, the plague is still a threat in some parts of the world. Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, is transmitted through rat-tainted fleabites in densely populated cities and in countries with poor hygiene, or in the open country from infected wild rodents. The most common form of human plague is a swollen and painful lymph gland that forms buboes.

Bubonic plague should be suspected when a person develops a swollen gland, fever, chills, headache, and extreme exhaustion, and lives in a region with infected rodents, rabbits, or fleas. Infection of the lungs causes the pneumonic form of plague, resulting in a severe respiratory illness. This form of the disease can spread rapidly and is more highly fatal.

A person usually becomes ill with bubonic plague two to six days after being infected. When left untreated, the plague-causing bacteria invade the bloodstream and kill 50 to 90 percent of people who get it. Antibiotic therapy effectively treats bubonic plague.

Pneumonic plague is more difficult to treat, and even with antibiotics, victims can die from it. Pneumonic plague occurs when the infectious bacteria infects the lungs. The first signs of illness in pneumonic plague are fever, headache, weakness, and a cough that produces blood or watery sputum. The pneumonia progresses over two to four days and, without early treatment, death ensues.

Can I Catch the Plague?

Bubonic plague is still prevalent in more than 20 countries. In the United States, the last rat-borne epidemic occurred in Los Angeles in 1924-1925. Since then sporadic cases have occurred, mostly in western states. Sources of cases today are wild rodents, especially squirrels, prairie dogs, and other burrowing rodents.

Plague is found in parts of Russia and China and regularly occurs in Madagascar. Severe outbreaks have occurred in recent years in Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire, Mozambique, and Botswana. Plague also has been reported in western and northern Africa. In South America, plague is found in parts of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil. There is no plague in Australia, and Europe has not seen a case for more than 50 years.

Why Is Yersinia So Successful?

Potent Fact

The genome sequence is the entire complement of DNA in the cells of an organism. Mapping the genome sequence of the bug that causes plague was valuable because it helped researchers to learn about its evolution. The large number of genetic changes in the organism over time explain its ability to succeed as a disease-causer over hundreds of years.

Genome sequences are becoming available for more and more organisms. The human genome has been sequenced as well. There are many useful pieces of information that will help us fight all kinds of infectious and genetic diseases that come from sequencing of genomes.

A team of scientists recently mapped the entire genetic structure (or genome sequence) of Yersinia pestis, the plague-causing bacterium. The genome displays many irregularities due to genetic exchange with other microorganisms, and many of its genes appear to have been acquired from other bacteria and viruses. The evidence suggests that plague has undergone large-scale genetic change leading to rapid evolution, which makes it able to adapt to survive in many different environments.

Plague Vaccine

Plague vaccines have been used since the late nineteenth century, but their effectiveness is uncertain. Vaccination reduces the incidence and severity of disease resulting from the bite of infected fleas, but it isn't 100 percent effective. The plague vaccine is licensed for use in the United States and is available for adults at high risk-people who live in the western United States, people who will be in parts of the world where plague is still endemic, and people who are around rodents. Severe inflammatory reactions are common, and plague vaccine should not be given to anyone with a known hypersensitivity to beef protein, soya, casein, or phenol. Finally, the vaccination routine is complex and requires frequent boosters to maintain its effectiveness.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Dangerous Diseases and Epidemics © 2002 by David Perlin, Ph.D., and Ann Cohen. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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Bubonic PlagueEpidemics of the PastSmallpox: 12,000 Years of TerrorBubonic PlagueInfluenza: A Twentieth-Century Epidemic Ring around the rosy, A pocket full of posies, Ashes ... ashes, We all fall down. A familiar nursery rhyme that children have recited as a harmless play song for generations ironically refers to one of Europe's most devastating diseases.

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The summer of 1348 was strangely wet. The crops were rotting in the fields due to the consistent rains. The effect was at it's worst in cities, where overcrowding aided it's spread. On November 1 the plague reached London, and 30,000 people out of the 70,000 of the city's population, died from the plague. The plague hung around for the next 2 years and killed 30-40% of the entire population. Out of the 5-6 million people in England, 2 million were killed.

