BBC Lucy Worsley Investigates_2of4_The Black Death
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00:00In 1348, the Black Death struck the British Isles and spread like wildfire.
00:12It's believed to be the most deadly pandemic in history.
00:18Before the Black Death, the population of mainland Britain was around 6 million.
00:24Two years later, only an estimated 3 million were left alive.
00:30Why did this disease claim so many?
00:34And how did the awful death toll change Britain?
00:41In this series, I'm reinvestigating some of the most dramatic and brutal chapters in British
00:47history.
00:49It wasn't just one generation.
00:52It was three generations losing their lives.
00:56These stories are part of our national mythology, harboring mysteries that have intrigued us
01:02for centuries.
01:03It's chilling to think that this could actually be evidence in a murder investigation.
01:11But with the passage of time, we have new ways to unlock their secrets using scientific
01:17advances and a modern perspective.
01:21It's a horrible psychosexual form of torture, isn't it?
01:25Absolutely.
01:26I'm going to uncover forgotten witnesses, re-examine old evidence and follow new clues
01:33to get closer to the truth.
01:36It is one of the great British mysteries.
01:39It was one of those moments, I'm afraid for a historian, that makes the hair stand up
01:43on the back of your neck.
01:52Bubonic plague.
02:06The pestilence, the great mortality.
02:09There's lots of different names for the black death, infamous for the horrible boils or
02:15buboes that break out on people's skin.
02:19It struck Britain many times, famously in London in 1665, but I'm interested in the
02:26first and the worst outbreak in 1348, when something like half of the population got
02:35wiped out.
02:36I want to investigate how the black death transformed society, what happened to it during
02:43and after this terrible medieval pandemic.
02:50But first, I want to understand what the black death was and why the outbreak in 1348 was
03:01so deadly.
03:04After all this time, science is still uncovering new evidence.
03:12Stored in this underground vault in London are 600 skeletons.
03:18Each box contains the bones of someone buried in a mass grave at the height of the plague
03:25outside the old city walls.
03:28This plague pit was unearthed in the 1980s during building work and excavated by archaeologists.
03:35A strangely beautiful thing.
03:38It is.
03:39It's teeth.
03:40Look at those teeth.
03:42They're quite big, aren't they?
03:43Osteologist Jelena Bekvalic is curator of this collection.
03:48These are definitely black death victims, but for centuries, science was uncertain what
03:55caused the disease.
03:57Then in 2011, DNA taken from the teeth of these skeletons confirmed what had actually
04:04killed them.
04:06This has been a great mystery, hasn't it, for 700 years at least?
04:11Yeah.
04:12We had these individuals and then scientists used the DNA analysis, recreating and reconstructing
04:19an ancient genome, and by doing that, they were able to identify that the actual causative
04:24agent was a bacteria and it was Yersinia pestis.
04:27What did you say?
04:28Yersinia pestis.
04:29Yersinia pestis.
04:30Yes.
04:31And why was this particular bacterium quite so dangerous?
04:36This one was particularly virulent to us because we, as a population at that time, had never
04:40been exposed to that bacteria.
04:42So there was no immunity within us.
04:45And therefore, when you're exposed to something that's new, it really then impacts onto the
04:50population.
04:52And subsequently, after that episode of the black death that we know killed so many people,
04:58there were other outbreaks, but it didn't have that same impact.
05:02Because of herd immunity.
05:04Because of herd immunity, yes.
05:05So you're building up that lovely sort of immunity to it.
05:08We all know what herd immunity is.
05:10Yes.
05:11So just at the moment he was going into the plague pit to be buried, I imagine that he
05:17would have had big swelling buboes on him.
05:21Is that right?
05:22Yes.
05:23That would be where you get the swellings in the armpits and the groins.
05:26What is that exactly?
05:28These swellings, is there something inside them?
05:31Well, there'd be nasty dead cells and pus and poison.
05:35They're very uncomfortable, be very sore, probably have horrible headaches, feel very
05:39sort of fatigued.
05:40You might feel sick, sweats.
05:44You'd feel really very, very unwell and under the weather.
05:48And where did this particular bacterium come from?
05:52Well, they believe that it probably came from Central Asia and then it would travel across.
05:57Because also we have to remember at this time that you've got trade routes and people are
06:01moving around.
06:02So you've got quite a lot of movement of people.
06:04So it probably started from there.
06:09Emerging global trade routes in the 14th century exposed Britain to a deadly new disease.
06:17It had raged through Asia and Europe, wiping out millions before arriving on these shores.
06:24Catch it and you could be dead in days, even hours.
06:29So how did this bacterium spread so aggressively and kill so many people?
06:37There are some images of life in London that got burnt into my mind at an early age.
06:42And this is one of them.
06:44It's a scene from the kiddie version of the story of Dick Whittington and his cat.
06:49Dick Whittington being a lad who came to London to seek his fortune, but who had to sleep
06:55in a horrible attic infested with rats.
07:00Here they all are running over his bed, climbing out of the window.
07:04And I'm pretty sure it's images like this, if not this very one, that made a link in
07:09my mind between the spread of the plague and rodents.
07:15But I agree this isn't exactly solid scientific or historical evidence.
07:19I'm going to have to do better than the ladybird version.
07:27What can the latest science tell me about how this disease might have spread?
07:33A study from 2018 argues that the Black Death was also spread by human fleas and lice infecting
07:42people as they bit into their flesh.
07:45One of the researchers was epidemiologist Dr. Fabienne Crower.
07:50She's in Switzerland, so this will be an online consultation.
07:54So Fabienne is in my waiting room.
07:59Let me admit her.
08:02There she is, Fabienne.
