The Black Death
Waiting for the Black Death
• In the summer of 1348, the people of England
were waiting for something to arrive, and they
were frightened.
• What could it be? An army? Fierce invaders? No,
it was a terrible disease - a plague – the Black
Death. It had been spreading across Europe for
several months, and thousands had already died.
• No one knew what caused it, how it could be
prevented or if there was any cure.
How quickly did it spread?
The Black Death arrives
Historians think that the plague arrived in the south of
England during the summer of 1348. During the
following autumn it spread quickly through the south
west. Few villages escaped. Churchyards were filled and
new pits had to be dug to bury all the bodies.
The plague spread quickly to the north of England during
the winter of 1348-1349. By 1350, nearly the whole of
Britain was infected with the plague.
What was the Black Death? Answer: Bubonic Plague
What did people think caused the Black
Death?
• There were lots of ideas around in the Middle
Ages about what might be causing the Black
Death.
• Some of them were:
– God – it was a punishment for something people had
done wrong.
– Bad air (miasma)
– Jews poisoning the wells
– ‘Contagion’ – a sick person coming into contact with a
healthy person
What really caused the Black Death?
This is your answer!
The Oriental Rat Flea!
How was bubonic plague passed on?
We now know that the most common form
of the Black Death was the bubonic plague.
This disease was spread by fleas which
lived on black rats. The fleas sucked the
rats’ blood which contained the plague
germs (Yersinia Pestis). When the rat died
the fleas jumped on to humans, bit them,
and passed on the deadly disease.
This girl has bubonic plague.
The large swelling is called a
buboe.
Were there other kinds of plague?
• Yes. As well as
bubonic plague, there
was also pneumonic
plague (which infected
the lungs) and
sceptacaemic plague
(which infected the
blood).
• These were more
deadly, but much less
common.
So was there a cure?
• People in the Middle Ages did not know about
bacteria. As a result, they did not know what
was causing the plague or how to stop it from
spreading.
• What kind of cures might a medieval doctor or
apothecary have suggested for someone
showing the symptoms of the plague?
Do you think any of these medieval preventions/
cures for plague would have helped?
Potential Prevention/Cure Would it have helped?
• Apply a dried toad to the swelling so
that the poison will be drawn out and
into the body of the toad. When it is full
a new one should be applied.
• Let your house be clean and make a fire.
• Close all doors and windows.
• Bleed the patient and make them vomit.
• Sing hymns, pray and beat yourself until
you bleed. People who did this were
known as ‘flagellants’, from the word
‘flagellate’, meaning ‘to whip’.
Flagellants
What were the effects of the
Black Death?
• The Black Death made many people change the way
they lived. Some tried to help those who were
suffering. Others put themselves first.
• Those who were not afraid of the disease spent time
with the sick, dug the plague pits or went around the
towns and villages collecting bodies – these people
often died themselves of the plague.
• Many other people decided to drink, feast, gamble
and buy expensive clothes. Why do you think they did
this?
The Black Death also had an impact on art
This is picture is called ‘The Three Living and the Three Dead’, and is one of
many depictions of a famous story, often told following the period of the
Black Death.
What do you think the message of the story was?
How many people died?
• At the beginning of 1348,
there were about 4 million
people in England.
• By 1351 there were only
about 2.5 million left.
• As in Europe, about one
person in every three
died. Amongst priests, the
death rate was much
higher – why do you think
this was?
Social changes
• Because so many people died, the Black Death
brought about other changes in English
society.
• Would peasants (villeins and freemen) who
survived be better or worse off after the Black
Death?
Social Changes
• For peasants who survived, the future looked good.
Because there were fewer workers, they began to
demand higher wages.
• Some villians now even had the chance to break free
from their lord and be paid for their work – with so few
men available, there was usually someone desperate
for workers who would employ them.
• But would landowners welcome these changes in
society? Next week we will look at the peasants’
demands – and how they were met by King Richard II.
Was that the end of the plague in England?
• NO - The plague returned to England five more times
before 1400.
• It has not been wiped out either: according to the
World Health Organization, there are 1,000 to 3,000
cases of bubonic plague worldwide each year.
• But it’s not all doom and gloom! The last major
outbreak in England was in 1665-1666, and a cure has
now been discovered.
• If you are unfortunate enough to catch bubonic plague
today (which is very unlikely if you live in England!) you
can be successfully treated with antibiotics.
True or False?
• The Black Death was another name for the
plague.
• It was spread by dogs.
• It originally came from China.
• Everyone who got the Black Death died.
• Priests were more likely than farm workers to get
the disease.
• About one tenth of the population of Europe died
of the Black Death during the second half of the
14th century.
