The Black Death 1346-1353: The Complete History

“[The Black Death] wrought such havoc among the populations that it earned, it seems, eternal notoriety as the greatest-ever demographic disaster. Because it was far more mortal and terrible than anything people had heard or read about, the memory of this disaster entered folklore and the writings of the learned alike.”

Many are aware of the Black Death’s deadly nature, but the true mortality is far greater than popular audiences think. Moreover, it was far higher than other plague scholars have estimated. While estimates of total mortality traditionally hover around 1/3 of the European populace, Benedictow argues that demographic evidence from across Europe suggests mortality was somewhere between 60 and 65%. Due to its highly deadly nature, the Black Death entered popular memory, reflected in literature and art, for example, as one of the most notorious calamities in world history.

“This, then, is the reason the history of the Black Death is important: it made history.”

Although the Black Death impacted Europe from approximately 1347 to 1352, it was not a historical event with a short-term impact. The cataclysmic death toll that the pandemic caused led to long-term consequences that affected Europe and the world into the modern period. These effects include, but are not limited to, the collapse of feudal society, the emergence of capitalism and the growth of industrialized economies, and the creation of public health care.

“Very clearly, neighbors, relatives (inheritors), and other persons like physicians or priests who visited houses where people were sick from plague or people had died from plague, exposed themselves to grave danger.”

Bubonic plague was the primary form of plague that spread during the Black Death. Black rats carry this bacterium, and fleas spread it when they bite and infect humans.