The Black Death: The intimate story of a village in crisis 1345-1350 by John Hatcher

This story is a historical reconstruction of the effect of the Black Death on a Mediaeval English village. Even though the characters and their deeds are mostly fictional, it is not exactly a novel. It is somehow a bit too detached. There is no real dialogue as such. At the beginning of each chapter is an introduction that sets out the historical backdrop. The central character is Master John, the conscientious priest of the parish. The early chapters build up the dread of the approaching plague, as news of its devastation through Europe, and then the south coast of England and London reach the ears of the villagers from the reports of travellers and merchants. The middle chapters describe the devastation inflicted on the village by the plague, despite the villagers' most earnest prayers and repentances. What was bewildering to everyone was why God was punishing his people so harshly. Even the saintly Master John had his doubts. Master John is a devout priest, but it is hard not to see the church as a racket. They interpreted the sacred scriptures. They spoke the secret mumbo-jumbo. They held power over your after life, so influencing your behaviour in your present life. Obviously they had to paid for these services, and also unsurprisingly, they tended to reinforce the social structure as it was, with everyone in their place. The last chapters discuss how the sudden loss of half the work force affected the structure and economy of the country. Many landless peasants, who previously had no choice but to work hard for low pay, or starve, suddenly inherited land themselves. The remainder found they could charge much more for their labour and not have to work so hard. The lords and ladies of the manor did not like this at all, but there was not much they could do.

Black death, the plague
My country also was infected by a black death three times between 1830- 1836 followed by cholera which caused numberless of mortalities between people.
It has the same name in Arabic, but why people called it the black death, I don't know, perhaps as I heard its given name is due to the savagery infection of the disease or due to the air that carries the contamination which it is resembled for people as a black air, and as I read the ancient history, most survived people are who they left their houses and went away through the wilderness.
We thank God as those harmful savage diseases turn out of our global time ....
God bless you, I hope you can write down the link in order to download the book... I am very interested in reading the ancient history.

There is a kindle edition of the book I noticed, but unfortunately it is not free.

I am surprised there were epidemics of the Black Death in Iraq in the 1830s. The last epidemic of the plague in the UK was in 1665, the year before the Great Fire of London. I think people gradually built up resistance to the disease. I thought it was called the Black Death because of the colour of the buboes (swellings) it caused, but I am not sure.

yes, the epidemic disease the plague struck Iraq cities including Baghdad the capital and as I read it came from India, it happened during the last period of the Ottoman empire controlling on Iraq and If you want more details I shall return to reference of many chapters written by a certain well- known Iraqi historical researcher because now not all of the details are present in my mind although recently I have read the book.
The most thing I take it into my notices the British represented officer was survived but the French Consul was infected and hardly got cured, because the first one preferred to leave the city spending the period of the disease out of city in the adjacent orchards, but the last one the French one saw himself might be blamed by his government and stayed in the city....

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Originally Posted by kev67

The last chapters discuss how the sudden loss of half the work force affected the structure and economy of the country. Many landless peasants, who previously had no choice but to work hard for low pay, or starve, suddenly inherited land themselves. The remainder found they could charge much more for their labour and not have to work so hard. The lords and ladies of the manor did not like this at all, but there was not much they could do.

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I hadn't thought of the Black Death as being so responsible for historical change. Although I don't have this particular book available, there are some histories available that I plan to look at this weekend, in particular, Norman Cantor's "In the Wake of the Plague".

This Wikipedia page gives a lot of info about the Black Death.

I've just ordered a copy of this book, it should arrive in a week or so. I look forward to reading it as I have a long-standing interest in Mediaeval History, especially a book which deals with the effects of it on a single village.

Thanks for the tip kev67.

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Originally Posted by Dreamwoven

This Wikipedia page gives a lot of info about the Black Death.

I've just ordered a copy of this book, it should arrive in a week or so. I look forward to reading it as I have a long-standing interest in Mediaeval History, especially a book which deals with the effects of it on a single village.

Thanks for the tip kev67.

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:thumbsup:

I've now bought and read the book and I agree with your book review. It shows just how much people had lost faith in religion as a result of the Black Death. Half the population of the village died and the priests couldn't cope with confessions, so a lot of lay people with minimum training were used for this. Until then the Church kept tight control of peoples' beliefs and the rituals were just abandoned. Mass graves were also used to dump dead victims in. This would have been normally unthinkable.

