THEBLACKDEATH

INLONDON

THEBLACKDEATH

INLONDON

BARNEYSLOANE

‘IntheyearofOurLord1349,aviolentpestilencebrokeoutbeyond

measureinthewholeoftheKingdomofEngland,and

especiallyintheCityofLondon,wherethepeoplesuperabounded.Sogreatamultitudeeventuallydiedthatallthecemeteriesoftheaforesaidcitywereinsufficientfortheburialofthedead.Forthisreason,manywerecompelledtoburytheirdeadinplacesunseemly,nothallowedorblessed;some,itwassaid,castthecorpsesintothe

river.’1

Coverillustration:AnengravingfromAnIntroductiontoEnglishChurchArchitecturefromtheEleventhtotheSixteenthCentury(Volume2)byFrancisBond.

Firstpublished2011

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CONTENTS

Foreword Acknowledgements Abbreviations

Introduction

One TheBeginning

Two ThePestilenceinLondon

Three TheGreatMortality

FourPestilenceinLaterFourteenth-CenturyLondon

Social

Five ConsequencesofthePlague

Appendix

London’sContributiontoUnderstandingtheBlackDeath

Notes Bibliography

T

FOREWORD

HEFIRSTonslaughtofthe Black Death in1347–53 remains the

greatest single catastrophe to

have struck mankind inrecorded history. A vastliterature exists whichexamines and oftenvigorouslydebatesitsorigins,its causes and its impacts oncities and manors, oneconomies and society, andon the very beliefs held bypeople over 600 years ago.Internationally, two majorrecent studies, OleBenedictow’s The BlackDeath 1347–53:A Complete

History andSamCohn’sTheBlackDeathTransformed,setboth the European stage andreadily demonstrate thevigour of the debate.2England itself has beenparticularlywell served sinceFrancis Gasquet’s treatise aslong ago as 1893 on TheGreat Pestilence, and morerecently by Philip Ziegler’shighly readable The BlackDeath (1969), the essays in

Mark Ormrod and PhilipLindley’sTheBlackDeathinEngland, and Colin Platt’sKing Death (both 1996); aswell as a host of moredetailed articles. London,however, is less visible indetail, although both JensRöhrkasten and BarbaraMegsonhavemadeimportantcontributions to the study ofthe city’s mortality duringplagueoutbreaks.3

As a professionalarchaeologist, I came face toface with the effects of theepidemic on London duringexcavations at the BlackDeath cemetery of EastSmithfieldnear theTowerofLondon, which unearthedhundreds of skeletons of thevictims. But remarkably,given the relative abundanceof its documentary records,the detailed story of howLondon succumbed, suffered

andeventuallyadaptedtothisawfuldiseasehasneverbeentold. This attempt to fill thatgap reveals some rathersurprising aspects of thecity’s reaction to the plague,it raises some fundamentalquestions about the level ofmortalityand itexamines thelater outbreaks (1361, 1368and 1375) that dogged thereignofEdwardIIItosetoutcomparisons and contrastswiththefirstterribleblow.

This book is notspecifically about the causesof the plague, itsidentification with one oranother pathogen, or thescience of its spread(although a summary ofcurrent debate is provided).Rather,ithasbeenmyaimtodevelop a detailed historicalnarrativefromdocumentsandarchaeology to provide ascompleteanunderstandingofthe horrifying test to which

thenation’scapitalwasput.Ihope that this analysisprovides a springboard forfurther research into theimpactoftheBlackDeathonLondon.Thisisanessentiallyhuman story populated withmany names of real peoplewho came face to face withone of our worst nightmaresandlived,ordied, inLondonmorethansixcenturiesago.

BarneySloane

I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

WISH to thank specificorganisations, friends andcolleagues who have

helpedmeconsiderablyinthe

development of this book.First and foremost I wouldliketoacknowledgeadebtofgratitude to Caroline Barron(Royal Holloway) whoprovided encouragement andmany very helpfulsuggestionsindevelopingthetext. Christopher Phillpottsreviewed and transcribed therelevant surviving manorialdocuments for Stepney.Claire Martin and JeremyAshbee gave their valuable

time to undertake furtherexaminationandtranscriptionof original documents. Forfurther contributions to thehistorical research, I wouldliketothankDrMarkForrestfor sharing his data onGillingham in advance ofpublication. Ann Causton,Robert Braid, Sam Cohn,Graham Dawson and PennyTuckerprovidedfurtherhelp.Ihavebenefitedgreatly fromthe generosity of

archaeologistsinvolvedintheexcavation or analysis ofmaterialfromthisperiod,andhere I would verymuch liketo thank Ian Grainger andChrisThomasoftheMuseumof London Archaeology, thelateBillWhite of theCentreforHumanBioarchaeologyattheMuseum of London, andDr Sharon DeWitte (AlbanyUniversity). For additionaladvice in structuring the textand contents I record my

gratitudetoProfessorRobertaGilchrist (University ofReading), andDr JohnClark(MuseumofLondon);andforhelpful comments I wouldlike to thank JenniButterworth,NathalieCohen,Peter Mills, and ProfessorJamesWood.