08:04So there's these human fleas that can take the plague from one human being to another
08:10human being.
08:12Yes, infestation with lice and fleas was very common in the 14th century.
08:18Would that be through people's bedding or their clothes?
08:22How can you see that working?
08:24Yeah, so body lice and human fleas, they typically live in clothes, in their seams or in the
08:33foldings of clothes.
08:35So we know that in the 14th century, the handing down of clothes, that was a real thing.
08:42We think that this was how the plague could have spread, because people were passing on
08:47clothes of someone who died of plague, and then they got themselves infected.
08:53This is so heartbreaking, because people wouldn't have known, would they?
08:56They wouldn't have known that this is how they were actually killing their friends and
08:59relatives.
09:00No, people had no idea.
09:02But there are also other forms of plague, such as pneumonic plague, which is transmitted
09:07directly between people through coughing, through infectious droplets.
09:12Hang on, sorry, sorry, sorry.
09:14Fabian, just pause a second, because this is all so new to me, you're taking me into
09:18new ground here.
09:19Did you call it the pneumonic version of the disease, like pneumonia?
09:23Yes, exactly.
09:25So pneumonia happens when someone who has a plague infection, when these people cough,
09:32they expel infectious droplets.
09:34These can be inhaled by other people, which cause probably pneumonic plague in these people,
09:40and that's a very fatal and rapidly progressing disease.
09:44So it spreads, it can also spread through the air, from someone you're living with,
09:48someone you're in the same room as, and it's to do with breathing the disease one person
09:53to another.
09:54Yes, it requires a lot of close contact.
09:58So it's usually people within the same household that are infected, or people who care for
10:03someone who is sick.
10:05That's a horrible idea, isn't it?
10:07Someone who's taking care of somebody could be infecting themself through their compassion.
10:13Yeah, that's indeed horrible.
10:16And if someone had pneumonic plague, then their fate was basically sealed.
10:21So they were going to die for sure.
10:24And the fatality for pneumonic plague was about 100%.
10:28100%?
10:29Yeah.
10:31So much new information here.
10:34I hadn't realised that there were these different variants within plague.
10:40There's the bubonic plague, where you get the swellings in the armpits, but also the
10:46pneumonic plague, which is lung to lung.
10:50And Fabienne's talking about so many different vectors of transmission.
10:55We've got the pneumatic plague, which is the lung to lung, and the pneumatic plague,
11:00which has got the rats and the fleas, but also body lice, and the second-hand clothing,
11:08and just being together in a small space.
11:13No one was immune to this disease, rich or poor, young or old.
11:20The Black Death ripped through all levels of medieval society.
11:25Now, what I do know about medieval society is that at the top of it, we have the king.
11:33And then below him, we have his knights.
11:37Here they are.
11:40These gentlemen give him their loyalty.
11:43He gives them their land.
11:45But the vast majority, 90% of the population, are in fact made up of all these guys.
11:55They're peasants, and most of them aren't free.
11:59They're tied to the land from which they scratch a living, land that's owned by the local lord
12:05of the manor.
12:07And the whole of this social structure is reinforced by the church.
12:13Each Sunday, the priest preaches to his parishioners that this is the way the world is.
12:20This is God's grand design.
12:26How did the Black Death transform this rigidly-structured society?
12:31I want to investigate the world of the vast majority of its victims,
12:36the rural peasants.
12:38But contemporary descriptions of how they lived can be misleading.
12:43According to these images, it looks marvellously lovely.
12:47Here's a happy agricultural worker enjoying the spring air,
12:52sowing his seeds in the ground, surrounded by birds and leaves.
12:56And here are some farmers bringing in a wonderful crop of corn.
13:01It looks blissful.
13:03But these images are from the Luttrell Psalter.
13:07It's a really fantastic illuminated manuscript, commissioned by Luttrell himself, a landowner.
13:14He wanted to make living on the land look like it was a lovely thing to do.
13:20Living on the land looked like it was a lovely thing to do.
13:23I'm not sure how reliable these images are as a guide to everyday life.
13:37First-hand accounts of 14th-century peasant life don't exist.
13:43Most people were illiterate.
13:45There are no gritty life stories to consult.
13:49But they did pay taxes and rent to their noble overlords.
13:54To understand how the majority lived 700 years ago, you follow the money.
14:03In 14th-century England, rural peasants were summoned before a court
14:08of the manner on which they lived and worked, to pay rent and tax.
14:13These transactions were recorded in court rolls,
14:16and they covered every aspect of peasant life.
14:20Fines were paid for disobedience of any kind,
14:23like leaving the manor without permission.
14:27Tax was paid on crops grown on the parcel of land you leased from the lord.
14:32When you died, your family paid a death tax to inherit the lease on that parcel of land.
14:46Stored in a temperature-controlled vault in Suffolk archives
14:50are some of Europe's rarest medieval manuscripts.
14:54They're the court rolls of a small Suffolk village called Walsham-le-Willows.
15:01I do know my way to the Suffolk archives because I've been there before,
15:05but the stuff I normally look at is much later than this.
15:10These court rolls cover the period before, during and after
15:15Black Death struck England in 1348.
15:19What can they tell me about the peasantry
15:22and the impact of the pandemic on their lives?
15:28Oh, wow, look, they're all out on the table for me already.
15:34Oh, aren't they fantastic?
15:39We're looking at lots and lots of very neat Latin here.
15:43It's so neat, it's got a sort of Excel spreadsheet quality to it,
15:47but I know that buried underneath that are real human beings,
15:52even if they're treated here as units of taxation, almost.
16:00Now, I know that this set of documents is so important
16:04because it's so comprehensive.
