The
Black Death was the most horrific natural disaster of the Middle Ages. It was a
devastating plague that killed many millions of people in Europe and Asia. One
Italian historian wrote: ‘This is the end of the world.’
The plague came to Europe from Asia in 1347. Disease
ravaged a Mongol army fighting in the Crimea (southern Russia). The Mongols
catapulted diseased corpses over the walls of a fortress defended by Italians.
When the Italians home to Genoa, they carried the disease with them.
The disease was bubonic plague, which was passed to
humans from infected rats through flea bites. The name ‘Black Death’ came from
the black spots that appeared on victims, who also developed swellings in their
armpits and groins and coughed up blood. Many died the day they fell ill.
No medieval doctor knew why the Black Death struck or
how to sure it. To many Christians it seemed to be a punishment from God, and
some took to the streets, whipping themselves as a penance for the sins of
humanity.
The Black Death raged from China to Scandinavia. As it
spread, panic- striken people fled from the towns. Wherever they went, the
plague went with them. So many people died (more than 20 million, or a third of
the people in Europe) that villages were left deserted and fields overgrown.
The Church lost many priests, the only educated men of
the time. Half of England’s monks and nuns died, and three archbishops of
Canterbury died in one year.
Repeated plague attacks throughout the 14th
century left Europe short of people to work and farm the land, and pushed up
wages. Unrest over wages and taxes led to an uprising in France in 1358 and to
the Peasants’ Revolt in England, led by Wat Tyler, in 1381.
The
black rat carried the fleas that transmitted the disease. The rats travelled on
ships from port to port, and, so they moved, the Black Death spread at
terrifying speed. There was rats and fleas in every medieval town and in most
houses. Rubbish in the streets and poor sanitation made towns an ideal breeding
ground for disease. Many towns lost half their populations to the plague, and
some villages were abandoned.
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