ABREVIATIONS

ArchJ ArchaeologicalJournal

CADH.C.M.Lyte(ed.),1915,DescriptiveCatalogueofAncientDeeds,Vol.6(London)

CAN

H.Chew&W.Kellaway(eds),1973,Londonassizeofnuisance1301–1431:Acalendar

CCR CalendarofCloseRolls

CCRBL

W.H.Turner,1878,ofChartersandRollspreservedintheBodleianLibrary(Oxford)

CCRC

R.R.Sharpe(ed.),1913,CalendaroftheCoroners’RollsoftheCityofLondon

1300–1378(London)

CFR

Anon,1921,CalendaroftheFineRollspreservedinthePublicRecordOffice,VolumeVI,EdwardIII,1347–56(London)

CHW

R.R.Sharpe(ed.),1889,1890,CalendarofwillsprovedandenrolledintheCourtofHusting1258–1688,(London)

H.C.MLyte(ed.),1916,

CIPM CalendarofInquisitionsPostMortem,Vol.IX,EdwardIII(London)

CLBF

R.R.Sharpe(ed.),1904,CalendarofLetter-bookspreservedamongthearchivesofthecorporationoftheCityofLondon:Letter-bookFc.1337–1352(London)

CLBG

R.R.Sharpe(ed.),1905,CalendarofLetter-bookspreservedamongthearchivesofthecorporationoftheCityof

London:Letter-bookGc.1352–1374(London)

CLBK

R.R.Sharpe(ed.),1911,CalendarofLetter-bookspreservedamongthearchivesofthecorporationoftheCityofLondon:Letter-bookKTempHenryVI(London)

CLPAH.Chew(ed.),1965,PossessoryAssizes:acalendar(LondonRecSocVol.I)

W.H.Bliss&C.Johnson,

CPL1897,CalendarofentriesinthePapalRegistersrelatingtoGreatBritainandIreland:PapalLetters,Vol.3,1362(London)

CPMR

A.H.Thomas(ed.),1926,CalendarofthePleaandMemorandaRollsoftheCityofLondon,Vol.I,1323–1364

CPP CalendarofPapalPetitions

CPR CalendarofPatentRolls

FastiEcclesiaeAnglicanae

Fasti 1300–1541:Vol.5(StPaul’s,London,1963)

Foedera

T.Rymer,1741,conventiones,literae,etcujus-cunquegenerisactapublica,interregesAngliaeetaliosquosvisimperatores,reges,pontifices,principes,velcommunitates,abineuntesaeculoduodecimo,viz.abanno1101.adnostrausquetempora,habitaauttractata:exautographis,infrasecretiores

Archivorumregiorumthesaurariaspermultasaeculareconditis,fideliterexscripta,Vol.5

HistGaz

D.J.Keene&VHarding,1987,HistoricalgazetteerofLondonbeforetheGreatFire:Cheapside;parishesofAllHallowsHoneyLane,StMartinPomary,StMaryleBow,StMaryColechurchandStPancrasSoperLane

LMA LondonMetropolitanArchive

MOSJ MuseumoftheOrderofStJohn,Clerkenwell,London

PLoSPathog

PublicLibraryofScience:PathogensJournal(www.plospathogens.org/home.action)

ProcArchaeolInst

C.Given-Wilson,P.Brand,A.Curry,R.E.Horrox,G.Martin,W.M.Ormrod,J.R.S.Phillips,2005,TheParliamentRollsofMedievalEngland,1275–1504Leicester,ScholarlyDigitalEditions(CD-ROM)

PROME ProceedingsoftheArchaeologicalInstitute

TLAMASTransactionsoftheLondonandMiddlesexArchaeologicalSociety

TNA TheNationalArchive

VCHLondon1

W.Page(ed.),1909,ofthecountyofLondonLondonwithintheBars,WestminsterandSouthwark

VCH W.Pugh(ed.),1969,ofthecountyofMiddlesex,

Middx1 1

VCHMiddx2

W.Page(ed.),1911,ofthecountyofMiddlesex,2

VCHMiddx5

T.F.T.Baker&R.Pugh(eds),1976,AhistoryofthecountyofMiddlesex,Vol.5

VCHOxford4

A.Crossley&C.R.Elrington(eds),1979,AhistoryofthecountyofOxford,CityofOxford

WAM WestminsterAbbeyMuniments

WSA WiltshireandSwindonArchives

C

INTRODUCTION

HARACTERISINGTHEspecifichistoryofepidemics, whose

durations are measured in

months, requiresconsiderationofdetail.Thereisthereforeonlyspaceforthebriefest introduction tofourteenth-century Londonand its hinterland in thisbook,andthenumerousplacenames and subjects that arementionedwithin itwill leadsomereaderstowishtoknowmuchmoreofthetopographyand functioning of the city. Iwould recommend firstlyCaroline Barron’s excellent

bookonLondon in theLaterMiddle Ages, which sets thesocial, economic andadministrative scene, andChris Thomas’ study of TheArchaeology of MedievalLondon to provide a feel forthe physical nature of thefourteenth-century city. Tothis I would add the veryuseful British Atlas ofHistoric Towns: City ofLondon from PrehistoricTimes to c. 1520, edited by