16:06It goes on for years and years and years in the same village
16:10and you don't normally get that sort of longitudinal view
16:15into the life of a community
16:17because one bit might survive, another bit not.
16:22So this is just remarkable,
16:24the completeness of this record for 14th-century Walsham.
16:32The rolls are written in medieval Latin.
16:36Fortunately for me, there's an English translation.
16:40I did study medieval Latin, but a long time ago
16:44and not very seriously.
16:47So I'm having to rely on my translation here.
16:53The population of Walsham prior to the Black Death was around 1,200.
16:59Plague strikes the village in June 1349.
17:04The court session for that month
17:06shows a huge spike in death tax being paid.
17:11And it was a very busy court session
17:14because, basically,
17:17103 people have all died.
17:21So that's in the last three weeks.
17:23In this particular sitting of the court,
17:26they had to deal with the business of 103 deaths.
17:30It's extraordinary.
17:32And you can see that the clerk has run out of room.
17:35He's gone down the first piece.
17:37He's had to attach another one to keep going.
17:41And what's kind of chilling
17:44is that he doesn't care that these people have died.
17:46What he cares about is that there's business to be done
17:50because every time you die, when you are a serf,
17:55your family has to pay a tax to the landlord.
18:01And that tax is called a heriot.
18:04And in some cases, the heriot is a horse.
18:11And in other cases, it's a ewe.
18:16So, basically, when your father dies,
18:18you have to give the landlord one of your animals.
18:24But these 103 deaths listed in this court session
18:29are just the heads of families named as land lease holders.
18:33Younger men, women and children,
18:36a good 80% of the community, aren't recorded.
18:40They're not economically relevant to the records.
18:44Factor them in and the deaths must number close to 600.
18:50So that's half of the village dying of plague,
18:53matching estimates for the whole country.
18:56These roles are a micro-study
18:58for all of Britain during the pandemic.
19:04And here's a particularly interesting family
19:08who are marked out with a cross for some reason.
19:15We can make out their name is Cranmer.
19:18There's William Cranmer,
19:20who's the patriarch of the family.
19:22He's the grandad.
19:24And he held a mess sewage.
19:29That means a piece of property, possibly with a house on it.
19:33And it says he also held a tenement.
19:36And he's died and he has to pay a heriot, a death tax.
19:43Then his son and heir, a second generation, he dies.
19:48And then there's a third generation who die.
19:53His son Robert dies and the heriot has to be paid.
19:56But this time they haven't got any horses left.
19:58They have to pay a cow.
20:00It's a less good animal,
20:01but that's because the Lord's already got the two horses.
20:04This particular family, the Cranmers,
20:07they stand out here
20:10because of the awfulness of what happened to them.
20:13It wasn't just one generation or two generations.
20:17It was three generations losing their lives.
20:20Bum, bum, bum.
20:22All within the same few weeks in the same village.
20:32The Cranmer clan seem like a typical peasant family.
20:37I want to investigate their life experiences
20:40to understand how Britain was changed by the plague.
20:47Armed with my copy of the court rolls,
20:50next stop for me is Walsham-le-Willows.
20:5520 miles inland from the Suffolk coast,
20:58the present-day village of Walsham
21:00still clusters around the local church, St Mary's,
21:04just as it did 700 years ago.
21:08So far, I've looked at Walsham
21:10during the time plague struck the village.
21:13But now I'm going to wind the clock back
21:15to the years just before the Black Death.
21:18What was pre-pandemic life like for the Cranmers?
21:22And is there any surviving trace of them left today?
21:26I need some local knowledge.
21:28Oh, hello, Frances.
21:30It's Lucy here.
21:32I am in Walsham, left.
21:35And up for the school?
21:38I'm off to see a lady called Frances Jenner.
21:43She's the chairperson of the local history society.
21:46And she's one of those people who says,
21:48oh, I'm only an amateur historian.
21:50But actually, I suspect
21:52that she knows everything that there is to know.
22:00Like me, Frances is fascinated by the court rolls of Walsham.
22:05And she's been studying them for years.
22:08It was pretty agricultural in the 14th century.
22:11Is it still quite agricultural around here?
22:13It is, very much so.
22:15Still a very rural community.
22:17So where are you bringing me, Frances?
22:19I'm bringing you to Cranmer Farm.
22:21Oh, my goodness!
22:23Cranmer Farm. Still got their name on it.
22:25It does, yes.
22:27700 years later.
22:29Though it's been rebuilt since the 14th century.
22:31It has. It's been rebuilt later.
22:33But they would have had a dwelling here.
22:35And they farmed the lands around here.
22:38Do you think they farmed in this very field, then?
22:40It's quite possible that they did.
22:42We are actually walking on where they farmed and lived.
22:46Excellent.
22:48And having spent a lot of time combing through the court rolls,
22:51have you developed in your mind
22:53the character of this William Cranmer,
22:56the eldest one, the grandad of the family?
22:59I have, because actually, if you look at him,
23:02he actually has more entries than anybody else.
23:05And there are lots of instances of him being fired.
23:09Various breaches of grazing too many sheep on the verges
23:13and all sorts of things.
23:15And I just get the impression that he was a bit of a wham, really.
23:19Oh, really? A sharp operator?
23:21I think so, yes, definitely.
23:23That's what we would call him today.
23:25And how hard or difficult do you think
23:28the lives of the Cranmers were, living here?
23:32Prior to the Black Death,
23:34there had been seven years of famine
23:37due to the unseasonably odd weather conditions.
23:41Excessive rains, storms.
23:44And we have to also remember
23:47that in those days, the wheat wasn't the wheat
23:50that we know today.
23:52It was really tall.
