Audiobook A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)

The author investigates the historical progression of the Black Death from its initial emergence in eastern trade routes through its devastating arrival in Britain in the autumn of fourteen forty-eight. The argument traces the path of the contagion from a Genoese trading post in the Crimea directly into Dorset ports, moving methodically through southwestern towns and villages before striking London and the northern counties. The text examines the precise clinical symptoms of the pandemic, distinguishing between subcutaneous buboes, carbuncles, and the fatal pulmonary manifestations recorded by contemporary writers. Utilizing local manor court rolls and ecclesiastical institution books, the author calculates the mortality rates among the small agricultural tenantry and the parish clergy, demonstrating that nearly half the population perished. The broader economic consequences are explored through the sudden scarcity of labour, rising wages, and the abandonment of cultivated lands. The narrative concludes with the transformation of social structures and the permanent alteration of the medieval English economy as it recovered from the shock of the mass mortality.