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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, possibly in the Gobi Desert, 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 signalled 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 truth
The Black Death is a bacteria-borne disease; the bacteria in question being Yersinia pestis, which was carried in the blood of wild black rats and the fleas that lived off the rats. Normally there is no contact between these fleas and human beings, but when their rat hosts die, these fleas are forced to seek alternatives - including humans!

The symptoms
The plague produces several different symptoms in its victims. Bubonic, the most common form of the plague, produces fist-sized swellings, called buboes, 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 a day.

The speed with which the disease could kill was terrifying to inhabitants of the medieval world. The Italian author Boccaccio claimed that the plague victims "ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."

The Black Death reaches England
The summer of 1348 was abnormally wet. Grain lay rotting in the fields due to the nearly constant rains. With the harvest so adversely affected, it seemed certain that there would be food shortages. But a far worse enemy was set to appear.

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 the 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 defenceless. 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 1361-62, 1369, 1379-83, 1389-93, 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 pasture, which was much less labour-intensive. This helped boost the cloth and woollen 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, accelerating 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.

Also see Medieval London in our London History guide.

Medieval Britain - from 'A History of the British Nation' (1912)
Medieval attractions in Britain (places to see tagged with 'medieval')

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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.

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The Black Death was thought to have been caused by fleas carried by rats that were found in towns and cities. In towns and cities people lived very close to one another and they knew nothing about contagious diseases. Harvests would not have been harvested and there was no one to collect them. Villages would've faced starvation. Food shortages would've had huge impacts on towns and cities as the villages surrounding them would not be able to provide them with enough food.

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Citation: C N Trueman "The Black Death of 1348 to 1350"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 5 Mar 2015. 18 Jun 2018.

In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town.

The Black Death is the name given to a deadly plague (often called bubonic plague, but is more likely to be pneumonic plague) which was rampant during the Fourteenth Century. It was believed to have arrived from Asia in late 1348 and caused more than one epidemic in that century - though its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible. No amount of medical knowledge could help England when the plague struck. It was also to have a major impact on England's social structure which lead to the Peasants Revolt of 1381.

Up until recently the Black Death was thought to have been caused by fleas carried by rats that were very common in towns and cities. When the fleas bit into their victims, it was thought they were literally injecting them with the disease.

However evidence produced by forensic scientists and archaeologists in 2014 from human remains in the north of the City of London suggests that fleas could not actually have been responsible for an infection that spread so fast - it had to be airborne. Once the disease reached the lungs of the malnourished, it was then spread to the wider population through sneezes and coughs.

Whatever the cause of the infection, death was often very quick for the weaker victims. By Spring 1349 the Black Death had killed six out of every ten Londoners.

It symptoms were described in 1348 by a man called Boccaccio who lived in Florence, Italy:

"The first signs of the plague were lumps in the groin or armpits. After this, livid black spots appeared on the arms and thighs and other parts of the body. Few recovered. Almost all died within three days, usually without any fever."

Written evidence from the time indicates that nearly all the victims died within three days though a small number did last for four days.

Why did the plague spread so quickly?

In towns and cities people lived very close together and they knew nothing about contagious diseases. If they did, they would have avoided close contact with others (staying at least a metre apart) if they themselves were ill or if others around them were ill. They would also have been careful to cover their mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.

Additionally, the disposal of bodies was very crude and helped to spread the disease still further as those who handled the dead bodies did not protect themselves in any way.

Lack of medical knowledge meant that people tried anything to help them escape the disease. One of the more extreme was the flagellants. These people wanted to show their love of God by whipping themselves, hoping that God would forgive them their sins and that they would be spared the Black Death.
Flagellants hoping to escape the Black Death
The Black Death had a huge impact on society. Fields went unploughed as the men who usually did this were victims of the disease. Harvests would not have been brought in as the manpower did not exist. Animals would have been lost as the people in a village would not have been around to tend them.