Mary Lobel, with itsunsurpassed mapsreconstructing the medievallayoutofthecity.Finally,theflavourofcitylifeevokedbyBarbaraHanawalt’sGrowingup in Medieval London: theExperience of Childhood inHistoryprovidesaclearsenseofdailylifeinthecity.Thereis, of course, a formidablebibliography for medievalLondon, but just these fourwill help bring a long-

vanishedcitytolife.The historical evidence

considered in this book hasbeendrawnasfaraspossiblefrom detailed summaries ofprimary sources which havebeen published in calendarform, augmented by someexamination of the originaldocuments themselves. Inaccessing the calendars, Ihave made much use of thesuperbBritishHistoryOnlineinitiative developed by the

Institute of HistoricalResearch at UniversityCollege London(www.british-history.ac.uk),whichprovides full access tothe calendars of the City ofLondon Letter Books, thePleasandMemorandarollsofthe mayoral court, thePossessory Assizes, theAssizeofNuisanceandmanyother sources. I have alsousedtheUniversityofIowa’sonline searchable edition of

http://www.british-history.ac.uk

theCalendarsofPatentRolls(www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/patentrollsTanner-Ritchie’s searchableCD-ROM versions of theCalendar of Papal Letters,and the digital edition of theParliamentary Rolls ofMedieval England. Inconverting medieval feastdays to modern equivalents(alldateshavebeenrenderedin the Gregorian system), Ihave made much use of theonline regnal calendar for

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/patentrolls

Edward III atwww.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/cal/reg11.htm. Onesecondary source deservingof special mention, itself acollation of excerpts fromprimarymedievaldocuments,is Rosemary Horrox’sinvaluableTheBlackDeath.

The most importantsourceforthisstudyhasbeenthe two-volume Calendar ofWillsEnrolledintheCourtof

http://www.medievalgenealogy.org. uk/cal/reg11.htm

Husting.4Coveringtheperiod1259–1688, the wills areespecially useful for the firstthree-quarters of thefourteenth century, and giveus a superb insight into thearrangements made by thewealthier segment of thecitizenry during the plagueyears.5 What makes themparticularly useful is theadoption, at the outset ofEdward III’s reign, of the

practiceofrecordingthedateon which the will wasactually drawn up. Thisinformation provides us withaneffectivemeansofgaugingthelevelofthreatthatpeopleconsidered themselves to beunder, as well as the threatthat they actually did face,and is therefore a uniquebarometer of the impact onLondon citizens at the time.Previoussystematicstudiesoftheevidencefromthissource

havebeenaimedprimarilyatexamining numerical trends,andmosthavenotfactoredinthe dates the wills weredrawnup.6Thisconsiderablyenhances our understandingofmortalitytrendsduringtheoutbreaks, as well asproviding the intimateevidence, contained inhundreds of wills written orenrolled during the fouroutbreaks of pestilence

between 1348 and 1375, ofcitizens as they prepared forand succumbed to thedevastating disease. As withallhistoricaldocuments, theyhave their limitations, and itis important to understandhow the wills originated andhow the court that enrolledthemactuallyoperated.

Willswereusuallydrawnup at a time when deathseemed likely to theindividual concerned. The

priestwhoattendedthedyingto administer the last ritesoften also scribed thedocument. The will wouldthenbekeptbytheindividualor a nominatedrepresentative, to bepresented by the executor orrelative to the appropriateecclesiastical court afterdeath. The oversight ofprobate was reservedgenerally for theecclesiasticalcourts,butatan

early stage (and at least by1258) theHusting court tookcharge of those wills whichinvolved real estate withinLondon owned andbequeathedbycitizens.7Veryfew of the wills may havebeen enrolled during thelifetime of their makers –which would make their usein establishing death ratesnonsensical – but we can beconfident that this is a tiny

fraction.Therolls intowhichthese portions of wills wereenteredwereusedprincipallyas proof of title to land andrents.8Assuch,theyreflectedthelegalpropertyinterestsofthewealthierLondoncitizensandtheirheirsandexecutors.

The numbers of willsbeing drawn up and enrolledin Husting form an indicatorof the general expectations,and experience, of mortality

among the reasonably well-off and, by extension, mayformabenchmarkforthecityasawhole.ThepercentageofLondoners that used theHustingcourtisverydifficultto calculate. Between 1327and 1348, the drawing up ofwills and enrolments hadeachaveragedaroundtwenty-eight per annum.9 IfLondon’s population in 1348was60,000inall,10ofwhich

around 40 per cent werechildren and adult mortalitywas about 35 per 1,000 perannum (a figure estimated asreasonableforapre-industrialsociety), then an average of1,260 adults might beexpected to have died eachyear. Of the annual averagetwenty-eight pre-plagueHusting wills, they werepredominantly (approx. 86per cent)madebymen.11So

twenty-fourmalewillsmightbe taken to represent 630adultmale deaths – almost 4per cent. Of course, thepicture is vastly morecomplex than this, as manywho had been formallyadmitted as citizens did notactuallylivewithinthewalls,but it is quite clear that thepercentage is low.Nonetheless, for thefourteenth century at least,the Husting rolls provide a

uniquemeasureoftheimpactofsuccessiveplagues.

