In 1348-49 a terrible disease broke out in Europe. People called it the Black Death. In two years nearly half of Europe's population died. The disease was bubonic plague. Fleas carried the plague. The fleas lived on black rats. These rats arrived in Europe on ships from Asia.
However, people didn't know what caused the plague and the disease spread quickly. Medieval towns were very different from today's cities. Most of the buildings were made of wood or mud. Streets were dirty and there where rats everywhere. A lot of people died of the plague in Europe during this period.
The plague continued to hit Europe until the end of the 17th century. One of the biggest outreaks was the Great Plague of London. The total number of deaths was about 70.000. Many people run away from London.
Later, the plague also broke out in the village of Eyem in Derbyshire. A tailor there there, bought some cloth from London. Unfortunately, when the parcel arrived, there were fleas in the cloth. The people of Eyam were very brave. They decided to close their village. Nobody entered or left the village. Other people put food and medicine near the village. The plague didn't spread to ogher villages, but at least 260 out of 350 people from Eyam died.
