The Black DeathThe Black DeathLife, Death and Changes in the Middle Ages

1300 - 1450

Time Traveler: Could you blend in?

Time Traveler: Could you blend in?

• What would you change about your appearance?

So, what was life like?So, what was life like?

Housing: Life in the CastleHousing: Life in the Castle

• Smokey, Smelly and filthy!

• Lack of privacy.• But safe – usually!

Life in the CastlesLife in the Castles

• Castles were not for “comfort.”

• Safety first and foremost!– The noble, his family

and loyal knights who could fight.

– Food and livestock– Wealth.

• Peasants – IF there was any room left.

– Not often!

Life for the PeasantsLife for the Peasants

• Smokey, smelly and filthy.

• A lack of color in life.• Very little safety!

– Had to defend themselves.

– Had to do whatever the nobles wanted them to do.

Life of the ChurchLife of the Church

• Middle Ages the “Church” was Catholic.

• The great monasteries were being built.

• Places of wealth, learning, sometimes hospitality for travelers and the sick.

Statistics of the 1300s (before the Plague)

Statistics of the 1300s (before the Plague)

• Average Life Expectancy:– 30

• Average Pregnancy Rate for Women:– 17, with 50% chance

of dying in childbirth.

• Infant Mortality Rate:– 70%

Health and Diet Health and Diet • If a noble:

– starlings, vultures, gulls, herons, cormorants, swans, cranes, peacocks, capons, chickens, dogfish, porpoises, seals, whale, haddock, hedgehogs, cod, salmon, sardines, lamprey eels, crayfish and oysters. Turnips, parsnips, carrots, peas and fava beans were common vegetables, and use of onions and garlic was common.

– LOTS of wine and ale.– 2 meals a day

Health and Diet for Peasants?Health and Diet for Peasants?• 2 - 3 pounds of bread,

8 ounces of meat or fish and 2 -3 pints of ale per day. The bread was usually mean of rye, oats, or barley.

• Meat was expensive and usually only available on special occasions. Often eggs, butter, or cheese were substituted for meat.

Health and Diet for PeasantsHealth and Diet for Peasants

• Vegetables such as onions, leeks, cabbage, garlic, turnips, parsnips, peas and beans were staples. Fruits were available in season.

• 2 meals a day.

HealthHealth

• No antibiotics.• No understanding of

sanitation.• A belief that illness

was God’s punishment for something you have done.– Pilgrimages and

penance would make you well.

Life was pretty much the same from 900 - 1300

Life was pretty much the same from 900 - 1300

• You could’ve traveled throughout Europe and not found many differences.

• Most people didn’t travel more than seven miles from their homes.– Exceptions: Crusaders,

Pilgrimages, Wars, and Entertainers.

So, What Changed?So, What Changed?Trade, The Hundred Year War, and the Black

Death

Two Big Changes in the 1300sTwo Big Changes in the 1300s

• A merchant class was just beginning.– Traveling to bring back

goods from the Middle East and Asia.

The Silk RoadThe Silk Road

• 5000 miles.• Average Travel Time

for a person to leave Europe, travel to China or India and return?– 7 – 10 years.

The Silk RoadThe Silk Road

What was so valuable to bring back?

What was so valuable to bring back?

• silk, satins, musks, rubies, diamonds, pearls, ivory, gold, glass, porcelain, exotic animals and plants.

• Spices!– PEPPER!– Salts– Rhubarb??

Marco PoloMarco Polo

• With his father and uncle he made the entire trip.

• Gone 24 years.• Brought back pasta,

rubies, silks, a compass, and incredible stories.

• The Book of Wonders

Life was changing because of trade!

Life was changing because of trade!

• Europe was getting a “taste” for the goods from Asia and the Middle East.

The Second Big Change in the 1300s

The Second Big Change in the 1300s

• The Hundred Years War.

• How long did the Hundred Years War last???– 117 years! – 1336 – 1453 (off and

on)– 81 years of actual

fighting

BRIEFLY: What was this war about?

BRIEFLY: What was this war about?

• Who should be the king of France?

• The Kings of England thought they should.

• The French didn’t like the idea of English kings over them.

For MOST of those years, England kicked French butt!

For MOST of those years, England kicked French butt!

The English LongbowThe English Longbow

With a War going on:With a War going on:

• There was a great deal of travel happening across Northern Europe.

• War has a habit of destroying the food supplies for the poor – weakening them.

There MIGHT have been another problem happening as

well…

There MIGHT have been another problem happening as

well…• A mini-ice age?• Global Cooling?

Famine 1319Famine 1319

Was this weird weather in 1319 caused by a lack of sunspots?Was this weird weather in 1319 caused by a lack of sunspots?

13461346

• What conditions made the population “ripe” for a plaque to hit?

1347 – The Arrival of the Black Death

1347 – The Arrival of the Black Death

• Remember the path of the Silk Road?

The Path of the PlagueThe Path of the Plague

1347 The Arrival in Europe1347 The Arrival in Europe

• Reports of Plague in Asia.

• Disregarded – that was as remote as Mars is to us.