They also provide othervaluable insights. Willswhich came before theHusting had already beenbefore one of theecclesiastical courts todetermine probate, so somedelay might be anticipatedbetweendeathandenrolment.This potential delay issignificant. There is clearevidence (presented in the

main text) for wills enrolledweeks, months, or possiblyevenyearsaftertheirmakers’deaths. Professor JamesWood’s examination of thetime-lag apparent in fillingvacant clerical beneficesacross England demonstratesclearly that the speed of thespreadoftheplaguehasbeenconsistently and significantlyunderestimated;12 sadly, thebishops’registersaremissing

for the whole diocese ofLondon for the years 1337–61,13 and all we have tobalance this is a partialpicturefromthepresentationsmade by the king duringvacancies in monasteries.However, the wills evidencestrongly supports this view,and it is likely that the speedof the passage of plaguepresentedinthisbookmayifanything be too slow.

Crucially, though, the daterecorded for the writing ofeach will acts as a terminuspostquem, so the profile hasan accuracy not achievablethrough other forms ofrecord.

I have used theinformation in the Hustingwills toassesswiderchangesincharityandreligiousbelief,buttoputthisincontext,itisimportant to understand thatthe nature of thesewillswas

dynamic, and thatconsiderable changes havebeen identified as dating tothe periods 1339–50 and1350 onwards. Before 1339the wills were concernedprimarily with immovablegoods – essentially realestate. However, from about1340, chattels and pecuniarybequests begin to featuremuch more commonly, andfrom1350onwardsthistrendis particularly marked. The

reason for the shift is notclearbutmayhaverelated toincreased efforts to taxmoveable goods.14 Thischange means that assessingtrends based on thecomparison of pre-and post-pestilence wills requirescaution.

For the two latestoutbreaks of plague aboutwhichthisbookisconcerned,those of 1368 and 1375, an

increasing amount ofinformationsurvivesfromtheecclesiastical courts. Thisincludes the ArchdeaconryCourt wills (one incompleteregister from 1368), dealingwith London’s ‘middlingsort’, and with jurisdictionover about half of theparishesofthecity(andafewnearby parishes such asClerkenwell and Shoreditch);and the Commissary Court(beginning in 1373). The

third ecclesiastical courtrelating to London, thePrerogative Court ofCanterbury, contains willsonly dated from 1383onwards, so has not beenused for this survey. Chancereferences in wills andcharters indicate that spokenwillsformedanotablepartofLondoners’ testamentarytoolkit. These nuncupativewillsclearlyleavenoprimarydocumentary trace, but

probates were entered in theregisters of the ecclesiasticalcourts in thesamemannerasfor written wills: between1375 and 1400 the probatesofover380suchspokenwillsarerecorded.15

ItisclearthattheHustingwills, and indeed the otherecclesiastical registers,represent the response of theadult, propertied, andmainlymale, segment of Londoners.

We therefore translate theexperiencesinthemacrosstothethousandsofpoorandthewomen and the children inthe city and suburbs atconsiderable risk. Oursourcesforthese,themajorityof Londoners, are sadlylimited. What survivesincludes a small number ofintermittent, sometimespoorly preserved andunpublished court andaccount rolls from a handful

of manors adjacent to thecity.Many of these have notyet been examined but one,relating to the manor ofStepney,16providesimportantcorroborativeevidencewhichsupports and amplifies thatderived from the wills, andprovides a remarkablycoherentpictureofthetimingandimpactofthedisease.

One

THEBEGINNING

OUTBREAKS OFdiseasewere a fact oflife in medievalLondon, and the term‘plague’ or ‘pestilence’covered a multitude of sins.One of the earliest medievalrecords of a Londoner dyingofsomethingcalledplagueisthatof thepassingofBishopFulk Basset in 1259,17 andepidemics in fourteenth-century London were, of

course, known prior to thearrival of the Black Death.18They were occasionally ofsignificant dimensions. Thefifteenth-century FrenchChronicleofLondonrecordedthe ‘great pestilence’ amongthesurvivorsofthefamineof1315–16,while the chronicleofHenryKnighton, coveringthe years 1337–96, recordedhowaplague in1340caused‘men to bark like dogs’with

pain.19 It was perhaps withthis outbreak, or anundocumented more recentone, inmind that on Sunday10 August 1343, it wasproclaimed throughout thecity that as part of measuresintroduced tokeep theking’speace, ‘All men of themisteries, as well asvictuallers, journeymen,labourers and servants, shallwork as they used to do

before the pestilence, underpain of imprisonment andfine’.20

Whatever this pestilencewas, it had clearly beensufficienttoreducethelabourpoolinthecity,andthecity’sresponse to attempt to limitwages presaged the stringentstatutory measures whichwould be introducedfollowing the devastatingpestilence of 1348–9. The

early1340spestilenceleftnoobvious trace within thewealthier will-making grouprepresented by the Hustingrolls;21 itmayofcoursehaveaffected the poorer strata ofthe city more seriously thanthe wealthy, but it isnoteworthy that a plagueapparentlysignificantenoughto elicit a response from thecity authorities regardingmortality levels could be

otherwise invisible in thetestamentary record. So theLondon of the 1340s hadexperienced epidemics, butthat experience would nothave prepared the citizensandresidentsforwhatwastocome just a few years later.The years 1348 and 1349weretowitnesstheunfoldingof the ‘most lethalcatastrophe in recordedhistory’.22

