The Black Death

Nina Cvetojevic
 Plague
• Plague is an acute infectious disease caused by the
bacillus Yersinia pestis or Pasteurella pestis 
• It is transmitted to humans by the bite of the human flea
• The primary hosts of the fleas are urban and sewer rats.
• Plague is also transmissible from person to person when
in its pneumonic form
• Before appearance of antibiotics plague had a very high
mortality rate
• The illness may take a bubonic, septicaemic or
pneumonic form.
• Bubonic plague infection causes characteristic swellings
and necrosis of the skin. In the pneumonic form sick
people became dangerous source of airborne droplet
infection. 
• The carrying of a “pocket full of posies”, or a bunch of
pleasant-smelling flowers and herbs, was believed to be
a kind of protection against the disease.
 Plague pandemics
• There have been three great world
pandemics of plague - in 541, 1347,
and 1894.
• The Justinian Plague of 541 started in
central Africa and spread to Egypt and
the Mediterranean.
• The Black Death of 1347 originated in
Asia and spread to Europe.
• The third pandemic of 1894 originated
in China and spread first to India and
then to the rest of the world.
• Yersinia pestis was discovered in 1894
• In 1898, it was determined that sewer
rats are sources of Yersinia pestis .  During the 17th-century European
plague, physicians wore beaked
masks, leather gloves, and long coats
in an attempt to fend off the disease. 
 The Black Death
• In 1347 the plague was brought to the Crimea from
Asia Minor by the Tartar armies
• After unsuccessful siege of Kaffa, the Tartars
catapulted corpses of people who had died from
plague over the city walls
• The Genoese traders fled in galleys carrying the
disease to Constantinople and to Sicily, where the
great pandemic of Europe started.
• By 1348 it had reached Marseille, Paris and Germany,
then Spain, and in 1349 it appeared in England
 The Black Death in Britain
• Black rat caused the Black Death – probably
infected by wild rodents transported from Asia
• Rats were attracted by city streets filled with
rubbish and waste, especially in the poorest areas.
• Plague spread quickly because of the poor living
conditions - people used to empty their chamber
pots out of their windows into the street, many
houses owned domestic animals and water from
the river was used both for drinking and for
industrial purposes.
• Probably more than one - third of the entire Two men discovering
population of Britain died, and fewer than one a dead woman in the
person in ten who caught the plague managed to street during the
survive it. Great Plague of
• Plague caused a significant slowdown in population London, 1665. 
growth
 Centuries of plague
• Between 1348 and 1665 there were repeated plague epidemics in England,
with very few years without some plague deaths recorded.
• After the Black Death, the main plague epidemics occurred in 1563, 1593, 1625
and 1665.
• In 1563, plague devastated London causing death to one-quarter to one-third
of the city's population.
• Queen Elizabeth ordered a gallows to be erected, in order to execute anyone
arriving to Windsor ti prevent spreading of the plague.
• After plague broke out among the garrison occupying Calais, Britain lost their
last French possession.
• In 1592 the Thames Fair was postponed and London lost about 18,000 of its
people.
• The epidemic continued throughout 1593 only to be extinguished by the cold
winter of 1594.
 The Great Plague
• Minor outbreaks of plague were recorded in 1603 and
in 1610-11, but 1625 epidemic was a disastrous one
for London - all those who could afford to leave the
capital did so, including magistrates, doctors and the
clergy.
• Great Plague started in London in June, 1665, bringing
death to 69,000 people according to the official Hills of
Mortality.
• The true number was probably over 100,000.
• The civil authorities implemented quarantine
procedures to isolate the sick or potentially-infected
from the healthy. The Plague Window, Eyam
• Infected houses were marked with a cross and the Church
words “Lord have mercy upon us”. In a small village
• Watchmen prevented people coming in and out of in Derbyshire called Eyam, rector
infected houses.
William Mompesson persuaded
• Public assemblies were prohibited, apart from those
dedicated to prayer for relief from the pestilence.
the villagers not to flee the
village and so spread the
infection further
 The end of plague
• In 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed
much of the city centre, but also helped to
kill off some of the black rats and fleas
• By the end of the 17th century the
traditional overland route by which
infected rats or fleas were transported was
replaced by sea trading routes.
• The brown rat replaced the black rat as the
main disease host in Europe in the 18th
and 19th centuries
• This brown rat is in less close contact with
man compared to the black rat
The Pied Piper of Hamelin was hired
• The building style in England has change,
to rid the town of its plague of rats.
and insanitary housing was replaced by
Trailing after the hypnotic notes of
stone and brick buildings.
the rat-catcher’s magical flute, the
rodents politely filed through the city
gates to their presumed doom.
 References
• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/
article/plague-doctors-beaked-masks-coronavi
rus
• https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200902
-the-grim-truth-behind-the-pied-piper
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle
_ages/black_01.shtml
• https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/educatio
n/resources/great-plague/
• https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Histo
ryofEngland/The-Great-Plague/