673 years ago to day, a pandemic worse than anything seen before, arrived on our shores for the first time.
On the 25th of June1348 the Black Death arrived on a ship which docked at Weymouth. Within just three weeks, it had spread to London where it would go on to kill 40% of the population.
It was the first and most severe manifestation of a pandemic, caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria. The term Black Death was not used until the late 17th century.
The first-known case in England was a seaman who arrived at Weymouth, Dorset, from Gascony in June 1348.[1] By autumn, the plague had reached London, and by summer 1349 it covered the entire country, before dying down by December. Low estimates of mortality in the early twentieth century have been revised upwards due to re-examination of data and new information, and a figure of 40–60 per cent of the population is widely accepted.
The most immediate consequence was a halt to the campaigns of the Hundred Years' War. In the long term, the decrease in population caused a shortage of labour, with subsequent rise in wages, resisted by the landowners, which caused deep resentment among the lower classes. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was largely a result of this resentment, and even though the rebellion was suppressed, in the long term serfdom was ended in England. The Black Death also affected artistic and cultural efforts, and may have helped advance the use of the vernacular.
In 1361–62 the plague returned to England, this time causing the death of around 20 per cent of the population. After this the plague continued to return intermittently throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, in local or national outbreaks. From this point on its effect became less severe, and one of the last outbreaks of the plague in England was the Great Plague of London in 1665–1666.
It is widely believed that although the great fire of London 1666 was tragic, it bought the plaque to a halt.
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