Just the Facts, Nan: The Black Death

Facts related to the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages.

• Once thought to be caused by Yersinia pestis (formerly Pasteurella pestis) is a Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. It is a facultative anaerobe that can infect humans and other animals, analysis of the spread of the disease now points to a viral hemorrhagic fever. These are RNA viruses which also includes the African ebola virus. Most recent theory is that the plague was actually both of these diseases and pneumonic plague. This will account for the variety of symptoms seen during the pandemic.


• Now believed to have originated in a species of marmot from near Lake Issyk Kul in what is now Kyrgyzwtan. It then spread to fleas and ultimately to humans.


• Thought to have originated in Central Asia in the 1320s or 1330s and have visited China where it killed about one-third of the population and also traveled west. The European peak 1348-1350.


• The estimated worldwide death toll for the 14th century was between 75 and 100 million people. That was 30%-60% of the population.


• Symptoms depended on the cause of the plague in any individual. Hemorrhagic fever causes bleeding and blood poisoning. Pneumonic plague starts as a respiratory disease. The classic sign of bubonic plague was the appearance of buboes (swollen lymph nodes) in the groin, the neck, and armpits, which oozed pus and bled.


• Most victims died within four to seven days after infection.


• Not everyone caught the disease. Those who did and survived appeared to have picked up immunity to reinfection.


• There had been several years of failed harvests in Europe prior to the coming of the Great Pestilence, as the disease was called then, making the population more susceptible to contagion.


• Contemporary theories of the cause of the plague range from God's wrath to early recognition of contagion.


• Our custom of saying "Bless you" or "Gesundheit" ("health" in German) when someone sneezes may originate with the plague, one of the first symptoms of which was sneezing. The children's game, "Ring Around the Rosey" refers to the wide death toll of the plague. "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down."


• The King of England at this time was Edward III, the second to last of the Plantagenet kings. His daughter Joan died of the plague while en route to her marriage to Pedro the Cruel. Edward and Philippa had twelve children, but only Joan contracted and died of the plague.


• The decimation of the ;population had the effect of improving conditions for the peasants and others. With a worker shortage, a person could demand higher wages. This clout also added some political power. Many farm workers moved to towns, changing the balance of power and beginning the early rise of a middle class. The Church's inadequate dealing with the plague and victims hellped foster "heretical" ideas.


• The plague was not over in 1350. It recurred many times until the 19th century.

Only a few of the novels that depict the Black Death:

Insatiate Archer, by Hunter Tayoor
Sarum and London, by Edward Rutherfurd
World Without End, by Ken Follett
The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
Morality Play, by Barry Unsworth
Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks

Image: Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible (1411)