23:54So storms would basically flatten it
23:57and then it would just rot in the fields.
24:00So that would mean hardship,
24:02that would mean no food, no crops to sell.
24:06They would still have to pay the taxes
24:09to the Lord of the Manor.
24:11So they were being squeezed, basically, from both sides.
24:14They weren't actually making any money,
24:17but they still had to pay their taxes.
24:19So life would have been hard.
24:21They would have been hungry.
24:23They would have been poor.
24:25Life really would have been pretty miserable.
24:32In these years of pre-pandemic hardship,
24:35an old William Cranmer is frequently fined
24:38for keeping more animals than permitted,
24:41for taking firewood without permission,
24:44even for not informing on a neighbour
24:47when they broke the rules.
24:49William might have a few acres of land,
24:52but there's three generations,
24:54his son, his grandson and their extended families,
24:57all living on it.
24:59Perhaps there's just too many of them
25:02for the land to support.
25:04The Walsham Court Rolls
25:06list numerous villages in the same situation.
25:09While they struggle,
25:11they're also duty-bound
25:13to work the Lord's personal farmlands
25:15as well as their own.
25:17It's the same across swathes of Britain.
25:20But as I work through the Court Rolls,
25:23I come across another strain
25:26on the Cranmer clan's hard-pressed resources.
25:29You don't often get women mentioned
25:32in these Court Rolls
25:34because it's mainly about the tenants.
25:37But if you travel back in time,
25:40we seem to have a granddaughter
25:43of Wiley William Cranmer,
25:46the grandfather of the family.
25:49Her name's Olivia.
25:51And the reason that she comes up in the Court Records
25:54is because of a scandal.
25:56She's had to pay a child white,
25:59which is a special fine,
26:01of two shillings and eightpence.
26:03And she's had to pay this
26:05because she gave birth outside wedlock.
26:08She's had an illegitimate child.
26:16Having a child out of wedlock
26:18in medieval society
26:20was condemned by the Church.
26:22But it wasn't uncommon.
26:25The problem was more practical.
26:27It was another mouth to feed.
26:30Who would provide?
26:32In Olivia's case, it was swiftly solved.
26:35Shortly after she's fined,
26:38the Court Rolls record Olivia marrying
26:41a Robert Hayes,
26:43a peasant with his own land holdings.
26:46Was Robert the father?
26:48Was this a forced marriage?
26:50The Rolls make no mention.
26:53Now that I've learnt more about the Cranmers,
26:56I'm intrigued to know how they,
26:58and so many like them,
27:00reacted as plague approached.
27:08In the summer of 1348,
27:10plague had spread across the English Channel
27:13aboard trading ships.
27:15Contemporary accounts agree
27:17that the first outbreaks in Britain
27:19were in Weymouth and Bristol.
27:21The disease caught fire
27:23and spread from the coast
27:25into the countryside.
27:31Now, Walsham might feel like
27:33it's in the middle of nowhere,
27:35but it isn't,
27:37and it wasn't in the 14th century either.
27:39It was connected,
27:41as the world was,
27:43through global shipping routes.
27:45Walsham is 100 miles away from London,
27:47but, crucially,
27:49it's only 26 miles,
27:51or a day's walk,
27:53from the international port
27:55of Ipswich.
27:59Ipswich was just a day's
28:01sail from France.
28:03News of the Black Death's horrors
28:05found their way across the Channel.
28:09Most accounts coming from Europe
28:11were utterly apocalyptic.
28:15And this sounds, frankly, implausible.
28:17You get a rain of frogs,
28:19snakes, lizards, and scorpions.
28:21Thunderbolts and lightning.
28:23This sounds like crazy pub talk.
28:27But then, much more believably,
28:29he talks about the plague
28:31travelling via Genoese ships
28:33to Marseille
28:35and then to Avignon,
28:37where, oh golly,
28:39where half the people have died.
28:41So, once he's got to France,
28:43that's roughly
28:46only 24 hours' journey
28:48away from this village,
28:50from this pub.
28:52You can imagine people here
28:54laughing, maybe, speculating,
28:56maybe really frightening
28:58themselves as they talked about it
29:00on a Friday night.
29:07Accounts like this
29:09reached Britain throughout 1348,
29:11well before the Black Death
29:13struck Walsham.
29:15There's evidence in the court rolls
29:17that even rumours about plague
29:19changed people's behaviour.
29:22Here's a meeting of the court
29:24from the autumn before the Black Death
29:26and here we've got
29:28how many men?
29:30I think it's, yes, it's 11 men in total
29:32who are in trouble because they've
29:34not turned up to work.
29:36They get fined for not
29:38doing their duties,
29:40including William Cranmer, actually.
29:42What might they have been doing
29:44instead?
29:46Well, this might be in my imagination
29:48but just up here we've got some other men
29:50who were fined, who were punished
29:52for brewing and selling ale
29:54in breach of the assize.
29:56I am tempted
29:58to think that these 11 men
30:00thought, right, the plague is coming,
30:02we're jolly well not going to go to work,
30:04we're going to go to the pub instead.
30:06Let's make merry
30:08because tomorrow
30:10we die.
30:14It might have seemed
30:16to many that doomsday
30:18was approaching.
30:20How did those in power
30:22try to prepare the population
30:24for what was coming?
30:26What was their message
30:28to the people?
30:36Belief in God
30:38and his will was central
30:40to medieval life.
30:42Everyone attended church
30:44to be guided in all things
30:46both on earth and spiritually
30:48by their local priest.
30:50With rumours of bodies
30:52piling up in the streets
30:54in the West Country,
30:56an official Black Death briefing
30:58was made from church pulpits
31:00in the autumn of 1348.
