The History of London's Great Plague

Just as technology and geography can have a major impact upon the course of human history, so can disease. Recent archeological findings in Great Britain confirmed that the Great Plague of 1665-1666 was the bubonic plague, the last major outbreak of the disease in Britain (Stanbridge). Fear was understandably rampant, given that the plague would eventually decimate a quarter of the population of London, thus leaving a lasting mark upon the city’s demographics (Stanbridge). As in the past, the plague was interpreted as a religious judgement from the divine, although it is important to remember that not all eyewitnesses to the plague viewed it as such. Author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, noted how the individual’s constitution affected responses to the plague, indicating a medical, rather than theological interpretation: “The plague, as I suppose all distempers do, operated in a different manner on differing constitutions; some were immediately overwhelmed with it, and it came to violent fevers…others with swellings and tumours…others, as I have observed, were silently infected” (Stanbridge).

The manner in which the plague was contained, although brutal, also showed a nascent understanding of disease. When one person in a house came down with the plague, the entire house would be sealed up, effectively, as one historian noted, condemning the entire house to death in an attempt to contain the infection (Johnson). Corpses would be taken out at night and buried in pits specifically for plague victims, rather than in the usual manner of the burial of the dead (Johnson). The door of a house of someone who was infected would be marked with a cross and the words, “Lord have mercy on us,” written upon it (Johnson). Religion was appealed to, in other words, for protection and salvation from the disease, but it was not solely relied upon.
Superstition as well as religion marked the general response to the plague. Many people believed that holding a posy to one’s nose could keep away the disease, and the nursey rhyme “Ring Around the Rosy” has its origins in this superstition about the plague. The streets of London were said to be empty, as those who could (including the royal court) fled to the countryside, while those who were too poor to move had to stay. Thus, the disease disproportionately affected the poor. The close and unsanitary conditions of the poor further exacerbated the spread of the disease. Theaters and other places of public recreation were closed, so the secular culture of London was affected as well as people’s lives and livelihoods due to the plague.
Despite efforts at disease containment, the plague still spread outside of London. In a small village named Eyam in Derbyshire, a box of laundry containing plague-ridden fleas brought plague to the village (Johnson). Fleas on rats, rather than rats themselves, were later discovered to be the primary vectors of the disease. More than 80% of the village died and could have spread the disease outside of the city, had people fled (Johnson). In this particular instance, religion proved to be a facilitator of disease containment rather than a false explanation, however. The rector convinced his parishioners that it was their godly duty not to spread the plague, and instead most remained (Johnson).
The rector continued to preach during the height of the plague, but in open air sermons, to reduce the risk of spreading infection via the air (Johnson). As the superstition behind the posy suggests, although people seemed to be aware that invisible particles spread the plague, they were more inclined to blame bad air than what today we would call germs. Tragically, the rector’s wife was killed by the plague (Johnson). Still, his response indicates how religion was a facilitator of plague containment as well as used as an explanation of the disease. Also, in contrast to past experiences with plague, there was an indication that scientific understandings of disease containment were able to work in harmony with religion.
Works Cited
Johnson, Ben. “The Great Plague 1665.” Historic UK. December 11, 2018.
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Great-Plague/
Stanbridge, Nicola. “DNA confirms cause of 1665 London's Great Plague.” BBC.
September 6, 2016. Web. December 11, 2018.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37287715