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The Black Death, an Eyewitness Account

60 second histories

This video covers:  An eye witness account of the Black Death which broke out in 1348, told by a medieval monk

In July, in thirteen forty eight, a cruel pestilence, hateful to all ages arrived from countries across the sea at the port of Melcombe in Dorset. Spreading across the south of England killing countless people in Dorset, Devon and Somerset, then Bristol where few people were left alive. The pestilence then travelled northwards leaving not a city, town or even a village without killing most or all of the people there. So it was that in the whole of England a third of all men, women and children died and were carried to burial. As a result, there was such a shortage of people that there was hardly enough living to look after the sick and bury the dead. Oh terrible is God towards the sons of men, he often allows plagues and other forms of suffering to arise and uses them to torment men and so drive out their sins. And thus this realm of England, because of the growing pride and corruption of its subjects and their sins, is to be oppressed by the pestilence.
Eras: 
Medicine & Health
Medieval
Topics: 
Plague
Medicine & health
Character: 
Medieval Monk
Key words: 
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