31:02The King, Edward III,
31:04tells the Archbishop of Canterbury
31:06to write a letter
31:08with instructions for the people.
31:10It's to be read out from the pulpit
31:12across the country
31:14and historians usually called this letter
31:16after its first word
31:18which is
31:20terribilis
31:22terrible.
31:27This was a mass communication
31:29filtered down from King
31:31to Bishop
31:33to Priest
31:35to Peasant.
31:37Terrible is God
31:40towards the sons of men.
31:42He allows plagues
31:44to arise
31:46to torment men
31:48and drive out their sins.
31:50It is now to be feared
31:52that this kingdom
31:54is to be oppressed
31:56by the pestilence
31:58and wretched mortalities
32:00which have flared up
32:02in other regions.
32:04The message is
32:06it's real, it's here,
32:08because you've all sinned.
32:14This announcement affected everyone.
32:16Everyone sinned.
32:18Breaking any of the Ten Commandments
32:20was a sin
32:22but the medieval church
32:24was particularly obsessed
32:26with fornication.
32:28Olivia Cranmer was fined
32:30and would have served penance
32:32for having a child out of wedlock.
32:34There were tens of thousands
32:36of clergymen
32:38from all over the country.
32:40They were an easy target.
32:42Some clergy were quick
32:44to blame plague
32:46on immoral women
32:48and their choice of dress.
32:50Okay, here we've got
32:52some very naughty, sexy
32:5414th century ladies
32:56who have got slashes
32:58in their dresses
33:00revealing their figures
33:02and what they've got on
33:04are enormous arm holes in it
33:06so you can see her shape
33:08through it
33:10and the name of these holes
33:12is brilliant.
33:14They were known
33:16as windows into hell.
33:24The church maintained
33:26that only prayer
33:28could quell God's wrath
33:30and stop the pestilence
33:32and praying could halt
33:34the progress of this terrible disease.
33:38By November 1348
33:40the Black Death had spread
33:42eastward.
33:44Accounts claim that in Bristol
33:46only one in ten survived.
33:48Plague had struck
33:50London and broken out
33:52in New York.
33:54Everywhere communities were decimated.
33:58Church cemeteries overflowed
34:01and across the country
34:03plague pits were dug.
34:13This is just the most
34:15heartbreaking image.
34:17It's one of the very earliest
34:19depictions
34:21it's from 1349
34:23of a plague pit
34:25here are bodies being buried
34:27look at the grief
34:29on the face of this man here
34:31with the spade
34:33and here are crowds
34:35of new coffins
34:37being bought
34:39and this would have been the scene
34:41all over Britain
34:43all over Europe
34:45where the plague spread
34:47and to these poor people
34:49it must have felt like the end of the world.
34:51Getting a decent burial
34:53was a hugely important
34:55medieval ritual
34:57so plague pits
34:59were a shocking and sudden
35:01change in this society.
35:03With people surrounded
35:05by so much death
35:07surely their spiritual beliefs
35:09were shaken.
35:11How did the church cope
35:13during the crisis?
35:15Medieval historian
35:17Dr. Clare Kennan
35:19specialises in the impact
35:21of the Black Death
35:23on faith and the church
35:25in Britain.
35:27So Clare explain this
35:29to me. People are suffering
35:31they're praying, the prayer isn't working
35:33but they still
35:35go on doing it. Why is that?
35:37So in the 14th century
35:39everyone's very concerned
35:41with the health of their souls
35:43and the belief is that when you die
35:45you will inevitably spend some time
35:47in purgatory which really isn't a very nice
35:49place. So what people want to do
35:51is really lessen the amount of time
35:53they're going to spend there and they do that
35:55through prayer, through acts of repentance
35:57and through giving money
35:59to the church. So people are saying
36:01prayers not necessarily to save
36:03their life but to have a better death?
36:05Exactly.
36:07When the Black Death happens then
36:09how's the church going to respond?
36:11What are they going to do? Obviously
36:13you've got a clergy who are
36:15effectively at the front line
36:17of this disease. They are
36:19working with people who are dying from a very
36:21very transmissible illness
36:23they're getting in very close contact
36:25they're leaning in to listen to that last
36:27whispered confession. And so we do
36:29see a huge number of clergy
36:31dying. Approximately 50%
36:33generally but in some places
36:35this is much higher. And of course
36:37this leads to extreme shortages.
36:39So there's a big problem here for the church
36:41how are they going to solve it?
36:43The church brings in some really
36:45interesting emergency measures
36:47and what I've got here is actually
36:49a papal licence which is granted
36:51to the Archbishop of York
36:53so that he can recruit more priests
36:55and it says because
36:57of the mortality from plague which
36:59overshadows your province at this time
37:01not enough priests can be found
37:03for the cure and rule of souls
37:05or to administer the sacraments
37:07and this is actually
37:09a list of novices who are
37:11currently being pushed through the system
37:13if you will. So it's sort of like
37:15sending through the medical students to do the work of
37:17doctors. Exactly and
37:19what happens is that we actually
37:21get quite a lot of complaints about
37:23these new priests. One
37:25chronicler even says quite scathingly
37:27that they're no better than laymen
37:29but it's important to remember that this isn't
37:31everyone's experience and
37:33actually what we see during
37:35and after the Black Death is people
37:37turning to the church possibly
37:39more than before. So we have lots
37:41of people going on pilgrimage
37:43to earn what I like to think of as
37:45brownie points so that when they do
37:47die they're not in purgatory for too long.
37:51So the pandemic didn't shatter
37:53religious faith, it
37:55strengthened it.
38:01Pilgrimage especially was an act
38:03of devotion involving a
38:05long journey on foot.
