London's Dreadful Visitation: The Black Death and The Great Plague

I've been thinking about what happens after a plague recently.

Sorry about the audio issues- I'm dealing with some stuff right now and simply don't have the brainspace to go back and redo it.

Info on the Charterhouse Square and Liverpool Street excavations:

Covid stats can be found here:

00:00 Intro
00:47 The Black Death
06:56 The Great Plague
12:19 Yersinia pestis

[matushorvath]

I did not expect to have an art performance experience from a video on plague, but this is definitely art.

[MSK-jdfi]

It’s fascinating to see the parallels in social changes between their plague and our plague. It’s like “no one wants to work anymore” is not a new concept. No one wants to be taken advantage of and no one wants to live a subsistence life.

[bigbrowntau]

In my time working as an infectious disease nurse, I've looked after a few patients with plague. As a medieval re-enactor, I darkly admired their dedication to authenticity.

[PhoebeFayRuthLouise]

“I’ve got flowers and lighting and stuff. I’m not an animal.” You make me laugh, even on a subject as serious as the plague!

I’m wishing you and your partner health! I appreciate this video all the more knowing you’ve been struggling.

This was fascinating, especially the downstream ramifications, like peasants using surnames for the first time! You are a terrific teacher and I always feel smarter after watching your videos!

[ShadowMoon]

I remember when i was in primary school, we have an event day where everybody dressed up as someone from the Middle Ages. So kids were dressed up as Kings, Queens, Princesses, Princes, Knights, Jesters, Footsoldiers and all others. Me and some of my friends were outcasts so we all dressed up as Plague Doctors. The other kids thought we are dressing up as "Bird People" but the Teachers all knew who we were.

[Alex-cwrz]

I don't live in London but the school I went to in the North of England is well over 500 years old, and at one time had complusory smoking lessons and any child not smoking was severely punished. This was due to the fact the school was next to the graveyard of the Cathedral and back then they thought disease was spread through bad smells so they thought the smell of the smoke would solve it.

[jeremiahgabriel]

As someone who spent a great deal of 2020 and 2021 researching plagues from my own personal interest, as for various reasons, I watched a shit ton of documentaries and read a good I fucking love how thoroughly this is researched and how many layers you pack in to such a short And while being information dense it doesn't feel like.... overwhelming? Anyhow, this is my first vid of yours I'm seeing and I like it.

[knutolavbjrgaas]

Im pretty sure a major contribution to clergy being disproportionally affected by the plague is them disproportionally helping the sick people.

[bvd]

The Black Death was my thesis topic in college. It is interesting how many of the first international health agreements were put in place because of it and how influential it was not just domestically but globally, especially in Europe.

[sirtrently]

I have never even considered how devastating and literally life-altering the Black Death is and now I’m just sitting here…aghast and thankful we at least know a little something about germs and bacteria. Fantastic job, you could make history anybody’s favorite school subject!

[Mdfielder]

Your final words reminded me of something I learned about the bowling green in Cheltenham. It is where the plague victims were buried and there's some law stating that it is never to be dug up for fear of the plague taking hold again. Scary to think it can survive like that 😮

[sandyhenderson]

This is a really interesting video, well done! While researching my early-ish ancestors I found that all but 1 male in a family died of plague in 1664. Plague burials had to be shown as such in the parish register (a Tudor law, Elizabeth 1st, I think). In the cities this couldn't be done due to numbers. Unless you had money (= influence) you'd be an anonymous body in a plague pit, but smaller villages and towns had fewer deaths and so the dead were named in the register. My 10xgreat grandfather, his 2nd wife and 3 youngest sons died in the village. The eldest son was elsewhere being an apprentice, and he's my 9xgreat grandfather. If he'd died too, I wouldn't be here...
And I grew up in a street named Glisson; a bit of local research revealed that Dr Glisson was a local physician when the plague arrived full force in 1665. Wealthy people, including many physicians, left for safer places, but Dr G stayed put and tried to help even people who couldn't pay him. Brave man. He survived and his actions are remembered 350 years later.

[TheDeadmanTT]

I've decided to watch this video laying down.

[colpul]

As a historian this was maybe the best explanation of the scale of the Black Death in Europe. Well and beautifully done.

[PSDuck]

Chilling presentation. Well done!
A few notes you might be interested in:
As the 1381 Peasant Revolt showed, the real slave drivers who held land were in The Church, Inc. The biggest landowner (aggregate) in the kingdom.
The brave, dedicated churchmen who remained with their parishioners died with them. They were the ones who practiced what they preached. The cowards deserted their people and died in obscurity. These were remembered and their cowardice overshadowed any good that was done by the brave clergymen.
In the 1315-17 deluge and crop failures, followed by starvation and reports of cannibalism, the Church trotted out the old excuse that it was caused by people being sinful. (It’s still used today, by the way.) Then, in 1348, they did the same thing. This time people remembered and would have none of it. If the Church, which was supposed to pray for all sinners and square things away with the almighty could not do their job, why should people have anything to do with it? People left the churches in droves. They were still religious, but prayed not in church. (The time was ripe for a Martin Luther.) Lollards appeared.
In world outbreaks since then, which you covered well, almost no one knows about the outbreak in the Vietnam war. Within six weeks, Special Forces’ Field Immunization Specialty Teams, who carried such weight generals that cooperated with SF captains, had traced the outbreak hot spot to the Central Highlands, near the Cambodian border. Within those six weeks, the hot spot was eradicated, and people treated with antibiotics, as were other cases in the area. No subsequent outbreak occurred. Unsung heroes doing their jobs.
Cheers!

[lilykatmoon]

What an ending! That there’s still traces of plague bacteria in 700 year old graves! Yikes! Great video. I learned a lot. I found the development of surnames particularly interesting. Very cool.

[APenguinsLullaby]

Can I just say how amazing you are at conveying how awful this plague was. The numbers are often breezed over, but you make it a lot more real.

[CCoburn]

One reason the clergy died at a higher rate is that at least some of them came into close contact with the sick because they were trying to tend to them.

[johnsonrob]

I can't believe how good a production that was!
Such a solemn piece with "I'm not an animal" and other small light breaks from the seriousness of the topic (Boris Johnson being the best...).
So glad the algorithm brought you to my attention - you are a daily must watch!

[redsevenski]

You do an incredible job of bringing history to life in all your videos, and making it relatable