In 1348, the pandemic that became known as the "Black Death", a manifestation of the bubonic plague, arrived in Europe. Carried by Oriental rat fleas living on black rats, it spread rapidly through the Mediterranean and then throughout the European continent. The first recorded case of plague in England was that of a seaman on a ship from Gascony, which docked in Weymouth in June 1348. From this single case, the plague spread quickly through the country - the epidemic was largely over by December 1349. At least a third of England's inhabitants died, although recent estimates, which make more use of records of peasant deaths, have revised this upwards to perhaps even more than half. Although one of the terrors of the plague was the way …
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Plague occurs in England for the first time". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 July 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1978, accessed 23 November 2024.]