38:07It was one of the few things a peasant
38:09was permitted to leave their manor for
38:11and during the Black Death
38:13thousands trekked to sacred
38:15sites across Britain.
38:17Perhaps the most sacred
38:19of all was the awe
38:21inspiring Canterbury
38:23Cathedral.
38:27It's utterly overwhelming
38:29in here. It's a
38:31splendid
38:33visual feast
38:35even for a 21st century
38:37person.
38:39Imagine what it
38:41would have been like coming here 700
38:43years ago, maybe from a rural village
38:45where your church
38:47was much smaller than this.
38:49It must have blown your
38:51mind.
38:55Canterbury offered more than
38:57just salvation of the soul.
38:59It promised a cure for the plague.
39:01Pilgrims
39:03coming here in 1348
39:05would have seen this
39:07stained glass window.
39:09The peasant classes might have been
39:11illiterate, but they could read the story
39:13in this window's pictures.
39:15It tells of a
39:17boy struck down by
39:19disease. He dies.
39:21But when he drinks
39:23holy water from Canterbury
39:25he's miraculously revived.
39:29The water itself
39:31is holy because it comes from
39:33Canterbury, but it's also supposed to
39:35contain diluted drops
39:37of the blood of St Thomas.
39:39That's what's done the business.
39:41It's like a fantastic advertisement
39:43really.
39:45Our holy water
39:47will bring your dead son back to life.
39:53A booming
39:55trade grew around
39:57pilgrimages during the Black Death.
39:59Peasants would have been able to buy
40:01a flask of holy water
40:03to take home. They were sold
40:05for a few pence in vast quantities
40:07in the cathedral grounds.
40:09A collection of these
40:11flasks, or ampullas as
40:13they're called, is housed in the
40:15local museum.
40:19This is
40:21the most fabulous little thing.
40:23It's so collectible
40:25because there's the tiny little saint
40:27and it's there.
40:29It's like a little toy.
40:31But it also has
40:33a totally serious purpose.
40:35You would put your holy water
40:37inside your tiny flask.
40:39You'd stopper it up
40:41and you'd take it home and you would
40:43treasure it. And it's easy
40:45to pour scorn on this and say
40:47oh they were flogging tat
40:49to tourists or oh how did
40:51they think that would keep them safe?
40:53But to a 14th century person
40:55desperately frightened about what was going
40:57to happen.
40:59This was a way of making yourself feel
41:01better and that's not to be
41:03underestimated.
41:09But with thousands
41:11travelling across the country to places
41:13like Canterbury, to me
41:15there's a clear risk with
41:17so many people mixing at a time
41:19of plague.
41:21I'm heading
41:23to see a surviving 14th century
41:25shelter used for
41:27overnight stays by Canterbury
41:29pilgrims.
41:33Hello.
41:35Welcome to Eastbridge.
41:37Thank you. Come in.
41:41What a splendid
41:43place. Welcome to the
41:45Undercroft.
41:47It smells a little damp.
41:49It's very damp, yeah.
41:51And I can imagine with pilgrims staying here
41:53it would have been really grim.
41:55It would not have been a nice stay
41:57but it would have been safe.
41:59You were off the high street.
42:01You didn't need to worry about being robbed
42:03but this wouldn't have been a pleasant
42:05stay at all. Would you have
42:07packed a lot of people into your
42:09hospital in the 14th century?
42:11There probably would have been 30-40
42:13people down here
42:15all sharing hay beds
42:17and it depends on who'd stayed there
42:19before the state of the
42:21hay that you slept on.
42:23So you could have picked up lots of creepy
42:25crawlies and bugs.
42:29The pilgrims sleeping in here
42:31in the straw 700 years
42:33ago, I'm sure they were feeling
42:35good about themselves. They'd
42:37finished their pilgrimage. They'd
42:39protected themselves against sickness
42:41but from my
42:43perspective there's a terrible
42:45horrible irony here.
42:47They all crammed in together.
42:49People were coughing. They were sleeping
42:51in hay and straw that was days
42:53old. It had had other people sleeping in it.
42:55Imagine the fleas
42:57and the body lice and
42:59the rats.
43:01And then they were all planning to go
43:03back to their villages the next day.
43:05Villages like Walsham.
43:07Sounds like a super spreader event.
43:15By New Year 1349
43:17Plague had infected so many
43:19in London that the English Parliament
43:21was prorogued.
43:23It was shut down.
43:25For a moment, no one, it seems
43:27had oversight of the country
43:29as the Black Death ripped through England.
43:31By spring
43:33Plague had reached Wales.
43:35Leicester
43:37and Lincoln had been struck.
43:39Estimated casualties
43:41in Norwich were horrendous.
43:43Every day
43:45it was getting closer
43:47to Walsham.
43:55The court rules suggest
43:57Plague hit Walsham in April
43:591349.
44:01Among the first to die
44:03is William Cranmer the Elder
44:05Olivia's grandfather.
44:07Swiftly followed
44:09by Olivia's father and her brother.
44:11Three generations
44:13of Cranmers, dead
44:15in a matter of weeks.
44:21For two months, the Black Death
44:23tore through Walsham.
44:25Family after family
44:27lost loved ones.
44:29At some point
44:31Olivia's husband Robert
44:33also succumbs.
44:35But I can find
44:37no mention in the court
44:39rules during these terrible months
44:41of Olivia dying.
44:43Along with hundreds
44:45of other victims in Walsham
44:47younger men, women
44:49and children.
44:51Her name simply isn't mentioned.
44:57It was a new bacterium.
44:59There was no herd immunity.
45:01People didn't really understand
45:03how it spread.
45:05But in any case
45:07there was no escape.
