In the registry books of London parishes of the 16th and 17th centuries, the following causes of death are indicated: tumor, fever, consumption, rash, bruises, exhaustion. But the most common one scary word- plague.
The plague appeared in London early: the first disease was recorded in the 7th century. Between 1563 and 1603, she tormented London five times, and in the last year, 1603, she killed about thirty thousand inhabitants. But the epidemic of 1665 was the most devastating.
The first sick people appeared in the parish of St. Giles at the very end of 1664. The infection was brought to the city by black rats - they are also ship rats, or domestic ones. These creatures are the original inhabitants of London: their bones were found during excavations in layers dating back to the 4th century. Perhaps they sailed from South Asia on Roman ships and have never left the cities since. Severe cold at the beginning of 1665 for some time prevented the spread of infection, but by spring the lists of the dead began to lengthen, and in July the plague entered the city.
Contemporaries write that deathly silence hung over London. The summer was dry and hot, the weather was completely calm. All shops and markets were closed, only "corpse carts" drove through the streets. It was so quiet that all over the Old City one could hear the murmur of water under the bridge. Enormous bonfires blazed at the crossroads and main streets, their fumes mingling with the smells of the dead and dying. It looked like life in London was over.
The law stating that "every grave must be at least six feet deep" was issued at that time and remained in force for three centuries.
The plague receded only in February 1666, hitting every third inhabitant of the city of 200,000. But as soon as the surviving Londoners caught their breath, fire came after the pestilence, as if in order to completely wipe London off the face of the earth.
Great fire of 1666
For a modern tourist, two-thousand-year-old London does not at all give the impression of an ancient city. Indeed, buildings that are more than 400 years old here can be counted on the fingers. And there is a reason for this. Radical "rejuvenation" of London produced a terrible fire in 1666, which nearly wiped the city off the face of the earth.
The fatal spark flared up on Sunday, September 2, 1666, at two o'clock in the morning, in the bakery of Thomas Fariner in Pudding Lane. The causes of the fire remain unclear - contemporaries blamed Catholics for the arson, although the culprit may have been a poorly covered view. Be that as it may, but by noon half of London Bridge and three hundred houses in the northern part of the city were on fire. By the end of Tuesday, strong winds had destroyed St. Paul's Cathedral and the Guildhall, and the front of the fire stretched in a huge arc from the Temple to the outskirts of the Tower. The royal citadel itself was saved by the navy, which bombed the nearby quarters, but this was the only luck of the firefighters.
Fortunately, on Wednesday, when the fate of the city seemed to be sealed, the wind unexpectedly subsided, and by Friday the fire was extinguished.
In fact, there was nothing to save: the city was a scorched desert. The fire consumed 13,200 houses and 87 churches. The damage was estimated at 10 million pounds, despite the fact that the annual income of the mayor's office was equal to 12 thousand pounds. The only comforting moment was that, by some miracle, only eight people became victims of the fire.
Immediately after the "Great Fire" there were calls to leave London and build the capital elsewhere. However, the Council of Aldermen decided to rebuild the city.
By 1672, London was largely restored, but no longer of wood, but of brick. Of the 51 churches rebuilt after the fire, 50 were designed by architect Christopher Wren. A whole forest of its branded spiers still largely organizes the urban space. He also designed the famous column with a statue of Charles II, marking the site of the fire and celebrating the deliverance of the city from the machinations of Catholic arsonists.
After reading the book "Fortune's Stepson" I became interested in the year 1665, London. The action takes place in the year of the plague, it was called the year of the Great Plague. Main character books Colonel Gollis and his beloved Nan. Their separation and reunion is happening before our eyes, on the pages of the novel.
The Great Plague (1665-1666) is a massive outbreak of disease in England during which approximately 100,000 people died, 20% of London's population. For a long time, the disease was called bubonic plague, this infectious disease is caused by the bacterium plague bacillus (lat. Yersinia pestis), its carrier was fleas. The epidemic of 1665-1666 was much smaller in scale than the earlier pandemic." Black Death(fatal outbreak in Europe between 1347 and 1353). However, it was only after that that the bubonic plague was remembered as the "great" plague, because it became one of the most widespread outbreaks in England in recent times.
The Great Plague of 1665 was the last major outbreak of plague in England, and the first since 1636, when about 10,000 people died, and 1625, when about 35,000 people died.
It is believed that the epidemic came to England from the Netherlands, where bubonic plague has occurred periodically since 1599. Initially, a contagious disease was brought to the UK by Dutch merchant ships that transported bales of cotton from Amsterdam. In 1663-1664 Amsterdam was devastated, about 50,000 people died. London's port suburbs, including the parish of St. Giles-in-the Fields, which was packed with impoverished workers living in appalling conditions, were the first to be hit by the plague. Since the mortality of the very poor was not recorded, the first officially recorded death was Rebecca Andrews (eng. Rebecca Andrews), who died on April 12, 1665.
By July 1665, the plague had reached London. King Charles II of England, along with his family and retinue, left Oxfordshire. However, the alderman and most other city officials chose to stay. Sir John Lawrence, Lord Mayor of London, also decided to stay in the city, quarantined himself with a specially built glass case so he could carry out his duties without having to have direct contact with the contagion. When most of the wealthy merchants left the city, trading activities came to a halt. Only a few priests (including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London), doctors and apothecaries chose to stay, as the plague raged through the summer. Doctors roamed the streets diagnosing victims, though many of them were unqualified.
Several attempts have been made to create public health. City officials hired doctors, and arranged for the victims to be carefully buried. They also ordered that the fire be constantly burning, day and night, in the hope that it would purify the air. In order to ward off the infection, they burned various substances that spread strong odors, such as pepper, hops and incense. Londoners were forced to smoke tobacco.
Although the plague outbreak was concentrated in London, it also hit other parts of the country. Perhaps the most famous example is the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, England. It is assumed that the plague was brought to the village by merchants who transported bales of cloth from London, although this fact has not been confirmed. The villagers voluntarily quarantined themselves in order to stop the contagion from spreading further. The spread of the plague in the surrounding areas slowed down, but at the same time, approximately 75% of the inhabitants died in the village itself.
