The Black Death

First published in 1969 by William Collins Sons & Co., historian Philip Ziegler’s The Black Death is a classic, critically acclaimed text on the history of the devastating epidemic that ravaged medieval Europe. As the author himself notes in the preface: “there may be controversy over its precise significance, [but] no one would today deny that the Black Death was of the greatest economic and social importance as well as hideously dramatic in its progress” (1).

Philip Ziegler is a British historian who served in the British Foreign Service. After his military career, Ziegler published a wide library of histories and biographies, including Duchess of Dino, King William IV, Edward VIII: The Official Biography, and London at War 1939-1945 among many others.

Please note that this text contains antisemitic language, which this guide sometimes quotes as published.

This guide was composed using the illustrated edition of The Black Death published in 1991 by Alan Sutton Publishing.

Summary

The book has three major parts: the origin and basic impact of the plague on Europe as a whole, the impact of the Black Death on England specifically, and an analysis of the overall data along with reflections on the societal consequences following the waning of the plague.

The Black Death was a pandemic phenomenon that erupted in the middle of the 14th century. It wiped out one third of Europe’s population, sweeping across the continent and into the British Isles over the span of two and a half years (1348-1350). While very little was actually known about the plague’s origin or the precise nature of the disease, the bare facts were enough: It was inevitable, unavoidable, and unprecedentedly lethal. When the plague appeared on the world stage, Europe was in a particularly vulnerable position. Europe’s population had peaked around the turn of the 14th century and had been slowly dwindling due to overcrowding in urban areas and minor famines reducing the availability of resources. In addition, the overall morale of European communities had also been in decline, so the Black Death seemed like judgment from God.

In October of 1347 the plague swept into Italian ports, striking Sicily fiercely. From there, the plague spread to other major locations—Genoa, Venice, Siena, and Orvieto—overrunning all of Italy. Spread out from the Mediterranean, the Black Death poured westward into France and northward into Germany. The deeply religious population of medieval Europe naturally tried to assuage God by means of public acts of worship and penance. The Brotherhood of the Flagellants wandered the countryside putting on public displays of penance, and long-simmering bigotry looked for scapegoats in the marginalized—the Jewish community especially was blamed. At end of the first year, the plague leapt across the channel into England.

Equally devastating as the physical toll was the mental and emotional damage the plague wrought upon survivors, who were left behind to pick up the pieces and attempt to rebuild society. Nearly three years of watching one’s family, friends, and neighbors die horrible deaths, only to be unceremoniously dumped into mass graves, was traumatizing, leading to a general sense of apathy and nihilism.

Adding to the moral devastation was the particularly high death rate of the Catholic clergy, in most places reaching, or even exceeding, 50%. The clergy who were most selfless, willing to minister to the dying of the community to which they were assigned, were often the most likely to be infected and die themselves. The social and economic consequences of such a radical upheaval in European demographics changed society for decades to come. Labor was at a premium, wages increased, supplies decreased, land was widely redistributed, and the economy recovered very slowly.

After the devastation wrought by the Black Death, anxiety and fear took a new hold on the community, leading to a slightly more individualistic and skeptical populace. In the near future, the 1381 Peasants Revolt in England and the Protestant Reformation that divided Christianity were the long-germinating fruits of the seeds sown by trials of the plague.