It also wiped out entire kinship networks and so affected inheritance. Much land remained unused and some poor people became major landowners. Generally the peasants gained by the loosening of the power of the clergy and the large landowners. The Peasant's revolt of 1381 (Watt Tyler rebellion) must surely have been in part at least caused by these social and religious upheavals.

Its wider consequences are quite fascinating. How was the reformation affected, if at all? Martin Luther was in the early 1500s 150 to 175 years later. In England the reformation was in the early 1500s, and Henry V111 disestablished the Catholic Church, especially the monasteries were possible longer term results of this.

The book was a fascinating insight into many issues by the vivid portrayal of what happened in one village.

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Originally Posted by Dreamwoven

I've now bought and read the book and I agree with your book review. It shows just how much people had lost faith in religion as a result of the Black Death. Half the population of the village died and the priests couldn't cope with confessions, so a lot of lay people with minimum training were used for this. Until then the Church kept tight control of peoples' beliefs and the rituals were just abandoned. Mass graves were also used to dump dead victims in. This would have been normally unthinkable.

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Actually, there was a television documentary on recently about some graves that had been found in London, dating from the Black Death. Care had been taken to give the victims a proper burial. The king at the time seems to have been one of the better kings.

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Originally Posted by Dreamwoven

It also wiped out entire kinship networks and so affected inheritance. Much land remained unused and some poor people became major landowners. Generally the peasants gained by the loosening of the power of the clergy and the large landowners. The Peasant's revolt of 1381 (Watt Tyler rebellion) must surely have been in part at least caused by these social and religious upheavals.

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The aftermath of the Black Death seems to have been one of few times when the peasantry were in a relatively strong position. Often, when the fincial elite cannot find any local labour for the right price, they will import labour from somewhere else. However, this time there wasn't anywhere.

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Originally Posted by Dreamwoven

Its wider consequences are quite fascinating. How was the reformation affected, if at all? Martin Luther was in the early 1500s 150 to 175 years later. In England the reformation was in the early 1500s, and Henry V111 disestablished the Catholic Church, especially the monasteries were possible longer term results of this.

The book was a fascinating insight into many issues by the vivid portrayal of what happened in one village.

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I read a history book about popes. Thing was for most of their history, they were very, very corrupt. Sometimes the Vatican did choose someone holy as a pope, but they often turned out hopeless administrators. The Papal State consisted of quite a large chunk of Italy at that time. Most popes behaved as monarchs, and sometimes interfered with the politics of other countries. Naturally, the kings of these countries did not always like this interference. Martin Luther's objections to Catholicism were genuine, but he was protected by the German princes. Personally I wish Henry VIII had never reigned. I have lived in two towns with ruined abbeys. He was a cruel man. There were other ways of limiting Papal interference.

Yes, the peasant had the upper hand , which was what I implied but didn't spell out.

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I read a history book about popes. Thing was for most of their history, they were very, very corrupt. Sometimes the Vatican did choose someone holy as a pope, but they often turned out hopeless administrators. The Papal State consisted of quite a large chunk of Italy at that time. Most popes behaved as monarchs, and sometimes interfered with the politics of other countries. Naturally, the kings of these countries did not always like this interference. Martin Luther's objections to Catholicism were genuine, but he was protected by the German princes. Personally I wish Henry VIII had never reigned. I have lived in two towns with ruined abbeys. He was a cruel man. There were other ways of limiting Papal interference.

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I agree 100% with this, the abbeys actually played a big role in the development of agriculture. A sociologist, Randall Collins, wrote about the role of the Cistercians in developing barren lands in the North, not to mention the monasteries keeping alive the study of history and knowledge in general, including herbal medicine. Its been a great loss that the monasteries with their wonderful architecture and now abandoned decaying ruins. Much of our great cathedrals and innumerable parish churches also had their sculptures vandalised beyond recognition. Standing in the ruins of an abbey it is possible to imagine the place full of colour and light and activity. Its very sad to see.

The Cadfael Chronicles by Edith Pargeter are an early example of the historical novel that John Hatcher wrote. I go back to them time and again to re-read and enjoy.