According to the documents, it was established that the death rate in London reached 1,000 people a week, then 2,000 people a week, and by September 1665 reached 7,000 people a week. By the end of autumn, the death rate began to decline, and already in February 1666 it was considered safe for the king and his entourage to return to the city. However, by this time, thanks to trade with Europe, the outbreak of the plague had spread to France, where it died down the following winter.
Epidemic cases continued until September 1666, but at a slower pace. Great (Great) fire (English Great Fire of London), which happened in London from 2 to 3 September, destroyed houses in most densely populated areas. Around this time, plague outbreaks ceased, probably due to the fact that most of the infected fleas carried by the rats died in the fire. After the fire, London was partially rebuilt by architect Christopher Wren. Since thatched roofs were an increased source of fire, they were banned within the city limits and remain banned under modern law. In order to carry out the second reconstruction of the Shakespeare's Globe Theater in 1997-1998, special permission was required to install a thatched roof.
The vital and renewing power of London, constantly fed by the influx of emigrants and wealth from outside, was seriously tested by plague and fire (1665-1666) - disasters without equal, which, however, hardly affected the power, abundance and growth of the population of the capital.
The famous "London" plague was the last and perhaps not the most devastating of all outbreaks over the course of three centuries. In the interval between the battles of Crécy and Poitiers, the "black death", having appeared from the far East from some unknown source, quickly swept over all of Europe with the force inherent in new phenomena. Many, even the most secluded, huts did not manage to escape it.
It is believed that about a third - and perhaps half - of the young compatriots of Boccaccio, Froissart and Chaucer died within three years. The bacilli of the "black death", nicknamed the plague, remained in the soil of England. Never again did it cover the whole country at the same time, but constantly flared up in various places, especially in cities, in ports and in the coastal strip, where rats - carriers of fleas bred. In London, under the Lancasters and Tudors, the plague was for a long time endemic and almost continuous; under the Stuarts, it appeared in rare but strong outbreaks.
Celebrations in London on the occasion of the coronation of James I were suspended by an outbreak of plague that claimed 30,000 people. The accession to the throne of Charles I was the signal for another, no less devastating outbreak. There was also a weaker outbreak in 1636. Then came a thirty-year period of comparative immunity for London, a period during which other events took place that made people forget about the horrors of the plague that had affected their fathers and grandfathers.
In 1665 the last outbreak broke out, and though it did not kill more Londoners than some of its predecessors, the plague made more of an impression, because it now appeared in a time of greater culture, comfort, and security, when such calamities were less remembered, less expected; it was immediately followed - as if by the command of God - by another catastrophe, the equal of which was not in the most ancient annals of London.
Great Fire of London 1666
The fire is believed to have started from Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane. Dry weather and strong winds contributed to the fact that in four days the fire spread to almost the entire city center. Wooden houses, warehouses, shops and workshops burned very quickly, and the barrels of spirits and oil stored in them, ropes, coal and other combustible materials aggravated the situation. Firefighters were forced to blow up an entire strip of buildings to stop the spread of the fire. After the Great Fire, building fire insurance first appeared, and insurance for a wooden house was charged twice as much as for insurance of a stone one. It was insurance companies that, in order to reduce possible payments, began to organize their own fire brigades.
The real perpetrators of the fire were never found, but in the meantime, at the end of 1666, a Frenchman named Robert Hubert was accused and executed, who, as it turned out later, arrived in London after the fire. There was talk that the arson could be organized by the Catholics, who were then in disgrace in Protestant England, or the French and the Dutch, with whom the British were at war at that time.
However, in January 1667, the King's Council ruled that the fire was an accident caused by "the hand of God, a strong wind, and a very dry season."
The total damage from the fire was estimated at the then astronomical sum of ten million pounds.
Great Plague(1665–66) was the last major bubonic plague to occur in the kingdom of England (part of the present-day United Kingdom). This occurred within the long time period of the Second Pandemic, a long period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that began in Europe in 1347, the first year of the Black Death, an outbreak that included other forms such as pneumonic plague, and lasted until 1750.
The Great Plague killed approximately 100,000 people, or almost 25% of London's population. Plague is caused by a bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is usually transmitted through the bite of an infected rat flea.
The 1664–66 epidemics were on a much smaller scale than the earlier Black Death pandemic; it was remembered afterwards as the "great" plague, mainly because it was the last widespread outbreak of bubonic plague in England during the 400-year span of the Second Pandemic.
Background
London in 1665
Plague was a recurring problem in 17th century London. There were 30,000 deaths due to plague in 1603, 35,000 in 1625, and 10,000 in 1636, as well as smaller numbers in other years.
During the winter of 1664, a bright comet was to be seen in the sky, and the people of London were afraid, wondering what evil event this foreshadowed. London at that time consisted of a city of approximately 448 acres surrounded by a city wall, which was originally built to keep raiding parties out. There were gates at Ludgate, Newgate, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Moorgate and Bishopsgate and south lay the River Thames and London Bridge. It was a city of great contrasts, ranging from large buildings for the wealthy in Whitehall and Covent Garden, employing several dozen servants, to townhouses and Tudor timber-framed buildings along the streets, to rented apartments and cubbyholes crowded with poor people. There was no sanitation, and open drains ran along the center of the winding streets. The cobblestones were slippery with animal excrement, rubbish and slop thrown from buildings, dirty and buzzing with flies in the summer and were inundated sewage in winter. The City Corporation used a "rake" to remove the worst of the dirt and it was transported to mounds outside the walls, where it accumulated and continued to decompose. The stench was overwhelming and people walked around with handkerchiefs or bunches of flowers pressed against their nostrils.
Some of the city's necessities, such as coal, arrived by barge, but most came by road. Carts, wagons, horses and pedestrians thronged, and the gates in the wall formed chokepoints through which it was difficult to progress. Nineteen-arched London Bridge was even more crowded. The wealthy used taxis and sedan chairs to get to their destinations without getting dirty. The poor walked, and might have been splashed by the wheeled vehicles and saturated with slops thrown out and water falling from overhanging roofs. Another hazard was choking black smoke belching farther away from factories that made soap from breweries and iron works and burning coal from some 15,000 houses.