• That is, until the first ship arrived in Italy with the Black Death …

The Plague arrives in EuropeThe Plague arrives in Europe

• October 1347, a fleet of Genoese trading ships fleeing Caffa reached the port of Messina in Sicily. By the time the fleet reached Messina, all the crew members were either infected or dead. Some ships were found grounded on shorelines, with no one aboard remaining alive.

The Plague SpreadsThe Plague Spreads

• The men who boarded the ships and took the merchandise off, carried the plague back to Europe.

Description of the Black DeathDescription of the Black Death

• "They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in … ditches and covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura … buried my five children with my own hands … And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world."[30]

What was the Black Death?What was the Black Death?

• Bubonic Plague:• 1347 – 1352 – killed

25 million people in Europe.– 200 million killed

globally.– 40% of the population.

• ONLY the American Continent appears to have been unaffected.

Symptoms:Symptoms:

• “He dined with us at noon and dined with his ancestors by night.”

SymptomsSymptoms

• “It started with a headache. Then chills and fever, which left him exhausted and prostrate. Maybe he experienced nausea, vomiting, back pain, soreness in his arms and legs. Perhaps bright light was too bright to stand.”

SymptomsSymptoms

• Within a day or two, the swellings appeared. They were hard, painful, burning lumps on his neck, under his arms, on his inner thighs. Soon they turned black, split open, and began to ooze pus and blood. They may have grown to the size of an orange.

SymptomsSymptoms• Maybe he recovered. It

was possible to recover. But more than likely, death would come quickly. Yet... perhaps not quickly enough. Because after the lumps appeared he would start to bleed internally. There would be blood in his urine, blood in his stool, and blood puddling under his skin, resulting in black boils and spots all over his body.

SymptomsSymptoms

• Everything that came out of his body smelled utterly revolting. He would suffer great pain before he breathed his last. And he would die barely a week after he first contracted the disease.

How did the Black Death spread?

How did the Black Death spread?

• Way #1: Bites from infected rodent fleas

The First Type of Bubonic Plague

The First Type of Bubonic Plague

• How did the way people lived allow this kind of plague to spread?

• If someone was strong, it would take a week to die.

The Grim Reaper The Grim Reaper

• The Plague was did not discriminate in killing.– Young– Old– Healthy– Rich– Poor

The Plague took another turnThe Plague took another turn

• The second way to get infected:

• Pneumonic Plague spread from person to person through breathing the same air and inhaling airborne droplets from the infected.

This Plague was particularly deadly

This Plague was particularly deadly

• The infected often were dead within 24 – 48 hours of the onset of symptoms.

The Third Way the Plague Spread

The Third Way the Plague Spread

• Attacking the blood stream in victims.

• Also very, very deadly.

Images of the Black DeathImages of the Black Death

• Some people took to wearing these masks to try to protect themselves.– Nose stuffed with

burned sage to filter the air.

– Face cover and goggles to keep from exposing your face to the black death.

Images of the Black DeathImages of the Black Death

• Many thought it was the end of the world.

What would you do?What would you do?

• If you were surrounded by so much death and couldn’t explain why it was happening, what would you do?– Remember what the

people at that time thought about illness!

How People ReactedHow People Reacted

• Turned to the Church for protection.

• Thought if they lived more holy lives– made pilgrimages to

show their faith– touched and kept holy

relics – they’d be safe from the Black Death.

How People ReactedHow People Reacted

• “Eat, drink, and be merry – for tomorrow we will die.”

• Live for the moment.• Did some cruel things

because they didn’t think there was any worse punishment that could happen to them.

How People ReactedHow People Reacted

• Tried to find “causes” for the Plague.

• Blamed things that were different and tried to destroy them, thinking that would make God forgive them or get rid of the Black Death.

How People ReactedHow People Reacted

• Massacres– Jews– Lepers– Many burnings of

witches– Sought out any

HERESY in belief.

How People ReactedHow People Reacted

• The people of Paris, France thought the plague was caused by cats.– The Great Cat

Massacre.• The Plague was worse

in France!

The Breakdown of Social OrderThe Breakdown of Social Order• One citizen avoided

another, hardly any neighbour troubled about others, relatives never or hardly ever visited each other. Moreover, such terror was struck into the hearts of men and women by this calamity, that brother abandoned brother, and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother, and very often the wife her husband.

The Breakdown of Social OrderThe Breakdown of Social Order

• What is even worse and nearly incredible is that fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been theirs.

The Breakdown of Social OrderThe Breakdown of Social Order• "The plight of the lower and

most of the middle classes was even more pitiful to behold. Most of them remained in their houses, either through poverty or in hopes of safety, and fell sick by thousands. Since they received no care and attention, almost all of them died. Many ended their lives in the streets both at night and during the day;

The Breakdown of Social OrderThe Breakdown of Social Order

• and many others who died in their houses were only known to be dead because the neighbours smelled their decaying bodies. Dead bodies filled every corner.

Descriptions:Descriptions:

• The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio lived through the plague as it ravaged the city of Florence in 1348. The experience inspired him to write The Decameron, a story of seven men and three women who escape the disease by fleeing to a villa outside the city.

By 1352 – The Plague had died out

By 1352 – The Plague had died out

• Even though there were outbreaks until 1669, it was never again quite as bad.

How do you think the Black Death would change how people looked at the world?How do you think the Black Death would change how people looked at the world?

• Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them.

• Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.