The Black Death

Hundreds of years ago, a strange illness swept over Europe. It started with headaches and terrible fevers. People who caught it suffered from terrible pains on their arms and legs. Swollen lumps as large as baseballs appeared under the arms. There were rumours that the illness had killed 35 million people.

Then the rumours came true! People who lived around the Black Sea fell ill and died within a week. The illness spread all over Europe, and there was no cure for it. Very little people ever recovered from the terrible illness. People started to call it the Black Death (it is now known to have been the bubonic plague).

Plague doctors wore special suits to keep away the plague. They wore capes covered with wax so that the Black Death could not hold on to it. This made the cape crackle whenever the doctor moved. Their masks looked like the head of a large duck. It had a large beak which was stuffed with flowers and scented herds to keep out bad air which might give them the plague. Those doctors were a very strange sight!

A plague doctor

Villagers blamed foreign merchants from Italy for bringing the Black Death into Europe. They gathered an army and drove the Italian merchants into the city of Caffa, which was at the edge of the Black Sea.

The people of Caffa (and the merchants) barred the gates and fought back. The attackers loaded the bodies of those who had died from the Black Death into catapults and hurled them over the city walls. Pretty soon, the Black Death broke out in Caffa.

The merchants were terrified! They ran into their ships and fled, heading back to Italy. But when they arrived, almost everyone on board the ships were sick, or dead. The surviving merchants were not allowed to set foot off their ships until they were well. But the Black Death still found its way to the shore.

After the Black Death's reign of terror ended, ⅓ of all the people of Europe were dead.