Outside the city walls, suburbs sprang up, providing homes for craftsmen and shopkeepers who flocked to the already crowded city. They were slums with wooden shacks and no sanitation. The government tried to control this development but failed and over a quarter of a million people lived here. Other immigrants took over the fine townhouses liberated by the Royalists who fled the country during the Commonwealth, converting them into rental apartments with different families in each room. These properties were soon destroyed and became rat-infested slums.
The administration of the City of London was organized by the Lord Mayor, aldermen and general members of the council, but not all populated area, usually including London, was legally part of the City. Both within the City and beyond its borders, there were also the Liberties, which were areas of varying sizes that were historically granted self-government rights. Many were associated with religious institutions, and when they were abolished in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, their historical rights were transferred along with their property to new owners. The Walled City was surrounded by a ring of Privileges that came under his direction, modernly called "City and Privilege", but they were surrounded by further suburbs with varying administrations. Westminster was an independent city with its own privileges, although it was connected to London by urban development. The Tower of London was an independent liberty, as were others. The areas north of the river not part of one of these administrations came under the authority of the County of Middlesex, and south of the river under Surrey.
At the time, bubonic plague was a highly feared disease, but its cause was not understood. Credulous blamed emissions from the earth, "pernicious fumes", unusual weather, illness in livestock, misbehavior of animals, or an increase in numbers of moles, frogs, mice or flies. Not until 1894, Alexandre Yersen's identification of her causal agent Yersinia pestis was made and the transmission of the bacterium by rat fleas became famous.
Recording deaths
To judge the severity of an epidemic, you first need to know how large population was in which it happened. There was no official census to provide this number, and the best modern count comes from the work of John Gront (1620–1674), who was one of the earliest Fellows of the Royal Society and one of the first demographers, bringing a scientific approach to the collection of statistics. In 1662 he estimated that 384,000 people lived in the City of London, Privilege, Westminster and Counties based on the numbers in the death accounts published every week in the capital. These various districts with different administrations made up the officially recognized extent of London as a whole. In 1665 he revised his estimate to "no more than 460,000". Other contemporaries place the number higher, (the French Ambassador, for example, suggested 600,000), but without a mathematical basis to support their estimates. next most big city in the kingdom was Norwich with a mere 30,000 population.
there was no obligation to report the death to anyone in authority. Instead, each county appointed two or more "finders of the dead" whose duty it was to examine the corpse and determine the cause of death. The seeker was empowered to collect a small fee from relatives for each death they reported, and thus, usually the county would appoint someone who would otherwise be dispossessed and receive poor level support from the county. Typically, this meant that the seekers would be old women who were illiterate, might know little about identifying diseases and who would be open to dishonesty. Seekers would typically learn of a death either from a local deacon who was asked to dig a grave, or from the tolling of a church bell. Anyone who did not report the death of their local church, such as Quakers, Anabaptists, other non-Anglican Christians, or Jews, often did not become included in official records. Seekers in times of plague were required to live outside the community and remain indoors except when, having fulfilled their duties, for fear of spreading disease. Outside, they should avoid other people and always carry a white stick to warn of their occupation. The Seekers informed the Book Reader, who made a return weekly to the Book Reader Company in Broad Lane. The illustrations were then handed over to the Lord Mayor and then to the Minister of State once the plague became a matter of national concern. The reported numbers were used to compile the Mortality Accounts, which listed the world's deaths in every county and whether by plague. The Seekers system to report cause of death continued until 1836.
Graunt recorded the Seekers' incompetence at identifying the true causes of death, noting the relatively frequent recording of "consumption" rather than other diseases that were then recognized by physicians. He offered a cup of beer and doubling their collection to two cereals, and not one was enough for the Searchers to change the cause of death to one more convenient for the homeowners. No one wanted to be known as having had a death due to the plague in their household, and the Book Readers, too, indulged in covering up cases of the plague in their official profits. An analysis of the Mortality Scores during the plague months has been established, showing an increase in deaths other than plague well above the average mortality rate, which has been attributed to misrepresenting the true cause of death. As the plague spread, a quarantine system was introduced whereby any house where someone died from the plague would be locked up and no one was allowed to enter or leave for 40 days. This often resulted in the death of other residents by neglect, if not from the plague, and provided ample incentive not to report illness. The official income records 68,596 cases of plague, but a reasonable estimate suggests that this number is 30,000 short of the true total. The plague house was marked with a red cross on the door with the words "Lord have mercy on us" and a watchman stood guard outside.
Preventive measures
Reports of the plague across Europe began to reach England in the 1660s, causing the Privy Council to consider what steps might be taken to prevent it from crossing into England. Vessel isolation had been used during previous outbreaks and was reintroduced for ships arriving in London in November 1663, following the outbreaks in Amsterdam and Hamburg. Two naval vessels were assigned to intercept any vessels entering the Thames Estuary. Ships from infected ports were required to moor at Hole Haven on Canvey Island for a period of 30 days before being allowed to travel upriver. Ships from ports clear of plague or completing their quarantine were given a health certificate and allowed to travel on. A second line of inspection was established between forts on opposite banks of the Thames at Tilbury and Gravesend, with instructions only to pass vessels with a certificate.
The duration of the quarantine was extended to forty days in May 1664 when the continental plague worsened and the areas subject to quarantine changed with news of the spread of the plague to include all of Holland, Zeeland and Friesland (all areas of the Dutch Republic), although the restrictions on Hamburg were removed in November. Quarantine measures against ships arriving from the Dutch Republic were put in place at 29 other ports from May, starting at Great Yarmouth. The Dutch ambassador objected to restricting trade with his country, but England replied that it was one of the last countries to introduce such restrictions. The regulations were enforced quite strictly, so that people or buildings where travelers came ashore without serving their quarantine were also subjected to a 40-day quarantine.
The quarantine policy had some advantages for the government in that it obtained lists of goods on all ships and could more easily levy import taxes, but this became largely redundant when war broke out between the Netherlands and England in March 1665. Both sides ordered their merchant ships to avoid the other and his navies for fear of confiscation. However, it is possible that the easing of the lockdown allowed the infected ship to enter London.
