Plantagenets 585varied according to locale and age group, a characteristic of
plagues in general. Some areas escaped one outbreak only
to be devastated in the next. Any devastation was horrific
and perceived as arbitrary; repetitions compounded inse-
curity and a sense of helplessness in that no controls or
cures were available. All of this took place in an environ-
ment of other endemics unfortunately more familiar such
as smallpox. It has remained unclear whether these earlier
plagues were bubonic or even a form of influenza.
BLACK DEATHIn the 1340s a new plague, usually associated with the
Yersin bacillus, spread again, this time from central Asia,
as tracked by mortality rates on dated central Asia and
Nestorian gravestones from 1339. The weather had been
abnormally dry, forcing rodents and their disease-bearing
fleas into greater contact with human beings. In 1346 the
plague appeared at Caffa in the Crimea, a colony of
GENOAon the BLACKSEA. From there it spread by sea and
land to most part of Europe and throughout the Middle
East. By 1348 it had reached Constantinople, ITA LY, and
FRANCE. ENGLANDwas affected in the winter of 1348–49,
and by 1350 plague had swept across GERMANY,POLAND,
and Scandinavia. This pandemic was later called the
Black Death. It was again followed by successive waves of
great severity all over the west and the Mediterranean, in
1348, 1362, 1374, 1383, 1389, and 1400. After that the
outbreaks became less frequent and slightly less intense,
taking on marginally different forms and probably involv-
ing different and evolving communicable diseases.
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCESThe disease generally called the plague last appeared in
England as the Great Plague of 1665. Symptoms
changed over time as the microbes evolved and resis-
tance in human beings increased. It is reasonable to
believe that a third of the population of Europe died in
the first visitation of 1348 and that the plague was a def-
inite factor in the great demographic collapse of the late
14th century. Populations in most places did not reat-
tain earlier levels until well after 1500, and some not
until the 19th century.
The FAMINESof the early 14th century continued in
some areas, creating a population of undernourished and
permanently stunted or weakened people who were even
more vulnerable to the plague. The weather might have
also contributed to its severity as it also promoted
famine. There was no effective treatment except avoid-
ance of those suffering it and their dwelling places. It
seemed to be transmitted by fleas, contact with fluids,
and even sometimes droplets in the air as in pneumonic
plague, this concept was not clearly understood in the
14th century. The agent for this disease was probably a
bacillus called Pasteurella pestis,a form of which still
exists all over the world. It is unclear whether the plague
that regularly but occasionally has appeared in modern
times was quite like the 14th-century one, in which some
have suggested a form of anthrax may have been com-
bined with pneumonia. The symptoms and conditions of
transmission were not consistently described in the 14th
century. Its behavior did not neatly match that of the
modern version.
The 14th-century plagues had many consequences.
JEWS were blamed for transmission of the disease and
were persecuted and massacred. Fear of Black Death also
led to the growth of fanatical religious groups. The effect
of the plague on the agrarian economy and society was
complex, leading at least initially to attempts to impose
and restore more oppressive feudal rights and services.
This in turn led to outbreaks of violence such as the ris-
ings of the JACQUÉRIEin France in 1358 and the Peasants’
Revolt in England in 1381; but in the longer run it
altered the landlord and peasant tenant relationship,
because of the reduced labor supply. This plague also may
have influenced the development of more labor-saving
devices, as well as promoting a changed and more open
environment in the universities and art world as whole
generations of scholars and artists were devastated. The
same kind of devastating consequences also occurred in
the Islamic world, especially in great cities such as CAIRO.
See also BOCCACCIO,GIOVANNI;DANCE OF DEATH;
FLAGELLANTS; PEASANT REBELLIONS.
Further reading:Rosemary Horrox, ed. and trans.,
The Black Death (Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 1994); John Aberth, From the Brink of the Apoca-
lypse: Confronting War Famine, War, Plague, and Death in
the Later Middle Ages(New York: Routledge, 2000); Nor-
man F. Cantor, In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death
and the World It Made (New York: Free Press, 2001);
Samuel K. Cohn Jr., The Black Death Transformed: Disease
and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe(London: Hodder,
2002); Michael W. Dols, The Black Death in the Middle
East(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977);
John Hatcher, Plague Population and the English Economy,
1348–1530(London: Macmillan, 1977); David Herlihy,
The Black Death and the Transformation of the West,ed.
Samuel K. Cohn Jr. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 1997); William H. McNeil, Plagues and Peoples
(Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1977).Plantagenets The name Plantagenet has sometimes
been given to the dynasty who ruled ENGLANDfrom 1154
to 1485. None of the Plantagenets actually bore this sur-
name, which was derived from Geoffrey IV (r. 1129–51),
the count of ANJOU-Maine-Touraine, and the father of the
future king HENRYII. Geoffrey had married the daughter
of King Henry I, Matilda (1102–67), in 1128. The name
was applied by historians to the dynasty after Henry II
succeeded King Stephen (r. 1135–54), after a civil war
between Stephen and Matilda. It was taken up again
by the Yorkists in the WARS OF THEROSESin the 15th