Therefore whole villages would have faced starvation. Towns and cities would have faced food shortages as the villages that surrounded them could not provide them with enough food. Those lords who lost their manpower to the disease, turned to sheep farming as this required less people to work on the land. Grain farming became less popular - this, again, kept towns and cities short of such basics as bread. One consequence of the Black Death was inflation - the price of food went up creating more hardship for the poor. In some parts of England, food prices went up by four times.

How did peasants respond?

Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them - almost as if God had protected them. Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.

Feudal law stated that peasants could only leave their village if they had their lord's permission. Now many lords were short of desperately needed labour for the land that they owned. After the Black Death, lords actively encouraged peasants to leave the village where they lived to come to work for them. When peasants did this, the lord refused to return them to their original village.

Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that a lord was desperate to get in his harvest.

So the government faced the prospect of peasants leaving their villages to find a better 'deal' from a lord thus upsetting the whole idea of the Feudal System which had been introduced to tie peasants to the land. Ironically, this movement by the peasants was encouraged by the lords who were meant to benefit from the Feudal System.

To curb peasants roaming around the countryside looking for better pay, the government introduced the Statute of Labourers in 1351 that stated:

No peasants could be paid more than the wages paid in 1346. No lord or master should offer more wages than paid in 1346. No peasants could leave the village they belonged to.

Though some peasants decided to ignore the statute, many knew that disobedience would lead to serious punishment. This created great anger amongst the peasants which was to boil over in 1381 with the Peasants Revolt. Hence, it can be argued that the Black Death was to lead to the Peasants Revolt.

Was there a cure for the Black Death?
No, but at the time, there were many 'cures' suggested - see here for a list of the ones we know about.

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The Black Death of 1348 to 1350 - History Learning Site

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In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century.

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The black death started in Europe from between 1348 and 1350. The plague reached the Crimea in 1346 and most probably spread by fleas on black rats that travelled on ships. The plague was evolved around the area of China and spread globally multiple times. The Black Death was transmitted in places like in West Asia and Africa between 1409 to 1433.

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Gene sequencing, from which scientists can gather hereditary data of organisms, has revealed that the Black Death, often referred to as The Plague, which reduced the world's total population by about 100 million, originated from China over 2000 years ago, scientists from several countries wrote in the medical journal Nature Genetics. Genome sequencing has allowed the researchers to reconstruct plague pandemics from the Black Death to the late 1800s.

Black Death and The Plague - the plague is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. The Black Death is one huge plague event (pandemic) in history.

The Black Death is known as one of the deadliest and widespread pandemics in history. It peaked in Europe between 1348 and 1350 and is thought to have been a bubonic plague outbreak caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium. It reached the Crimea in 1346 and most likely spread via fleas on black rats that travelled on merchant ships. It soon spread through the Mediterranean and Europe. The Black Death is thought have destroyed 30% to 60% of Europe's population - experts say it took 150 years for Europe to recover its population size. The plague came back several times until the 19th century, when it left Europe for good. Most victims died with two to seven days of becoming infected.

The authors in this new study say the plague evolved around the area of China over 2000 years ago and spread globally several times as deadly pandemics. They compared 17 complete plague genome sequences as well as 933 variable DNA sites on a unique worldwide collection of bacterial strains (plague isolates), allowing them to follow pandemics that took place in history around the world, and to work out the age of different waves of them.

The majority of pandemics were associated with known major historical events, such as the Black Death. As none of the collections of isolates from individual scientific institutions were globally representative, the scientists explained that in order to understand the historical sources of plagues, all the institutions would have to work together.

In order to prevent bioterrorism, access to Yersinia pestis - the bacterium known to be the cause of the plagues - is seriously restricted; therefore, assembling a comprehensive collection of them is impossible. An international team of scientists from the UK, USA, Ireland, Germany, Madagascar, China and France had to collaborate for a decentralized analysis of DNA samples.

Their findings reveal a detailed history of the pandemic spread of a bacterial disease in a way never seen before.

Pandemic infectious diseases have affected humans ever since we set foot on this planet, the authors explain. They have shaped the form of civilizations.