Flash
Plague has been one of the dangers of life in Britain since its dramatic appearance in 1347 with the Black Death. Mortality Accounts began to be published regularly in 1603, in which year 33,347 deaths were recorded from the plague. Between then and 1665, only four years had no recorded cases. In 1563 a thousand people reportedly died in London every week, in 1593 there were 15,003 deaths, 1625 saw 41,313 dead, between 1640 and 1646 there came 11,000 deaths reaching highest point at 3,597 in 1647. The outbreak of 1625 was recorded at this time as the "Great Plague", before 1665 surpassed it. These official figures are likely to understate the actual numbers.
Early years
Although the plague was known, it was still unusual enough that doctors might not have had it. personal experience observation of the disease; medical training changed from those who attended the college of physicians to apothecaries who also acted like modern physicians to mere charlatans. Other diseases were in large numbers such as the smallpox outbreak a year earlier, and this uncertainty all added to the difficulties determining the true start of the epidemic. Contemporary accounts suggest that cases of plague occurred during the winter of 1664/5, some of which were fatal, but many that did not show the virulence of the later epidemic. The winter was cold, the land frozen from December to March, river traffic on the Thames twice blocked by ice, and it may be that the cold weather held back its spread.
This outbreak of bubonic plague in England is thought to have spread from the Netherlands, where the disease has appeared intermittently since 1599. It is not clear exactly where the disease first struck, but the initial infection may have arrived with Dutch merchant ships carrying goods aboard cotton from Amsterdam, which was ravaged by the disease in 1663–1664, with a death toll given by 50,000. The first areas to be hit are believed to be are dock areas just outside of London and the Borough of St. Egidius in the Provinces. In both of these neighborhoods, poor workers were crowded into poorly kept structures. Two suspicious deaths were recorded in the parish of St. Egidius in December 1664 and another in February 1665. They did not appear as plague deaths on the Mortality Accounts, so no control measures were taken by the authorities, but the total number of people dying in London during the first four months of 1665 showed a marked increase. By the end of April, only four deaths from the plague had been recorded, two in the parish of St. Egidio, but the world's deaths per week had risen from about 290 to 398.
Although there were only three official cases in April, what level of plague in more early years did not prompt an official response, the Privy Council now acted to impose a home quarantine. Justices of the peace in Middlesex were ordered to investigate any suspected cases and close the house if it was confirmed. Shortly after a similar order was issued by the King's Bench to the City and Privilege. A riot broke out in St. Egidia when the first house was sealed; the mob broke down the door and freed the residents. The rebels were caught and severely punished. Instructions were given to build pest houses, which were essentially infectious disease hospitals built away from other people where the sick could be cared for (or stayed until they died). This official activity suggests that despite a few reported cases, the government already knew that this was a serious plague outbreak.
With the arrival of warmer weather, the disease began to take a firmer hold. In the week of May 2-9, there were three reported deaths in St. Egidio County, four in nearby St Clement Danes, and one each in St. Andrew's, Holborn and St. Mary's Woolchurch Haw. Only the latter was actually within the city walls. A Secret Municipal Committee was set up to investigate methods to best prevent the spread of the plague, and measures were put in place to close some pubs in affected areas and limit the number of lodgers allowed in a household. In the city, the Lord Mayor issued a proclamation that all homeowners should diligently clean the streets outside their property, which was the responsibility of the homeowner, not the state (the city hired scavengers and rakes to remove the worst of the mess). Matters simply got worse, and aldermen were ordered to find and punish those who fail their duty. As cases in St. Giles began to rise, an attempt was made to seal off the area, and constables were ordered to inspect anyone willing to travel and contain domestic vagrants or suspect people.
People started to get worried. Samuel Pepys, who had an important position in the Admiralty, remained in London and provided a modern account of the plague through his diary. On April 30, he wrote: “Great fears of illness here in the City that said two or three buildings are already closed. God keeps us all!” Another source of time information is a fictitious account, Journal of the Year of the Plague, which was written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1722. He was only six years old when the plague struck, but used the memories of his family (his uncle was a saddler in East London and his father a butcher in Cripplegate), interviews with survivors, and the kind of such official documents as were available.
Exodus from the city
By July 1665 the plague was rampant in the City of London. King Charles II of England, his family and his court left the city for Salisbury, moving on to Oxford in September, when some cases of plague occurred in Salisbury. The aldermen and most other city officials decided to remain in their posts. The Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Lawrence, also decided to remain in the city. Companies were closed as salesmen and professionals fled. Defoe wrote that "Nothing was to be seen, but wagons and carts, with goods, women, servants, children, coaches filled with people best view and the riders accompanying them and all the hasty departure. As the plague raged through the summer, only a small number of clergymen, doctors, and apothecaries were left to deal with more and more big amount victims. Edward Coates, author Terrible Visit to London, expressed the hope that “Not a single Physician of our Souls or Bodies can after that in such large numbers leave us."
The poorer people were also alarmed by the infection and some left the city, but it was not easy for them to leave their housing and livelihood for an uncertain future elsewhere. Before leaving through the city gates, they were required to have a certificate of good health signed by the Lord Mayor, and they became more and more difficult to obtain. As time passed and the number of victims of the plague increased, people living in villages outside London began to resent this exodus and were no longer ready to receive the townspeople from London, with or without a certificate. The refugees were returned, not allowed to pass through the cities and had to travel across the country and were forced to live rudely on what they could steal or clear from the fields. Many died under the miserable circumstances of starvation and thirst in the hot summer that was to follow.
