The document provides guidance for a research assessment on The Black Death plague in Europe during the 14th century. It outlines topics to research such as causes of the plague, symptoms and treatments, immediate and long-term impacts on society, and the role of religion. Students are instructed to gather at least five visual sources with explanations to include in their report. Key events related to the plague, such as its arrival in English ports in 1348, and outbreaks through the late 1300s, are also listed.

2. The purpose of this assessment task is to investigate and report on The Black Death.
Research, gather and collate data/information both written and visual on The Black Death.
Minimum of five (5) visual data/information pieces with accompanying brief explanations.
Pre-Preparation:
Causes:
• What was ‘The Black Death’?
• Did ‘The Black Death’ go by any other name(s)?
• What did people believe to be the cause of the disease?
• How and when did it occur?
• From where did it begin?
Symptoms and Treatments:
• How did people react?
• What were the signs/symptoms that a person was infected?
What usually happened to them?
• What did people do to protect themselves?
• What were some treatments/cures? Were they effective? Why or why not?

3. Further preparation:
• Explain the cause of ‘The Black Death’.
How it was transmitted and how the disease affected the human body.
• Describe some of the immediate impacts of the ‘Black Death’ on medieval society.
• Explain and give examples of the spread of ‘The Black Death’ and the countries
involved.
• Discuss the three long-lasting effects of the radical depopulation of Europe.
• Name the countries involved in the “Hundred years’ War” and describe its effects on
the population of Europe.
• Discuss the role of religion during ‘The Black Death’ outbreak between 1347 and 1351.

5. 1317 Great Famine in England
[A grain crisis in Europe starts in 1315 and results in widespread famine. Crop
failure due to cold, wet weather forced people to eat their seed grain.]
1337 May Declaration of the Hundred Years War by Edward III.
Between France and England.
1346-47 In 1346 or 1347, Italian ships bring rats carrying fleas infected with the Black
Plague to Europe.
1348 June Black Death arrives at Melcombe Regis (Weymouth)
August Black Death hits Bristol
September Black Death reaches London
October Winchester hit – Edendon’s ‘Voice in Rama’ Speech
1349 January Parliament prorogued on account of the plague
January-February Plague spreads into E. Anglia and the Midlands.
April Plague known in Wales.
May Halesowen hit.
18th June Ordinance of Labourers.

6. 1349 July Plague definitely hits Ireland.
Autumn Plague reaches Durham.
Scots invade northern England and bring back plague with them.
1350 Spring Massive outbreak of plague in Scotland.
September First Pestilence dies out.
1351 9th February Statute of Labourers.
By 1351, an estimated 25 million Europeans have died from the Black Death.
1361-64 Second Pestilence: ‘The Plague of Children’
1367 Birth of Richard II of Bordeaux
1368-69 Third Pestilence
1371-75 Fourth Pestilence (variously dated 1371 or 1373-5)
1381 The Peasant Revolt.

7. Plague is a known worldwide killer of
men, women, and children.
It takes three forms:
• pneumonic,
• bubonic, and
• septicaemic.
Plague causes a painful, relatively quick
death that often involves vomiting,
bleeding, and gangrene of the skin.
Fortunately, today's antibiotics can kill
the Yersinia pestis bacteria and save its
victim upon early detection.

8. A flea clings to rat fur in this colored
scanning electron micrograph.
As carriers of plague, fleas have
claimed more victims than all the wars
ever fought.

9. Illustration of the Black Death from the A scene showing monks, disfigured by the
Toggenburg Bible (1411) plague, being blessed by a priest. England,
1360–75

10. Inspired by Black Death, The Dance of Death Yesinia pestis seen at 200x magnification.
is an allegory on the universality of death This bacterium, carried and spread by fleas,
and a common painting motif in late is generally thought to have been the cause
medieval period. of millions of deaths.

11. History Channel: The Plague: Part 1 Part 10: The Plague: History Channel
History Channel: The Plague: Part 2 Part 11: The Plague: History Channel
History Channel: The Plague: Part 3 Part 12: The Plague: History Channel
History Channel: The Plague: Part 4 Part 13: The Plague: History Channel
History Channel: The Plague: Part 5 Part 14: The Plague: History Channel
History Channel: The Plague: Part 6 Part 15: The Plague: History Channel
History Channel: The Plague: Part 7 Part 16: The Plague: History Channel
History Channel: The Plague: Part 8 Part 17: The Plague: History Channel
History Channel: The Plague: Part 9 Part 18: The Plague: History Channel

13. The painting is a panoramic landscape of death: the sky in the distance is blackened by
smoke from burning cities and the sea is littered with shipwrecks. Armies of skeletons
advance on the hapless living, who either flee in terror or try vainly to fight back. Skeletons
kill people in a variety of ways - slitting throats, hanging, drowning, and even hunting with
skeletal dogs. In the foreground, skeletons haul a wagon full of skulls, and ring the bell that
signifies the death knell of the world. A fool plays the lute while a skeleton behind him
plays along; a starving dog nibbles at the face of a child; a cross sits lonely and impotent in
the centre of the painting. People are herded into a trap decorated with crosses, while a
skeleton on horseback slaughters people with a scythe. The painting depicts people of
different social backgrounds - from peasants and soldiers to nobles and even a king and a
cardinal - being taken by death indiscriminately.
The painting shows aspects of everyday European life in the mid-sixteenth century. Clothes
are clearly depicted, as are pastimes such as playing cards. It shows objects such as musical
instruments, an early mechanical clock, scenes including a funeral service, and a common
method of execution for sixteenth-century criminals: being lashed to a cartwheel mounted
on a vertical pole.
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