THE BLACK DEATH

HOW DID THE BLACK DEATH CAME TO ENGLAND

• In the summer of 1348, a French ship docked in the small Dorset port of Meloncombe (Southern England). On board was a French sailor dying of the plague. In no time others were ill with swellings in the armpits and black and red spots on thheir bodies. Very few recovered

Between 1347 and 1351, bubonic plague or black death spread from Eastern Europe to the west and the north through the Mediterranean Sea. The origin of the illness was in Asia.

WHAT WAS THE BLACK DEATH?

• It is an illness carried by the fleas that live on black rats. When the rats died, the fleas often transferred to the nearest human being, who then cought the disease when they were bitten by the flea.

• Since rats lived on every ship, the plague spread easily from country to country. Since people did not wash very much in those days, fleas lived on every person

SYMPTOMS OF THE BLACK DEATH

• In humans, the disease caused swelling in the groin, under the arms and behind the ears. These swellings were a black and purple colour, hence the name 'The Black Death'. The dark swellings were called buboes. People were in pain and victims died a horrible death. The symptoms could be seen 3-7 days after victims were bitten by a flea.

Why did medieval people think was the cause of the Black Death?

• Medieval people did not know about the connection between rats, fleas and the Black Death

• They had many theories. Some thought it was a judgement from God because people were wicked. Others thought it came from smells in the air. Still others thought it was to do with astrology. Even there were people who thought that Jews brought that illness.

• Whatever caused it, everyone saw the terrible effects

Burying the dead

• At first the dead were buried in coffins. Then there were so many that new cemeteries had to be made outside town walls and bodies were buried in enormous pits.

• Perhaps as many as one-third of the population of England died. In some villages there were not enough men and women left to look after the animals and the villages ceased to exist.

• Some monasteries and nunneries were almost wiped out. London’s population nearly halved