Category Archives: Black Death

Social change after the plague: personal religion

The earliest stages of the Protestant Reformation began in the years immediately after the plague. There was a widespread sense that the Church as an institution had let the people down. The Church had promised that if they were supported … Continue reading

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Social changes after the plague: hospitals

Before 1350, there were about three different models for hospitals. In Byzantine regions, the chief model was the municipal hospital operated in Constantinople. It was funded by tax money, and it actually had some surgery and active medical care in … Continue reading

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Social changes after the plague: education

The plague was so severe that it disrupted most ongoing institutions, including the ones that educated the youth. During the worst of it, schools closed as pupils died or were sent home. Masters and apprentices died. When it was over, … Continue reading

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Last outbreaks of the bubonic plague

For the record, bubonic plague was a major cause of death until the mid-17th century. Seville had a devastating outbreak in 1647, followed by another, the last, in 1676. London’s last huge plague outbreak occurred between the two in Spain, … Continue reading

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Demand for labor after the plague

As the farming situation slowly stabilized in the next century, the plague kept returning to clear out surplus workers. Probably, in every year until the 1600s, someone in Europe had bubonic plague; regional outbreaks occurred without becoming continent-wide events. Other … Continue reading

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Peasants in revolt: 1381 and after

During the same period of time that the plague was ravaging the population, England had attempted to maintain a state of near-constant war with France. The purpose of war was to defend original English royal family holdings in France; these … Continue reading

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Farming after the plague

The Black Death lasted about 3 years, but only about one year in any one place. After that, each regional economy, and Europe as a whole, began to recover. The men and women who’d taken the places of the ones … Continue reading

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Farming during the plague

One of the really odd notes about the plague is that, from what we can tell, farming wasn’t much affected by the rapid rate of human and animal death. That is, we only know what the manor harvest record books … Continue reading

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Society after the plague

We know a great deal about the 14th century plague because paper had been invented and in many places, especially around the Mediterranean, was widely available. People wrote letters and copyists made textbooks, but there was so much paper that … Continue reading

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Cities coping with plague

Because the plague had such a low rate of recovery and high speed of infection, it disrupted towns and cites more than past epidemics. Cities varied in how well they coped. Probably the best-organized city in Europe was Venice. Venice, … Continue reading

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