The History of the Black Death

The mortality was of the black death was awesome. Forty per cent of the population of Europe, the known western world, perished in the first wave. Here in the first of a two part investigation into the Black Death we take a look at its history.

So wrote Michael of Piazza, a Franciscan friar, describing the torment of the first victims of the Black Death, which arrived, apparently out of the blue, in Sicily in 1347. Although the people there knew nothing of medicine and had never seen such a fearsome disease before, they quickly realised that it was directly infectious person-to-person; they believed (incorrectly) that only to look on a victim was sufficient to cause death. Everyone who was infected died and when the symptoms appeared there followed about five days of the most appalling agony, frenzy and delirium. We now know that there was internal bleeding and, in the final days, the vital organs began to liquefy. Death was truly a merciful release.

In the face of such an appalling terror, the people fled, forsaking their homes and even their dying children. But some of those escaping to neighbouring towns or into the fields were already infected and they took the disease with them. Soon, the entire island was overwhelmed. The Black Death, the world’s most awful serial killer, had arrived.

Already, boats with infected crews had taken the disease to mainland Italy and to Marseille. From here, it marched steadily northwards across Europe like an all-engulfing evil wave, reaching the Arctic Circle in less than three years.

Credit - Christopher Duncan and Susan Scott The wave-like spread of the Black Death northwards across Europe, 1347-1350

The mortality was awesome; forty per cent of the population of Europe, the known western world, had perished. Everybody must have breathed a sigh of relief; at last it was over. But their rejoicing was premature. This mysterious disease was here to stay for the next three hundred years and would claim countless millions of victims. It formed its base in France and continuously ravaged its towns and cities. From there, infected travellers carried the disease by road and river across the continental landmass and by sea to England. The disease was then spread inland by traders, sometimes over many miles.