AnImageofLondoninthe1340s

It is helpful to sketch out animage of London by way ofsetting the scene.The city inthe reign of Edward III wasby European standardsimpressive. By Englishstandards it was a colossus,anditdominatednationalandoverseas trade, political andcourtlyinterests.In1339,just

a decade before the eventsdescribedinthisbook,itwasdescribed as a ‘mirror andexample to the whole land’.Aconurbationcomprisingthewalled city, extensivesuburbs, Southwark acrossthe Thames, andWestminster, its residentpopulation probablynumbered near 80,000 soulsin1300,fourtimesthesizeofNorwich, and ten times thatofGreatYarmouth.Itwasthe

hub of an international tradenetwork which broughtmerchants from across theknown world by both landand sea. It boasted a verydiverse economy, a complexcivic administration that wasemulated elsewhere, thelargest concentration ofreligious houses, hospitalsand friaries in the land, andcrucially, atWestminster, thecoalescing centre of nationalgovernment.

Its walled circumferencewas essentially Roman, withthe exception in the west ofthe westward bulge of theDominican friary, and in theeast the vastness of theTower. At its spiritual heartlay St Paul’s Cathedral,Romanesque at its core, butwith considerable, newlycompleted work includingone of the greatest spires inEurope dominating theskyline finished in 1314;

nearby, a little to the north-east, stood the greatGuildhall, seat of theprincipal civic administrativerulership in the form of themayor and aldermen. Thecity’s economic engine wastheextensivewaterfront,thena complex mixture of stoneriver walls and timberrevetments, docks, wharvesandcranesprojectingoutwardintothehighwaythatwastheThames. Vessels clustered

aroundthese,loadingandoff-loading the prodigiousquantities of exports andimports, to be transferredaway along bustling lanessuch as Dowgate,Billingsgate and Oystergateup to the warehouses, shopsand markets that lined thestreets. Major markets couldbefoundwithinthecity,suchas at the Shambles (meatmarket), Poultry (poultrymarket) and Cornhill (grain

market); and major yearlyfairs took place at, forexample, West Smithfield(livestock) and WestminsterAbbey.

The houses were amixture of numerous finestonemansions,suchasJohnPoulteney’s Coldharbour, ortowered complexes such asServat’s tower atBucklersbury, and the moremodest wooden and stonetenementspackinginperhaps

60,000 inhabitants in all in1348.Gardensthereweretoo,in numbers, with fruit treesand livestock regularlyreferred to in the documents,andsomeareas,especiallythenorth-western quarter of thecity, may have presented asurprisingly green aspect.Industrywaseverywhere,atacraft or cottage scale andsometimes on a moreintensive basis as inCripplegate in the north-west

andStMaryAxeinthenorth-east, where archaeologicalevidence for metalworkingcovering multiple plots hasbeenfound.

One hundred and twentyparish churches served thereligious needs of thisteemingpopulationwiththeirbelfries, fonts andchurchyardsfor thedead,butas well as these, London’sgreatinfluencehaddrawnthereligious orders to found

numerous monasteries andnunneries.OutsideAldersgatelay St Bartholomew’s prioryand hospital, and across thegreat livestock market atWest Smithfield stood thegreat priory of St John ofJerusalem, the headquartersof the Knights Hospitaller,and the nunnery atClerkenwell; west, towardsWestminster, was theCarmelite (White) friary, andnexttoit,thehallsandchurch

of the disbanded KnightsTemplar, now filling withLondon’s growing cadre oflawyersandappellants.

InsideNewgate stood theFranciscan (Grey) friary, notfar from the Dominican(Black) friars against theextended city wall to thesouth, and even closer to thevenerable college of StMartin-le-Grand. On theeastern side of the citygathered a similarly

impressivegroupofmonastichouses.StHelen’snunneryinBishopsgatestoodsouthofStMary Bethlehem (of Bedlamfame), which in turn wasneighbours almost with thegreat hospital priory of StMary Spital, just beyond thegate itself. At Aldgate stoodthe impressive church andpriory of Holy Trinity, andsouth and east of this stood,insidethewalls, thehouseofthe friars of the Holy Cross

(the ‘Crutched Friars’).Beyond them was the houseof the sisters known as thePoor Clares, or Minoresses,Franciscan nuns who passedtheir name to the area of theMinories. Concluding thecircuit, to the south-east oftheTowerlaythethirdofthecity’s hospitals, that of StKatherine.Mostofthesewerewellestablished,havingbeenfounded as much as twocenturies earlier, but two

were very recent. Thehospital and priory of StMary founded by WilliamElsyng,theremainsofwhosechurch still stand on LondonWalljusteastoftheBarbicanCentre, was less than twentyyears old, and the collegefounded by Sir John dePulteney, or Pountney,adjacent to the parish churchthat still bears his name, StLawrence Pountney, wasdowntowardstheriver.

