Black Death,1348

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  • Created by: MelMel
  • Created on: 03-04-18 11:09
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  • The Black Death, 1348
    • Believed causes
      • Miasma (bad smells from an overflowing privy or food, corrupt the air)
      • God is angry (not enough people have been attending Church and behaving properly)
      • Imbalance of the four humours
      • New fancy clothes ( God is angry and sends the plague to teach them a lesson because they've been showing off their wealth)
      • The Jews had poisoned the wells and springs
      • Huge earthquake in China in 1347
      • Astrology (planets and their movement)
      • Actual cause was the fleas on rats, spread through overcrowded towns and ports
    • Prevention/treatment
      • Avoid eating too much
      • Avoid the victims
      • Attend the Church
      • Bathe in urine three times a day and drink it once a day
      • Avoid having sex too much-excitement can weaken you
      • Flagellation (walking through the city barefoot whipping themselves to show their regret for their sins to God)
      • People kept the air moving by ringing bells or keeping birds to fly around the house
      • Fines for throwing litter were increased
      • People carried sweet-smelling herbs or lit fires to overpower the bad air
      • Prayer
      • By the 1370s there were at least 12 teams of rakers clearing animal dung from the streets
      • Bleeding with leaches
      • Pop open the bubbles to release the diesease
      • Attach an alive chicken to the bubbles
      • Drink mixture of vinegar an poisonous mercury
    • Short term impact
      • 1/3 of the English population died
      • Food not harvested and rotted, cattle escaped, whole villages died and disappeared
      • Food shortages in towns- many rich farmers switched to sheep farming- needed fewer peasants leading to shortage of food
    • Long term impact
      • Upset the feudal system-many peasants left their land to search for better pay, encouraged by other lords who needed harvest
      • Led to Statue of Labourers (1351), peasants banned from moving and restricted to 1346 wages
      • Anger at these rules eventually caused the Peasants Revolt in 1381
      • Church lost lots of experienced Priests as those who survived were accussed of cowardice so the church reputation was badly damaged

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