The researchers reveal that the plague bacillus developed near or in China, and via multiple epidemics was transmitted through several different routes, such as into West Asia through the Silk Road and Africa between 1409 and 1433 by Chinese travelers under explorer Zheng He. The Black Death made its way through Asia, Europe and Africa from 1347 to 1351, and probably brought the world's then 450 million population down to 350 million. Approximately 50% of China's population perished, while Europe's went down by a third and Africa by an eighth.

University of Cork communiqué writes:

The last plague pandemic of 1894 spread to India and radiated to many parts of the globe, including the USA, which was infected by a single radiation still persisting today in wild rodents. Detailed analyses within the USA and Madagascar showed that subsequent country-specific evolution could be tracked by unique mutations that have accumulated in their genomes, which should prove useful to trace future disease outbreaks.

Project leader, Professor Mark Achtman, Department of Microbiology, based in the Environmental Research Institute in University College Cork, Ireland, said:

What I felt was so amazing about the results is that we could link the genetic information so accurately to major historical events.

"Routes of transmission of the plague from Hong Kong since 1894." ( Map)

"Yersinia pestis genome sequencing identifies patterns of global phylogenetic diversity"
Giovanna Morelli, Yajun Song, Camila J Mazzoni, Mark Eppinger, Philippe Roumagnac, David M Wagner, Mirjam Feldkamp, Barica Kusecek, Amy J Vogler, Yanjun Li, Yujun Cui, Nicholas R Thomson, Thibaut Jombart, Raphael Leblois, Peter Lichtner, Lila Rahalison, Jeannine M Petersen, Francois Balloux, Paul Keim, Thierry Wirth, Jacques Ravel, Ruifu Yang, Elisabeth Carniel & Mark Achtman
Nature Genetics
Published online: 31 October 2010 | doi:10.1038/ng.705

Written by Christian Nordqvist

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Origins Of The Black Death Traced Back To China, Gene Sequencing Has Revealed

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Gene sequencing, from which scientists can gather hereditary data of organisms, has revealed that the Black Death, often referred to as The Plague, which reduced the world's total population by about 100 million, originated from China over 2000 years ago, scientists from several countries wrote in the medical journal Nature Genetics.

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The plague had a huge impact on the economy. It was too difficult and dangerous to earn goods through trade and to produce them. The prices for the goods being produced and traded increased by a heap. The illness and death caused workers to become vastly scarce, causing even the peasants to feel the new rise in wages. The demand for people to work was very high and serfs were no longer owned my one lord, if one was left another lord would instantly hire them.

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Social and Economic Effects of the Plague

The plague had large scale social and economic effects, many of which are recorded in the introduction of the Decameron. People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world. Funeral rites became perfunctory or stopped altogether, and work ceased being done. Some felt that the wrath of God was descending upon man, and so fought the plague with prayer. Some felt that they should obey the maxim, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die." The society experienced an upheaval to an extent usually only seen in controlled circumstances such as carnival. Faith in religion decreased after the plague, both because of the death of so many of the clergy and because of the failure of prayer to prevent sickness and death.

The economy underwent abrupt and extreme inflation. Since it was so difficult (and dangerous) to procure goods through trade and to produce them, the prices of both goods produced locally and those imported from afar skyrocketed. Because of illness and death workers became exceedingly scarce, so even peasants felt the effects of the new rise in wages. The demand for people to work the land was so high that it threatened the manorial holdings. Serfs were no longer tied to one master; if one left the land, another lord would instantly hire them. The lords had to make changes in order to make the situation more profitable for the peasants and so keep them on their land. In general, wages outpaced prices and the standard of living was subsequently raised.

As a consequence of the beginning of blurring financial distinctions, social distinctions sharpened. The fashions of the nobility became more extravagant in order to emphasize the social standing of the person wearing the clothing. The peasants became slightly more empowered, and revolted when the aristocracy attempted to resist the changes brought about by the plague. In 1358, the peasantry of northern France rioted, and in 1378 disenfranchised guild members revolted. The social and economic structure of Europe was drastically and irretrievably changed.