The prisons at this date,especially the Fleet prisonand nearby Newgate, werefearsome places where,without external support, onerantherealriskofstarvingtodeath or being consumed bysickness. Equally feared wasthe humiliation, agony andsignificant risk of long-termdamage froma fewhoursonCheapside’s famous pillory,with the rotting meat orcounterfeit clothing burned

beneath the villain’s face:some would risk a prisonsentence to avoid thisparticular punishment. Thetheft of two oxen and threecowsfromoutsideAldersgateearned Thomas de Braye ahanging in March 1348, andthe spikes of London Bridgeheld traitors’ heads freshfrom Tower Hill or Tyburn,or the less well-knownexecution site atNomannesland out towards

Clerkenwell.Fromamongtheriverside

quays the many-archedtwelfth-century stone bridgespanned theThames south toSouthwark. This wasconsideredasuburbbymany,but with a population ofperhaps 5,000 it was largeenoughtojustifybeingcalleda town.23 The houses,includingsomefinemansionssuch as that of the Prior of

Lewes, clustered near thebridgehead and along themain north–south road, or,likeDunley’sPlace,alongthewaterfront.24 The settlementhad several parish churchesand two important religioushouses – the Cluniacmonastery at Bermondsey tothe east and, near thebridgehead, the Augustinianpriory of StMaryOvery. Tothewestof thepriory lay the

extensivewaterfrontpalaceofthe Bishop of Winchester.ThehospitalofStThomaslayset back from the main highstreet, and at the extremesouthernendofthesettlementcould be found the leperhospital knownasTheLock.Southwark was the site ofnumerousbrothels,andbythe1370sheld twoprisons– theKing’s Bench and theMarshalsea.

Westward from the city

extended a ribbondevelopment along FleetStreetandtheStrandtowardsWestminster. By thefourteenth century this roadwas lined with the mansionsof the elite, of earls, dukesand bishops such as those ofCarlisle, Norwich andDurham, linking theeconomic powerhouse of thecity with the centre ofnational government nowfirmly established at

Westminster Palace.25Among these houses, closerto the city, stood the greatTemple, the former house ofthe dissolved KnightsTemplar, and in the mid-fourteenth century leased outbythesubsequentowners,theKnights Hospitaller, tolawyers and appellantsservingthecityandthecourt.Suitably isolated to the northof this thoroughfare was the

leper hospital of St Giles-in-the-Fields, near the junctionof modern Charing CrossRoadandNewOxfordStreet.

Westminster itself wasdominatedbytheroyalpalaceand the great abbey, formingtheheartofgovernmentinthekingdom. It is easy to forgetthat the townwas significantin its own right with apopulation probablyexceeding 3,000 before the

plague.26 It too had a parishchurch, a leper hospital at StJames in the Fields, and ahospital for the sick at StMary Rounceval, nearCharingCross.

Thesethreeprincipalhubsof urbanismwere, of course,ringed by numerous manors,with their attendant villagesand hamlets, such asIslington, Tottenham,Stepney, Kingsbury and

manymore, sited on or nearthe main highways thatbrought the trade of thenation into the heart ofLondon. The manor houseswereoftenownedbyLondoncitizens,formingruralretreatsawayfromthehubbubofcitylife.

This was London on theeveofthepestilence.

TheThreattoEngland

TheBlackDeathhadalreadybegun its spread acrossEuropeas early as1347, andits march has been chartedelsewhere.27 Its route toBritain was almost certainlyfrom France, and we knowthat by January 1348 it hadstarted killing people inAvignon. Toulouse andPerpignan were affected by

April,LyonsinMay,GivryinJuly,andBordeauxandParisby August. Seaborneinfection had seen deathsbeginning in Rouen in lateJune,althoughCaendoesnotappear to have been affecteduntil September, and Calaisnot until December.28 Thisrate,thoughterrifyinglyrapidfor those caught up in it, didprovidesufficienttimefortheknowledge to spread and for

the implications to beconsidered at the highestlevels.ManyLondonersmusthaveknownoftheimpendingthreat weeks or evenmonthsbeforeitarrived.Englandwasa trading nation and one atwar with its neighbour;despite the obviousinterruptions to cross-Channelcommunicationsthataccompanied the conflict,manymerchantsinthecapitalmusthavebeenawarethatby

spring1348,cityafterFrenchcity was falling before thescourge. Pilgrimages toEuropean shrines were animportant part of everydaymedieval life, and travellersreturning from St James deCompostella, Rome, andother key religious centresthat had been affected earlyon must also have broughttales ofwoe and destruction.We have to assume thatknowledge of its approach

was thus reasonablywidespread in the city longbeforethediseaseitselfmadelandfall,threateningtospreadpanicandterror.