The height of the epidemic
In the last week of July, the London Mortality Bill showed 3,014 deaths, of which 2,020 died of plague. The number of deaths as a result of the plague may have been underestimated, as deaths in other years in the same period were much lower, at around 300. As the number of victims increased, burial places became overcrowded and pits were dug to accommodate the dead. Dead cart drivers traveled the street calling "Get your dead out" and carried away piles of bodies. The authorities became concerned that the number of deaths might cause public alarm and ordered that the removal of the body and burial take place only at night. As time went on, there were too many casualties and too few drivers to remove the bodies, which began to pile up against the walls of the buildings. The day's collection was renewed, and the plague pits became mounds of decaying corpses. In the parish of Aldgate a large hole was dug near the cemetery, fifty feet long and twenty feet wide. Digging was carried on by laborers at one end, while dead carts were turned over in corpses at the other. When there was no room for further expansion, it was dug deeper until the water table was reached at twenty feet. When finally covered with earth it housed 1,114 corpses.
Plague doctors crossed the streets, diagnosing the victims, although many of them had no formal medical training. Several public health efforts have been made. Doctors were hired by the city authorities and funeral details were carefully arranged, but panic spread through the city and, out of fear of infection, people were hastily buried in overcrowded pits. The means of transmission of the disease were not known, but thinking they might be related to animals, the City Corporation ordered dog and cat waste. This decision may have affected the duration of the epidemic, since those animals may have helped control the flea-carrying rat population that transmitted the disease. The polluted air of thinking was involved in the transmission, the authorities ordered giant bonfires to be burned in the streets and fires to be kept burning night and day in hopes that the air would be purified. Tobacco was thought to be prophylactic, and it was later said that no London tobacconist died of the plague during the epidemic.
Trade and business had completely dried up and the streets were empty of people except for dead carts and desperate dying victims. That the people did not starve was before the foresight of Sir John Lawrence and the Corporation of London, which arranged for a commission of one penny to be paid above the normal price for every quarter of grain planted in the Port of London. Another source of food was the villages around London, which, denied their usual sales in capital left vegetables in said market areas, negotiated their sale by shouting and charging them after the money was left submerged in a bucket of water to "disinfect" the coins.
Reports state that deaths from the plague in London and the suburbs accumulated over the summer from 2,000 a week to over 7,000 a week in September. These numbers are likely to be a significant underestimate. Many deacons and psalm readers, who kept the records themselves, died. The Quakers refused to cooperate, and many of the poor were simply dumped into unrecorded mass graves. It is not clear how many people caught the disease and made a recovery because only deaths were recorded and many records were destroyed in the Great Fire of London the following year. In the few districts where intact records remain, deaths from plague vary between 30% and over 50% of the total population.
Although concentrated in London, the outbreak has affected other areas of the country as well. Perhaps the most famous example was the village of Eyam in Derbyshire. The plague allegedly arrived with a vendor carrying a packet of cloth sent from London, although this is a moot point. The villagers have quarantined themselves to stop the disease from spreading further. This prevented the disease from moving into the neighborhood, but the cost to the village was the death of about 80% of its inhabitants within fourteen months.
Consequence
By late autumn, the death toll in London and the suburbs began to slow down until in February 1666 it was deemed safe enough for the King and his entourage to return to the city. With the return of the monarch, other people began to return. The nobility returned in their wagons, accompanied by carts piled high with their belongings. The judges moved back from Windsor to sit at Westminster Hall, although Parliament, which had adjourned in April 1665, did not meet until September 1666. Trade and companies and workshops reopened. London was the target of a new wave of people who flocked to the city in anticipation of making a fortune. Writing at the end of March 1666, Lord Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, stated "that... the streets were so full, The exchange, how very crowded, people in all places, as numerous as they have ever been seen...".
Cases of plague continued to occur sporadically at modest levels until the summer of 1666. On the second and third of September that year, the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the City of London, and some people believed that the fire ended the epidemic. However, it is now believed that the plague was largely gone before the fire took place. In fact, most of the later cases of plague were found in the suburbs, and it was the City of London itself that was destroyed by the fire.
According to the Mortality Accounts, there were a total of 68,596 deaths in London from the plague in 1665. Lord Clarendon estimated that the true number of mortalities was probably twice that number. The following year, 1666, saw further deaths in other cities, but on a smaller scale. Dr. Thomas Gumble, chaplain to the Duke of Albermarle, both of whom remained in London for the entire epidemic, estimated that the total death toll meant the country from the plague during 1665 and 1666 was about 200,000.
The Great Plague of 1665/1666 was the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Great Britain. In 1679 the last recorded death from the plague came and it was removed as a specific category in the Mortality Accounts after 1703. It spread to other towns in East Anglia and the South East of England, but less than ten percent of counties outside of London had a higher than average death rate during those years. Urban areas were more affected than rural areas; Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Southampton and Winchester were badly affected, while the West of England and the Midlands areas escaped as a whole.
The population of England in 1650 was about 5.25 million, which declined to about 4.9 million by 1680, recovering to just over 5 million by 1700. Other diseases, such as smallpox, took a high toll on the population even without the contribution of plague. More high level mortality in cities, and usually and definitely from the plague, was made up by continuous immigration from small towns to large ones and from countryside to the city.
There were no contemporary censuses of London's population, but available records suggest that the population returned to its previous level within a few years. Funerals in 1667 returned to 1663 levels, Hearth Tax Returns came to life, John Gront analyzed the baptism records in a modern way and concluded that they represented a restored population. Part of this could be accounted for by the return of wealthy households, merchants and manufacturing industries, all of which were to replace losses among their staff and took steps to introduce necessary people. Colchester suffered more severe decimation, but production records for cloth suggested that production had come to its senses or even increased by 1669, and the total population had almost returned to pre-plague levels by 1674. Other towns did less well: Ipswich was less affected than Colchester, but in 1674 its population dropped by 18%, more than could be accounted for by deaths from the plague alone.
Because the proportion of the population that died, London's death toll was less severe than in many other cities. The total number of deaths in London was greater than in any previous outbreak in 100 years, although as a proportion of the population the epidemics in 1563, 1603 and 1625 were comparable or greater. Perhaps approximately 2.5% of the English population died.