(Ed: D.S.) Courie, Leonard W. The Black Death and Peasant's Revolt. New York: Wayland Publishers, 1972; Strayer, Joseph R., ed. Dictionary of the Middle Ages. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Vol. 2. pp. 257-267.

Other Pages in Plague: Effects

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The plague had large scale social and economic effects, many of which are recorded in the introduction of the Decameron. People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world. Funeral rites became perfunctory or stopped altogether, and work ceased being done.

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Victims of the disease could barely last more than three to four days from the day they were infected to death, during this period they would experience intense fever and vomiting during which thei nodes swelled uncontrollably and then finally burst.

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Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being made today.

Seven thousand people died per day in Cairo. Three-quarters of Florence's residents were buried in makeshift graves in just one macabre year. One third of China evaporated before the rest of the world knew what was coming.

By the time the tornado-like destruction of the 14th-century bubonic plague finally dissipated, nearly half the people in each of the regions it touched had succumbed to a gruesome, painful death.

The Black Death - as it is commonly called - especially ravaged Europe, which was halfway through a century already marked by war, famine and scandal in the church, which had moved its headquarters from Rome to Avignon, France, to escape infighting among the cardinals.

In the end, some 75 million people succumbed, it is estimated. It took several centuries for the world's population to recover from the devastation of the plague, but some social changes, borne by watching corpses pile up in the streets, were permanent.

Quick killer

The disease existed in two varieties, one contracted by insect bite and another airborne. In both cases, victims rarely lasted more than three to four days between initial infection and death, a period of intense fever and vomiting during which their lymph nodes swelled uncontrollably and finally burst.

The plague bacteria had lain dormant for hundreds of years before incubating again in the 1320s in the Gobi Desert of Asia, from which it spread quickly in all directions in the blood of fleas that traveled with rodent hosts.

Following very precisely the medieval trade routes from China, through Central Asia and Turkey, the plague finally reached Italy in 1347 aboard a merchant ship whose crew had all already died or been infected by the time it reached port. Densely populated Europe, which had seen a recent growth in the population of its cities, was a tinderbox for the disease.

The Black Death ravaged the continent for three years before it continued on into Russia, killing one-third to one-half of the entire population in ghastly fashion.

The plague killed indiscriminately - young and old, rich and poor - but especially in the cities and among groups who had close contact with the sick. Entire monasteries filled with friars were wiped out and Europe lost most of its doctors. In the countryside, whole villages were abandoned. The disease reached even the isolated outposts of Greenland and Iceland, leaving only wild cattle roaming free without any farmers, according to chroniclers who visited years later.

New landscape

Social effects of the plague were felt immediately after the worst outbreaks petered out. Those who survived benefited from an extreme labor shortage, so serfs once tied to the land now had a choice of whom to work for. Lords had to make conditions better and more attractive or risk leaving their land untended, leading to wage increases across the board.

The taste of better living conditions for the poor would not be forgotten. A few decades later, when lords tried to revert back to the old ways, there were peasant revolts throughout Europe and the lower classes maintained their new freedoms and better pay.

The Catholic Church and Jewish populations in Europe did not fare so well.

Distrust in God and the church, already in poor standing due to recent Papal scandals, grew as people realized that religion could do nothing to stop the spread of the disease and their family's suffering. So many priests died, too, that church services in many areas simply ceased.

Jewish populations, meanwhile, were frequently targeted as scapegoats. In some places, they were accused of poisoning the water because their mortality rates were often significantly lower, something historians have since attributed to better hygiene. This prejudice was nothing new in Europe at the time, but intensified during the Black Death and led many Jews to flee east to Poland and Russia, where they remained in large numbers until the 20th-century.

A study earlier this year found that despite its reputation for indiscriminate destruction, the Black Death targeted the weak, taking a greater toll among those whose immune systems were already compromised.

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Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being made today. Seven thousand people died per day in Cairo. Three-quarters of Florence's residents were buried in makeshift graves in just one macabre year.