Itis,infact,ratherhardtoestablish exactly how earlythe threat did register withLondoners. The documentaryevidence for very earlyintelligence is slight andoblique.WehavenoLondonpilgrim’s accounts, nomention in administrative

documentsfromthecity,and,so far, no references insurviving merchants’documents. The earliestevidence appears in papalcorrespondence in late spring1348. On 15 May KingEdward sent a team of papaldiplomats to visit PopeClement VI at Avignon tonegotiate an extension of theexisting truce in the warbetweenEnglandandFrance.The team comprised John

Carlton, chancellor of WellsCathedral, Thomas Fastolf,Archdeacon of Wells and apapal chaplain, and,significantly for London,John de Reppes, prior of theLondonWhitefriarsandpapalenvoysince1343.29

This advance party wasclearlyintendedtonegotiateastop-gap in the war; theywere given power only todiscuss a maximum of one

year’s extension to the truce,pendingtheintendeddispatchtowardstheendofSeptember1348oftheEarlsofLancasterand Arundel, and theArchbishop of Canterbury,withaviewtoamorebindingarrangement. It is Carlton’ssignal to the Pope that hismission was limited whichprovides us with the firstclearevidencethat,inEnglishdiplomaticcirclesatleast,thepotencyofthepestilencewas

recognised. Acting oninformation received fromCarlton before 30 May, thePope wrote to Philip ofFrancetoexhorthimlikewiseto send envoys to Avignon,stating that the archbishopandthetwoearlswereduetocome from England to thepapal court at Michaelmas(29 September) to give theirconsenttotheprolongationofthetruce,‘unlesshinderedby

theepidemic’.30Since Carlton was the

sourceof the information, deReppesandFastolfmusthaveknown, and it is almostcertain that such a plan hadbeen discussed in advancewith Edward. We maythereforesafelyconcludethatthe English king and at leastone London prelate bothknew as early as May 1348that anepidemichadgripped

France, and that Englishmenabroadwereatrisk.Thekingmost likely knew muchearlier than this, but proof iswanting.

Thereseemstohavebeenno further indication ofEnglish activity orpreparation for any suchcrisis in June. In Europe,however, stresses werereachingbreakingpoint.On5July,inresponsetoagrowingpopular suspicion of the

source of the plague andresultant violence againstthem in Germany and othercountries, Clement VIattempted to protect Jews bythe reissue of theBull ‘SicutJudeis’.31WhileitclearlydidnotdirectlyaffectEnglandinany substantive way, it islikely that knowledge of theBull would have made itsway there quickly, providinganother route along which

knowledge of the pestilencemight have flowed toLondon. By the end of themonth, the king’s concernsover theplagueand itseffectonhissubjectsoverseasweregrowing. On 25 July,following the election ofWilliamdeKenyngton to theabbacy of St AugustineCanterbury,Edward,‘inviewof the war with France thenimminent, the dangers of theways and the peril of death,

by letters patent prohibited[William] from going’ toRome to confirm hiselevation.32 The reference isoblique, and plague is notspecifically mentioned, butthe reinforcement of threekinds of danger, including‘peril of death’, is stronglysuggestive of priorknowledge of the damagebeingwreakedbythediseasewhich had, by this date,

reachednorthernFrance.Royal concern was

mirroredbythatoftheseniorclergy of the land. That thethreat was being discussedopenlyinnorthernEnglandismadeclearinaletterdated28July from William Zouche,Archbishop of York, to hisofficial in that city.33 Hewrote: ‘There can be no onewhodoesnotknow,sinceitisnow public knowledge, how

great a mortality, pestilenceand infection of the air arenowthreateningvariouspartsof the world, and especiallyEngland.’ Identifying itscauseas thesinfulnessof thepeople,helaidouttheearlieststrategic defence plansagainsttheplague:

Therefore wecommand, and orderyoutoletitbeknownwith all possible

haste, that devoutprocessions are to beheld everyWednesday andFriday in ourcathedral church, inother collegiate andconventual churches,and in every parishchurchinourcityanddiocese… and that aspecial prayer be saidinmasseveryday forallaying the plague

andpestilence.

A release of forty days ofpenancewasofferedforthoseaccepting the indulgence andentering into theprocessions.Thissenseofurgencyfromanorthernprelateisstriking,asis the sense thatonlya long-term round of mass prayerwas likely to succeed. Thewarnings had been madepublic across the largestreligious province in the

kingdom.IfYorkwasmakingpreparations of this nature,how much more concernedmustLondon,farclosertothedanger, have been at thistime.

The warnings becamemore urgent. On 17 August1348 Ralph of Shrewsbury,BishopofBathandWells(nodoubtwell-informed by JohnCarlton), communicated tohis own archdeacons the factthat a ‘catastrophic

pestilence’ had arrived in ‘aneighbouring kingdom’, andurged that ‘unless we praydevoutly and incessantly, asimilarpestilencewill stretchits poisonous branches intothis realm and strike downand consume itsinhabitants’.34 His proposedstrategyofprayerwassimilarto, and perhaps based upon,Zouche’s with processionsandstationstobeheldatleast

every Friday in all churchesin the diocese. King Edwardwas almost certainly keenlyawareoftheconcernsbothofZouche and Ralph ofShrewsbury. Before 23August1348heisreportedtohave given seriousconsideration to the‘pestilences and wretchedmortalities of men whichhave flared up in otherregions’, and to have sentletters to the Archbishop of

Canterbury, John Stratford,requesting prayers to be saidthroughout the province ofCanterbury.35 Stratford,whoseresponsibilityitwastohavecommunicatedthisroyalrequest through his bishops,died(thoughnot,asfaraswecantell,ofanyplague)on24August, and as a result thetransmission of the orderswas delayed until thefollowingmonth.