45:09If you were a peasant, you could not leave
45:11your community without the permission
45:13of your lord.
45:15You literally had to stay there
45:17working the land
45:19paying your tax
45:21waiting to see if you'd live
45:23or die.
45:27By autumn 1349
45:29the Black Death was raging
45:31in Ireland and Northumbria.
45:33Then the Scots
45:35invaded England believing that God
45:37had sent the pestilence to punish
45:39their English foes.
45:41Unfortunately they may have
45:43taken plague back to Scotland
45:45with them where the disease flared up
45:47soon after.
45:57In 1350
45:59the Black Death
46:01finally died out in the British Isles.
46:03In two years
46:05the pandemic had claimed the lives
46:07of up to half the population.
46:09But eyewitness accounts
46:11of what life was like in the immediate
46:13aftermath of plague are scant.
46:15Those that survive
46:17are mainly written by clerics
46:19and these rare fragments
46:21hint at a serious
46:23breakdown in society.
46:25Now this
46:27is one of the best of them.
46:29It's by a monk
46:31from Rochester.
46:33His name's William Dean
46:35and he's writing in 1350
46:37so only just
46:39after the Black Death. He's still very close to it.
46:41His work's in
46:43Latin but here's
46:45a translation
46:47and this bit says
46:49mortality
46:51destroyed more than
46:53a third of the men, women and children.
46:55As a result
46:57there was such a shortage of
46:59servants, craftsmen
47:01and workmen and
47:03of agricultural workers and labourers
47:05that a great many lords
47:07and people, although well
47:09endowed with goods and possessions, were yet
47:11without all service and
47:13attendance.
47:17With millions
47:19of workers dead
47:21I want to find out what effect that had on
47:23society once the plague
47:25had passed.
47:27Professor John Hatcher
47:29is an economic historian at Cambridge
47:31specialising in how
47:33the Black Death transformed
47:35Britain.
47:37John, can you
47:39tell me what happens when
47:41potentially nearly half
47:43the population of a country dies?
47:45Well, it's a very special
47:47country at the time because of
47:49how agricultural it is.
47:51Land becomes
47:53abundant and people
47:55become scarce.
47:57So wages rise
47:59because workers
48:01are scarce and
48:03the consequence of that of course is
48:05the land owners
48:07have the threat of
48:09a disorderly peasantry
48:11demanding far more in pay
48:13but also they're demanding freedom
48:15from serfdom
48:17and, just to quote
48:19one of the commentators
48:21of the period, the world is turned upside down.
48:23You'd think that it would cause
48:25total societal breakdown
48:27and chaos but it doesn't
48:29really, does it? No, it doesn't.
48:31Why is that? If you
48:33compare it with modern times
48:35what you've got is people, the bulk
48:37of the population, 80% producing
48:39their own food.
48:41They have to plough the land
48:43maybe death
48:45and destruction all
48:47around them. They have to keep supplying
48:49their own land. You haven't got huge
48:51supply lines for the majority of
48:53people. Today
48:55society would collapse
48:57because you've got so few
48:59people who are actually producing their
49:01own subsistence. Yes. But in those
49:03days of course the situation
49:05is very direct.
49:07And what evidence is there
49:09that these people
49:11in the labour market
49:13were demanding higher wages?
49:15So the scarcity of labour makes
49:17itself felt immediately.
49:19People can get work
49:21anywhere. They can demand
49:23the wages that they want. And there's a
49:25splendid description of a ploughman
49:27ploughing in the finery of a noble.
49:29He's been given it.
49:31It's got a few holes in.
49:33But nevertheless, there he is
49:35with his plough in the mud
49:37wearing the clothes of a nobleman
49:39and the clothes have been handed
49:41to him as a bribe to stay
49:43in work, to keep working. Wow.
49:45So if I were at the peasant
49:47level of society, ironically
49:49the black death might be
49:51good for me if I survived because I'd have
49:53more access to more food.
49:55Yes, absolutely. And also
49:57of course you inherited the property
49:59of your family. Sometimes
50:01a large number of family
50:03members would die in succession
50:05leaving the single
50:07person with the property
50:09of five or six people
50:11beforehand. It was a
50:13transformation.
50:18So did this new normal
50:20last?
50:22Perhaps, as you might expect,
50:24the ruling classes, in England
50:26at least, tried to make sure it didn't
50:28by rushing through a new
50:30national statute or law.
50:34This great long thing here
50:36is a copy of the
50:38Statute of Labourers
50:40from 1351, so just
50:42after the plague. The translation
50:44here tells us what it's all about.
50:46It says the king and the nobles
50:48have passed the statute
50:50against the malice of
50:52employees who were
50:54idle and who were not willing to
50:56take employment after the pestilence
50:58unless for outrageous
51:00wages.
51:02It says that they have to take employment
51:04for the same wages as before
51:06or else they were going to get
51:08imprisoned. Also
51:10says that you're not allowed to leave
51:12the town where you work to go and
51:14work elsewhere in the summer. But then
51:16they admit that this isn't going to
51:18work. You can go to help
51:20with the harvest if you live in
51:22Staffordshire, Lancashire,
51:24Derbyshire, Wales or Scotland.
51:26That is going to be needed to make the
51:28country work.
51:32With the ruling classes
51:34trying to reinstate the old social
51:36order, but with the peasants
51:38gaining opportunities for a new life,
51:40what does this mean for
51:42up-and-coming communities like
51:44Walsham? And what
51:46happened to Olivia Cranmer?
51:50I know that all the male
51:52members of her family are dead.
51:56But Olivia
51:58survives. A single
52:00entry in the Walsham court rolls
52:02describes her fate.
