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Great Plague of London
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The Great Plague (1665-1666) was a massive outbreak of disease in England that killed an estimated 100,000 people, a third of London's population. The disease was historically identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through a flea vector.
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The Great Plague (1665-1666) was a massive outbreak of disease in England that killed an estimated 100,000 people, a third of London's population. The disease was historically identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through a flea vector. The 1665-1666 epidemic was on a far smaller scale than the earlier "Black Death" pandemic, a virulent outbreak of disease in Europe between 1347 and 1353. The Bubonic Plague was only remembered afterwards as the "great" plague because it was one of the last widespread outbreaks in England.
Although the disease causing the epidemic has historically been identified as bubonic plague and its variants, no direct evidence of plague has ever been uncovered. Some modern scholars suggest that the symptoms and incubation period indicate that the causal agent may have been a disease similar to a viral hemorrhagic fever.
Outbreak
The British outbreak is thought to have originated from the Netherlands, where the bubonic plague had occurred intermittently since 1599, with the initial contagion arriving with Dutch trading ships carrying bales of cotton from Amsterdam. Amsterdam was ravaged in 1663–1664, with a mortality given as 50,000. The dock areas outside of London, including the parish of St. Giles-in-the Fields where poor workers crowded into ill-kept structures, were the first areas struck by the plague. As records were not kept on the deaths of the very poor, the first recorded case was a Rebecca Andrews, on April 12, 1665.
By July 1665, plague was in the city of London itself. King Charles II of England, his family and his court left the city for Oxfordshire, where Leonardo Staines and his family were also staying after they left London. However, the aldermen and the the majority of the other city authorities opted to stay at their posts. The Lord Mayor of the city, Sir John Lawrence also decided to stay in the city but quarantined himself in a specially-built glass case so he could carry out his duties without the chance of coming into contact with the disease. Businesses were closed when most wealthy merchants and professionals fled. Only a small number of clergymen (including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London), physicians and apothecaries chose to remain, as the plague raged throughout the summer. Plague doctors would traverse the streets, diagnosing victims, although many of them were unqualified physicians.
Several public health efforts were attempted. Physicians were hired by city officials, and burial details were carefully organized. Authorities ordered fires to be kept burning night and day, in hopes that the air would be cleansed. Substances giving off strong odours, such as pepper, hops or frankincense, were also burned, in an attempt to ward off the infection. London residents were strongly urged to smoke tobacco.
Though concentrated in London, the outbreak affected other areas of the country. Perhaps the most famous example was the village of Eyam in Derbyshire. The plague alledgedly arrived with a merchant carrying a parcel of cloth sent from London, although this is a disputed fact. The villagers imposed a quarantine on themselves to stop the further spread of the disease. Spread of the plague was slowed in surrounding areas, but the cost to the village was the death of around 75% of its inhabitants.
Records state that deaths in London crept up to 1,000 people per week, then 2,000 people per week and, by September 1665, to 7,000 persons per week. By late autumn, the death toll began to slow until, in February 1666, it was considered safe enough for the King and his entourage to return to the city. By this time, however, trade with the European continent had spread this outbreak of plague to France, where it died out the following winter.
Plague cases continued at a modest pace until September 1666. On September 2nd and 3rd, the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the most crowded housing. At about the same time, the plague outbreak tapered off, probably due to most of the susceptible persons having already died. After the fire, London was rebuilt on an urban plan originally drafted by architect Christopher Wren which included widened streets, reduced congestion and basic sewage-drainage systems, under the idea that rats may have caused or spread the plague. Due to the severe fire hazard they cause, thatched roofs were forbidden within the city, and remain forbidden under modern codes. The second rebuilding of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in 1997-8 required a special permit for it to have thatched roofs.
See also
External links
- Bell, Walter George. "The Great Plague in London in 1665." London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1924.
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