Impact
The plague in London mostly struck the poor people, while the rich, and did, could leave the city and retire to their homesteads or go to live with their families in other parts of the country. The Great Fire, however, destroyed many city merchants and property owners. London was largely restored as a result of these events, and Parliament enacted the Restoration of the London Act 1666. The plan of the city of the capital was relatively unchanged, but the streets were widened, sidewalks were created, open sewers abolished, wooden buildings and overhanging gables prohibited, and the design and construction of buildings managed. The use of brick or stone was mandatory, and many good buildings were built. Not only has the capital been rejuvenated, but it has become much healthier environment in which you can live. Londoners had a greater sense of community after they had overcome the great adversities of 1665 and 1666, a scientific group whose early members included 1,679
- Plague doctor cuts
- Old St. Paul, A Tale of Plague and Fire, a novel by Harrison Ainsworth
- Plague! musical, musical loosely based on the plague of 1665
- Call Ring o' Roses, a nursery rhyme commonly believed to have originated around this time
My name is Nikki Andrews. I am almost sixteen years old. I began to keep this diary in connection with the strange events taking place all over London.
It all started when my mother got sick. She had some strange black spots all over her body, and her father forbade us to approach her. Us, this is me, my older brother - Alex, and little sister - Kelen. He said that if we don't disturb my mother, she will get better. But I think that my mother only got worse.
Today the doctor came to her and said that she had the plague. I don't know what kind of disease it is, but it seems to be very bad. Mom was in a bad fever today, and she was half-delirious all the time. I wanted to approach her, calm her down, but my father did not allow it. He said that only a good doctor should deal with it.
Richard came by today. I was very glad of his appearance, since I have no one to even really talk to. Kelen is still small, and Alex has enough worries of his own. Richard is the man I'm engaged to with the consent of my parents. He came, as always, seated me on his lap and, affectionately sorting through my hair, asked about the condition of my mother and Kelen, who also did not feel very well. We sat for a long time, hugging each other. I cried. But when the tears ended, it became more calm in my soul. But I think it's not only because I cried, but rather because Richard was there. I asked Richard to stay with me for the night, but he refused. It turns out that his family is also sick. I wonder if they also have the plague? And what kind of disease is this? Richard, by the way, knows about her, it was not in vain that he received an education. But he refused to tell me. Said maybe later...
Now I'm sitting on the bed and waiting for the doctor to come out of my mother's room. Kelen lies on the bed, seems to be asleep. Alexa, as usual, wears somewhere ...
ABOUT! The Doctor is finally out! But why does he have such a sad expression on his face? Is there something wrong with mom?
Around midnight
I..can barely...write...Mom is dead....I can't...believe it....I thought...the plague...isn't such a terrible disease...to take...my...mommy's life...It's...wrong...
The funeral took place today. But for some reason they didn’t bury her underground, like all the dead, but burned her ... Only the priest made a speech at the end that, they say, Rebecca Andrews was a kind woman. She always helped everyone in need ... But what is his speech worth compared to the fact that now I don’t have a mother?
Richard was there, he comforted me as best he could... But even his caresses are nothing compared to what I'm experiencing... Kahlan didn't understand anything. She saw that both me and dad were crying, but she did not understand why. I even feel sorry for her... The doctor, by the way, said that she also had the plague... I don't want her to die... But the doctor doesn't know what to do... Alex was gone... He probably wouldn't even grieve for his mother if he was at the burning... He never cared about her... He must have been with Lizzie again... Lizzie is his fiancee. Pretty eccentric girl, I'll tell you. But he seems to love her ... But you can’t neglect your family because of this?
I can't write... Too tired... My hand barely moves... Good night.
Early morning
It can't be! How I was unfair to Alex! Yesterday he finally came home. All so pale. He said that Lizzie had passed away. And she also has a plague ... I even feel sorry for her ... And Alex even more!
During these days, Kahlan got even worse. She doesn't even get out of bed now, and the doctor says she won't make it through the evening. I don't want her to die! Don't want! But what can I do... I'm just an ordinary girl....
Richard hasn't come in these days... Probably, he has some problems in his family. Since he did not visit me only for important reasons.
Last night I saw high-ranking gentlemen leaving the city. They leave... And leave ordinary citizens to be torn to pieces by this stupid disease...
After the death of my mother, my father began to drink ... Now he walks, staggering from side to side ... I didn’t think that my mother’s death could knock him down like that ... I would also start drinking, but then what will happen to Richard and Alex?
Didn't leave the house at all. My father says that if I go out, I will certainly fall ill and die. Maybe that's why Richard doesn't come?
I also spoke to the cook a couple of days ago. She said the plague was carried by rats! I wonder what kind of creatures these are? The cook said they looked like mice, but more aggressive... I wish I'd met a rat... Brr...
Okay, I’ll go and visit my father ... I suppose he’s drinking again somewhere in the back of the kitchen ...
Here you go. There are no more tears, so I can write normally. Kelen is dead. Her body was burned, as was my mother's. Father was not at the funeral. But there was Alex. And I felt very sorry for him. Literally two hours earlier, Lizzie was buried. But there was Richard. He, too, was in some kind of crushed state ... He said that his father had died, and that's why he was so sad. But I think that's not the point.
Why does the plague take the lives of people I love? Why is she doing this? If the rats carry it, then I will destroy them all, to the last.
What if Richard gets sick? What will I do then? I'll do anything to keep him from getting sick and dying!
Hmm... Alex is already snoring, and his father sings a song behind the wall... It will be fun for me to fall asleep... Good night...
Tell me, why live if not for whom? If your father, mother, sister, brother died at death... How to live? Why is this needed?
I made friends with the doctor. He tells me about everything that happens in the city. I asked him to teach me how to care for the sick, and he agreed. Now I go home with him, trying to treat patients with folk methods. Below is a clipping from a newspaper on the treatment of plague:
"Actions come down mainly to cutting out or cauterizing plague buboes. Nobody knows the true cause of the disease, so there is no idea how to treat it. Doctors try to use the most bizarre remedies. One such drug includes a mixture of 10-year-old molasses, finely chopped snakes, wine and 60 other components. According to another method, the patient had to sleep in turn on his left side, then on his right."
For me, the methods are a little comical ... Tell me, who will make a potion from snakes? But nevertheless, many people believe in it ... and do this disgusting thing ... And then they also drink it ... Brr ... Dr. Evans tells me that I ventilate the room, but do not let healthy people near the patient ... To prevent infection.