52:04The lord of the manor
52:06wants rent and tax from the
52:08Cranmer lands.
52:10After a radical decision is made,
52:12Olivia
52:14is listed as heir,
52:16and granted tenancy
52:18of around 40 acres
52:20of the Cranmer holdings.
52:28Now, I had been thinking of Olivia
52:30as a sort of a freak accident.
52:32If this were a
52:34newspaper headline, it might say,
52:36Amazing! Walsham woman does well
52:38in black death. But
52:40have a look at this.
52:42You go through the court rolls,
52:44there are lots of other examples
52:46of women inheriting
52:48land from men.
52:50Here we've got
52:52Agnes Woodbite
52:54and Catherine
52:56Deeth.
52:58And over here we've got Alice
53:00Rampally.
53:02And these women's names
53:04are appearing for the first time, because
53:06for the first time they're economically
53:08relevant.
53:10And I'm wondering if this is happening
53:12on a super local level in Walsham,
53:14what's happening
53:16across the nation?
53:18Is it possible there's evidence
53:20for other women
53:22coming out of the shadows, if you like,
53:24in the wake of the black death?
53:30Professor Caroline Barron
53:32has done extensive research
53:34on opportunities for women
53:36in post-plague London.
53:40Inevitably, there was a great deal
53:42of confusion afterwards,
53:44but gradually what you see is that
53:46women are emerging,
53:48holding down jobs,
53:50being apprenticed as girl apprentices
53:52to men and to women,
53:54taking over workshops
53:56and running them
53:58as successful enterprises
54:00after the black death.
54:02And where a business owner
54:04had died, his wife
54:06might sort of be forced, economically,
54:08to take it over.
54:10Yes, and you find after the black death
54:12that the city expects a widow
54:14to continue to train her husband's
54:16apprentices, and they encouraged
54:18her to run his business,
54:20and in fact they actually made it possible
54:22for a woman who was a widow
54:24to become a free woman of London
54:26and have the economic privileges
54:28that a freeman of London would have had.
54:30Interesting. Are there specific
54:32women that you've been able to research?
54:34Well, in the immediate aftermath of the black death,
54:36quite interestingly,
54:38William Ramsey was the chief
54:40mason of the king,
54:42the master mason.
54:44He died in the black death,
54:46and his daughter, called Agnes,
54:48clearly took over the business
54:50from him. We find her running
54:52his workshop, and although she was
54:54married, she kept her own
54:56name, or her father's name,
54:58and she ran the father's business, yeah.
55:00Wow! And she is called Dame
55:02Agnes Ramsey in the records.
55:04That's extraordinary. They recognise this position
55:06that she's achieved. So it shows you
55:08that women could do things. Amazing.
55:10What's this record you've got here?
55:12Does this tell one of their stories?
55:14Yes. This is the indenture
55:16of Margaret, the daughter
55:18of Richard Bishop of
55:20Seaford, near Lewis,
55:22and she's apprenticing herself
55:24to a man called John Pritchett,
55:26a toll collector of London,
55:28and Berger, his wife,
55:30a teldemaker,
55:32which is a tentmaker.
55:34A tentmaker? She's going to learn
55:36to be a tentmaker? She's going to learn
55:38the craft of the said Berger,
55:40so it's quite specific. Although she's apprenticed
55:42to the husband and wife, it says she's going to learn
55:44the craft of the wife,
55:46and to be the
55:48apprentice. Was this a bit like
55:50during the World Wars of the 20th century,
55:52the men weren't there, the women had to take over?
55:54Absolutely. It's like
55:56the munitions factories
55:58in the First World War, or Rosie the Riveter
56:00in the Second World War in America.
56:02It's all to do with the shortage
56:04of population.
56:10As a new disease, the Black Death's
56:12impact was horrific,
56:14and for a short while,
56:16the death of half the population
56:18saw social order
56:20upended.
56:22Britain's peasant class
56:24tasted freedom and empowerment,
56:26and despite efforts to return
56:28things back to pre-plague
56:30conditions, many had seen their
56:32prospects change fundamentally.
56:36None more so than
56:38Olivia Cranmer.
56:40She does well enough out of her inherited land
56:42to retire with a pension
56:44in later life.
56:46She never remarried.
56:48The Courtaulds
56:50now name her
56:52Olivia of Cranmer,
56:54and it looks like she may have lived
56:56into her 60s,
56:58a ripe old age
57:00for the 14th century.
57:06Plague would return
57:08to 14th century Britain,
57:10with each new wave
57:12herd immunity built up,
57:14but it took 300 years
57:16for Britain's population to get
57:18back to pre-pandemic levels,
57:20and the psychological
57:22impact of the Black Death
57:24lasted generations.
57:28This image is the dance
57:30macabre. It's one
57:32of the iconic images of the Black Death,
57:34isn't it? Skeletons enjoying
57:36themselves. It's really
57:38striking to me that it dates
57:40from well over a century
57:42after the Black Death
57:44to 1348.
57:46I think it shows the lasting
57:48psychological impact
57:50of the plague, which kept
57:52coming back and back again,
57:54and it made people re-evaluate
57:56life.
57:58If life was a dance with death,
58:00if death could come and take you
58:02at any moment, well,
58:04then better
58:06enjoy life while you can.
58:10The princes in
58:12the tower. How did
58:14a power struggle for the English throne
58:16lead to the mysterious
58:18disappearance of two young
58:20boys? During the Wars of the
58:22Roses, it's dog-eat-dog.
58:24You are winning power
58:26using violence, or you're toast.
58:42.
58:44.
58:46.
58:48.
58:50.
58:52.
58:54.
58:56.
58:58.