Late Medieval England The Black Death

Late medieval England:
The Black Death
MICHAEL LARBI
INTRODUCTION
During the 1340s, stories started to arrive in Europe of a dreadful disease
ravaging the populations of far off lands in India and China. Such stories were
common, but this one happened to be true.
The Black Death first hit European trading towns, such as Venice, in 1347. The
first recorded deaths in England occurred in June 1348 at the port town of
Melcombe Regis in Dorset. Within two years, this horrifying disease had killed
between one third and half of England's population.
The pestilence
We now call this plague the ‘Black
Death’, but people in medieval
England would have called it the
‘Pestilence’ or the ‘Great Mortality’.
The first symptoms were large
swellings known as ‘buboes’, which
appeared in victims’ armpits and
between their legs and were said to
resemble an onion.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
The buboes then spread across the body, followed by blue or black blotches.
Sufferers then started to vomit and spit blood, suffer from seizures, and their
breath turned foul and stinking. After two to three days of horrific suffering,
they would be dead.
Occasionally, the buboes would burst, emitting a rancid smelling pus. However,
this was a good sign, as it often meant the body was fighting back against the
disease, and might overpower it. Named after the buboes, which were its first
symptom, this variant of the disease is now known as the ‘bubonic plague’.
Other diseases
There was also a more lethal
variant called the ‘pneumonic
plague’, which was spread
through the breath. This version
of the plague attacked the lungs,
giving sufferers a fever, and
leading them to choke to death
with a bloody froth bubbling at
the mouth.
Explanations for the plague
Today, we know that the bubonic plague was caused by bacteria, which was
spread by fleas living on black rats. The rats would have lived on merchant ships,
and run to shore across rigging ropes attaching a ship to the harbour. However,
during the medieval period, people had no understanding of what was causing
great swathes of their population to die.
Providence and other explanations
The explanations that people did devise show the power of religion and
superstition in the medieval mind. Most people believed the plague was
punishment sent down by God, who had been angered by greed and sin on
earth.
Others believed that it was caused by an alignment of stars and planets. In

Europe, some claimed that the Jews who lived among the Christian population
were poisoning their wells, leading to mass killings of Jewish communities in
Germany and France. Some even thought that poisonous air, known as
‘miasma’, was spreading the disease.
Treatments
**With no understanding of what was causing the disease, ideas for treatments were
equally far-fetched. Remedies included drinking vinegar, avoiding moist food, bleeding,
and taking medicine made out of anything from crushed jewels to insects. **Some
believed that they could sweat out the disease, so sat between two raging fires, or
wrapped themselves in furs to induce sweating.
**Medicine in medieval Europe was very basic. Doctors would place a frog on the
buboes in an attempt to absorb the poison, or even a severed pigeon head. Some
doctors came to realise that bursting the buboes could cause the illness to stop, and
became increasingly skilled at doing this with a small lance to allow the pus to seep out.
The Fate of the Sufferers
However, sufferers kept on dying. The countryside was littered with corpses in
the fields and on the roadside. Whole communities became ghost towns almost
overnight. The plague was particularly bad in large towns and cities, where
corpses were thrown into mass graves, often little more than ditches with a thin
layer of earth to cover the dead.
A WRONG MOVE BY THE SCOTS
The Scots realised the English people were in distress, and invaded England in
1350. However, the Scottish soldiers soon caught the plague themselves, and
when they retreated north of the border, they spread the plague to Scotland. Not
even the clergy or royal family were safe from the plague. Three Archbishops of
Canterbury died in quick succession, and King Edward Il's daughter died while
travelling to meet her new husband in Spain.
Flagellants
During the Black Death, a religious sect called
'flagellants' took to travelling England in
procession, whipping themselves in punishment
for their sins. Their reasoning was that if they
punished themselves, God would not see the
need to punish them also with the plague.
Needless to say, their method was not successful.

Check your understanding
1. What proportion of England's population was killed by the Black Death?
2. What were the symptoms of the bubonic plague?
3. What was the most common explanation for the Black Death?
4. How were dead bodies dealt with in towns and cities during the Black Death?
5. Why did flagellants think that whipping themselves would save them from the Black
Death?

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Late medieval England:

The Black Death

Others believed that it was caused by an alignment of stars and planets. In

'flagellants' took to travelling England in

procession, whipping themselves in punishment

for their sins. Their reasoning was that if they

punished themselves, God would not see the

need to punish them also with the plague.

Needless to say, their method was not successful.

1. What proportion of England's population was killed by the Black Death?

2. What were the symptoms of the bubonic plague?

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