Since I can now go outside, I can see with my own eyes how many people are dying and how many more need help... It's just awful! Went as far as Redriff, where there were rumored to be sick, and indeed they could be seen everywhere, 1089 people died of the plague this week. God! How can you see this spread of the plague! Now she can be found on Kingo Street, in Ace, next to it, and also in other places... There are so many people dying that they are forced to bury them already during the day, because there is not enough night for this...
Why was I born right now? I do not want to see all these horrors! It's disgusting, horrible and so disgusting! But at the same time, I feel so sorry for the poor people! It's not their fault they got sick.
Today I saw Richard... He has changed so much... He turned pale... But he did not lose his tenderness towards me... He asked for forgiveness for the long absence. We talked for a long time ... But I never even cried ... I guess I'm already used to it ... I'm just used to it ...
Midnight
OK it's all over Now. Alex is dead. When it happened, I was there. That's why I heard him last words addressed to me:
"Live. Never give up. And live. You have to survive through all this chaos. Just live, Nikki."
So he said. Now I live... But still I don't know why. Because I have no future. Even if I survive, they will still kill me. So that the infection does not spread to people who return to London.
Don't want. I don't want this anymore...
But...Richard... No. I will still live. For him. For the people I can still help.
For example, last week I visited a little boy, James, he had the early stage of the plague and I managed to neutralize it. I don't know how, but I did it. His mother thanked me from the bottom of her heart... And today she died... It's a pity...
What if Richard dies? What should I do then? I don't know... We'll see... I hope everything works out... In the meantime... sleep...
June 1, 1665
Time...day...
A month has passed, and I didn’t even take the diary in my hands ... There was no time .... I’ll write it down in order ...
Early this morning, King Charles II left the city with his family and retinue. Went to Oxfordshire. And he left us...
I still go to the sick, I do what I can ... But nothing helps ... People are dying like flies ... It's amazing how I haven't got sick yet! I've already visited so many patients in these two months!
Here is an article from the newspaper:
"This week the plague has grown strongly, beyond all expectations, by almost 2000 people, the total number of deaths was 7000 and another 100; over 6000 - from the plague. So, the month, due to the magnitude of the plague throughout the kingdom, ends for the people with great sorrow. Every day the sad news increases as the plague spreads. 7496 died in the City this week, including from the plague - 610 2. Fear that the real figure is close to 10,000 this week."
How many people died ... Dr. Evans, by the way, also died. Literally last week. Now I am alone for most of the patients. It's all so exhausting...
City officials have come up with new methods to fight the plague:
“The city authorities hired doctors and arranged for the victims to be carefully buried. They also ordered that the fire be constantly burning, day and night, in the hope that it would purify the air.
I'm so sorry when I have to force people who are barely breathing to smoke! It's disgusting! And bad for your health! Ahah, bad...for...health...Ha ha ha! They are already sick, can smoking harm them? How did I not think of this right away ... The most ridiculous ...
I rarely go home... And why should I go back there? Anyway, now I'm alone... I can even walk around the city all day long... My father won't punish me, my mother won't scream, Kahlan won't be left alone at home either... and Alex won't complain... Even Richard... Even my dear Richard won't be able to tell me anything now...
Why? Why is life so unfair to me? Why did she take the people I love most away from me? Isn't he going to take my life? Even Richard! She took Richard away from me! How dare she? It's... I'm... Why should I live now? For what? I tried to follow Alex's covenant... But now why should I? Without Richard, my life has no meaning! This is not life, but simple existence! I so want to feel him next to me again... Embrace him, burying my hands in brown hair... Drown in gray eyes... It becomes so calm next to him, as if I found myself safe from everything that haunts me in reality... I feel so comfortable next to him that, it seems, I don’t need anyone else except him. But he is no more... And he will never again put me on his knees... He will not hug... He will not kiss...
Time doesn't exist
These months have been a living hell for me. No emotion. No feelings. No joys.
Went to the Tower. God! How empty and sad are the streets; in the streets full of sorrow and pain, so many poor sick people; while walking, I heard so many sad stories; they only say that this one died, and that one fell ill, so much in this place, and even more in another. And I was also told that not only was there not a single doctor left in Westminster, but not a single pharmacist either, everyone was dead.
Since then, all responsibilities have been on me. But finally all the suffering came to an end. I finally got sick. How happy I was when I discovered this. Apparently, life still spared me. What happiness it is, to lie and wait for death ... As if you are just waiting for a long-awaited friend to come for you. And you will extend your hand to him with a smile and go with him. Towards oblivion. Against fate. There I can meet Richard. And we will be happy. Forever.
People came. They wanted me to help them heal even while lying in bed. Ungrateful. Although ... What can I demand from them? After all, they are just people who want to survive... But it's still a shame... No one is interested in how I'm doing... how I feel... Although, in general, why do I need this? I want to die! Probably because you still want to feel human gratitude ...
Recently I saw myself in the mirror... How terrible I am... I'm all haggard... There are bags under my eyes... Long unwashed red hair has lost its luster and strayed into a terrible tangle at the back of my head... The former attractiveness is no longer visible in the green eyes... Now even the most stale idiot will not pay attention to me... To some extent, this is good, but if after death I remain the same terrible, then I should put myself in order...
Time doesn't exist
OK it's all over Now. I feel death is near. I can already see the light at the end of the black tunnel. Richard... How happy...
It turns out that the plague brings not only grief, but also joy ... I fell ill with one of the types of plague, when you don’t even feel that you are dying ... Pneumonic plague ...
All. Forgive everyone... I felt good in this life... But I'm dying happy... You know, I did everything I could for people... Now you can go to rest... Goodbye........
Note: A month after Nikki Andrews' death, the plague began to subside. The girl survived almost the entire plague, and only at the end she died.
The plague could have come to England from Holland, where outbreaks of the disease have been occurring since 1599. Dutch traders brought it on their ships, which delivered cotton from Amsterdam. Just a year before the start of the “great plague”, about 50,000 people died of the disease there. It must be admitted that London was a very suitable city for such a rapid spread of the disease. Unsanitary conditions reigned in the city, all waste, garbage and slop poured out and fell out directly onto the winding streets of the city. Some of the garbage was taken outside the city and left to rot there. The stench was unbearable in the capital and its environs. The situation was worsened by numerous factories and plants, as well as thousands of houses that were heated with coal, the smoke from them threatened the townspeople with suffocation. The city was teeming with the poor and beggars who huddled in the slums.
The port suburbs of London were the first to suffer from the plague. Back in 1664 there were recorded 2 strange deaths, but they were not identified as plague. But in the first four months of 1665, the death rate in the city increased markedly. Officially, the death of a certain Rebecca Andrews on April 12, 1665 is considered the first case of death from the disease. The cold kept the infection from spreading, but with the advent of warm weather, it began to spread across London faster and faster. At the end of April, an officer of the Admiralty, Samuel Pips, wrote in his diary: “Great fears about the disease, they say that already 2 or 3 houses in the City have died. Lord, have mercy on us all!”
Trying to escape from the impending disaster, the townspeople were ready for anything. No one knew what caused the disease, only later it turned out that rat fleas were the carrier of the plague bacillus. Causes have been suggested: fumes from the ground, unusual weather, diseases in livestock, an increase in the number of flies, moths, frogs and mice. People believed everyone who promised them deliverance. “No less ignorant and stupid in their thoughts than previously reckless and brutally embittered, they [the inhabitants] under the influence of fear went to any follies and, as mentioned above, ran around sorcerers, witches and other deceivers in order to find out their fate (and they also fueled their fears and kept them in a state of constant anxiety and expectation in order to further fool them and fill their pockets), they are like obsessed aspirants they followed every healer and charlatan, every practicing old woman in search of medicines and potions; they stuffed themselves with so many pills, potions and preservatives, as they were called, that they not only threw money down the drain, but also poisoned themselves in advance, out of fear of infection, weakening their body before the onset of the plague, instead of strengthening it ”(Diary of a Plague City).
By July 1665, the plague came from the outskirts to the city. The first to leave London was King Charles II, along with his family and retinue. But the Lord Mayor of the capital and many other nobles preferred to stay in the city. In order to be able to continue to perform his duties and not come into contact with the infected, Sir John Lawrence even ordered the construction of a special glass display case. To leave the city, it was necessary to obtain a special certificate, which at first was distributed very lightly, and the townspeople were in no hurry to leave their homes, fearing an uncertain future outside the City. But soon most of the wealthy merchants left London, trading life stopped. The poor were alarmed by the spread of infection, some left the city. After a while in the surrounding villages there was no place left to accommodate refugees, people were forced to wander and live collected from the fields or stolen.
The plague took over the city. In the last week of July, more than 3,000 deaths were recorded, 2020 of which were due to the plague. When a person died in the house, the bell rang and the “death seeker” came, who examined the corpse and determined the cause of death. If a person died from the plague, then the entire house of the victim was closed for a 40-day quarantine, family members were locked in the house, a red cross was put on its door and they wrote “Lord, have mercy on us.” The door of the house was guarded by guards, there were frequent attempts to escape from quarantine. People often asked to write a different cause of death, if only they were not locked at home.
List of plague victims, 1665
The death toll from the epidemic grew steadily. The authorities urged the townspeople not to hide the dead, so as not to contribute to the spread of the disease. Specially hired people drove through the streets in carts and shouted: "Bring out your dead." The removal of corpses and the burial of bodies began to be carried out at night because of the fears of the authorities that an increase in the number of victims could provoke panic in the city. “It is impossible to describe the screams and noise that these poor people raised when they carried the corpses of children and their friends to the carts; and there were so many dead that one might think that there was no one left in the alley, or that its inhabitants would be enough to populate a small town. Soon there were not enough carts, and the corpses were piled near the houses. In one of the parishes, the authorities dug a hole 15 by 6 meters and began to put the already decomposing corpses there. The workers were digging this mass grave while the corpses were piled into the already dug part. In total, 1114 people were buried in this pit.
According to the memoirs, a horrifying picture of death awaited the townspeople around every corner: “there were sixteen or seventeen corpses in the cart; some were wrapped in linen sheets, others in rags, some were almost naked or wrapped up so carelessly that the covers fell off when they were thrown from the cart, and now they lay completely naked in the pit; but it was not so much about them as such or about the obscenity of their appearance, but that so many dead people were dumped together in a mass grave, so to speak, where rich and poor lay side by side indiscriminately; there was no other way to bury - and it could not be, since it was impossible to prepare coffins for so many people who were slain by a sudden attack.
The authorities made attempts to fight the plague. Since the cause of the disease was unknown, it was assumed that animals carried it. The Corporation of London ordered the slaughter of cats and dogs, but this only made the situation worse, as they helped control the number of rats that carried the infection. In addition, fires were lit day and night in the city in the hope of purifying the air, and various substances and herbs with a strong smell were also burned: pepper, hops, incense. Citizens were forced to smoke tobacco.
Mortality in London rose at an alarming rate. From 300 people a week, it quickly rose to 1,000, then to 2,000, and by September 1665 it had reached 7,000 people a week. By the end of autumn, apparently due to the onset of cold weather, the death rate began to decline, and in February 1666 the king returned to the capital. Gradually people began to return to London.
Despite the fact that the capital became the epicenter of the disaster, the plague spread to other regions. Thus, a case of infection is known in the village of Im, whose inhabitants, in order to stop the infection, voluntarily agreed to quarantine. As a result, 75% of the population died, but the spread of the disease in the surrounding areas slowed down.
The Great Epidemic was the last major outbreak of plague in Great Britain. Of the 460,000 inhabitants of London, about 100,000 died as a result of the disaster. Gradually, the city returned to life, at the end of March 1666, the Lord Chancellor wrote: "... the streets are full of people, the Exchange is overcrowded, people are as numerous as you could ever see ...". Focal cases of the disease continued until September, but their pace slowed down significantly. The end of the epidemic, oddly enough, was put by another large-scale disaster - the Great Fire. It destroyed houses in most densely populated areas, and with them rats that carried infected fleas. Soon the outbreaks of the plague stopped.