There is good reason tosuspectthattheking’sseriousconsideration also extendedto his own spiritualpreparations for impendingdisaster. The chapel of StStephen the Protomartyr inWestminsterPalacehadbeenunder substantial renovationfor a number of years, butwas as yet incomplete.However, on 6 August 1348Edward confirmed theestablishment of a college

comprisingadeanandtwelvecanons, granting them his‘great inn’inLombardStreetinthecityatthesametime.36The king cemented thisarrangement on 20 Augustthrough a grant for life to anumberofhisseniorservants.Thomas Crosse, clerk of theGreatWardrobe,receivedthedeanery;JohndeChesterfieldand John de Maydenstone,clerks, received the first and

secondprebends;andJohndeBuckingham, a chamberlain,the third.37 On its own, thismay simply have representedan appropriate time to moveaheadwith the foundation ofthe college, but it is strikingthat on the very same day,Edward also recorded hisintention to enhanceconsiderably the smallcollege of eight canons atWindsor Castle. He

determinedthat:

the glory of theDivine Name may beexalted by moreextended worship [bythe addition of] awarden and presidentofthesame,fifteen…other canons, andtwenty-four poorknights, to bemaintained of thegoods of the chapel,

with other ministers,under the rule of thewarden, willing thatthe canons andministers shallcelebrate divineoffices there,according to anordinancetobemade,for him and hisprogenitors andsuccessors, in partsatisfactionofthoseofwhom in the last

judgement he willhave to giveaccount.38

Thesetwofoundationswouldcertainly have provided theking with a considerablepersonal intercessoryarmament against theimpendingscourge.

Despite these earlyintimations and preparations,lifeinthecityappearstohave

continued as normal. Majorbuilding works continued, atStStephen’sWestminsterandalsointheabbeyitself,whererenovation of both the eastand south walks of thecloister were approachingcompletion, at least part ofwhich were most likely tohave been overseen byWilliam Ramsey, the chiefroyal architect.39 At theTower of London, a new

water-gate,theCradleTower,was being constructed topermit direct royal accessfrom the river into thefortress.This towerhadbeenstarted early in 1348, andbuilding was to continuethroughout the plague’svisitation.Itsnamemayhavederived from the presence ofa drawbridge loweredoutward to provide a landingstage for the royal barge andthen raised to seal the outer

entrance to thewater-gate. ItremainsoneofLondon’sfewsurvivingmedieval structuresconfidently datable to thisspecificperiod.40

Commercial landtransactions were frequent,and particular documentsprovide engaging pictures ofLondon life in the weeksbefore the pestilence struck.Forexample,on4September,the king licensed the mayor,

aldermenandcitizenstograntinfeetoJohndeGildesburgh,awealthy fishmonger, a lanecalled ‘Desebournelane’ inthe parish of St MarySomerset near Queenhithe,for the purpose of buildinghouses. The lane ran 215ftdowntotheThamesandwas7ft wide. The grant wasconditional on Gildesburghinserting a gutter ‘to receiveandcarryoffatallseasonsofthe year, rainy or not rainy,

the water from all thehighwaysthererunningdowninto the lane in their wontedmanneranddescendingtotheThames’.41

Evidence is plentiful forthe backdrop of imports andexportsofanenormousrangeof goods into London’s portand through its gates.Arrangements for therepayment of a loan fromhugely wealthy merchants to

the king (principally tofinance thewarwith France)give some indication of thequantitiesofmaterialpassingthrough the port. On 25September the king issued awrit ‘to the collectors of thecustom of wool, hides, andwool-fells on the port ofLondon,withanordertopaySimon de Garton and Hughde Kynardeseye or to theirattorneys 20s out of everysack of wool and of every

300wool-fellsand40soutofevery last of hides taken outofthatport,outoftherealm’until they had recouped£7,500onbehalfoftheking’smerchant financiers, Walterde Chiriton, Thomas deSwanlond and Gilbert deWendlyngburgh.42

Controls on exports toEurope are revealed byexceptions made: on 10September Alan de

Aylesham, a merchant ofKing’sLynn,was licensed totake twelvepacksofworstedcloth to Flanders from theport of London,notwithstanding the lateordinance that cloth must betaken to Calais and notelsewhere.43Farmoremodestcommercial deals are alsoreflected in thedocumentsofthe time, such as the debtacknowledged on 23

September by ThomasReyner, citizen and tavernerof London, to Hamo theBarber, citizen andcornmongerofLondon,of£78s, presumably for advancestock.44 Crafts and tradesguilds appear in thedocumentary record forAugust: the pewterers’ guildordinances were drawn upand presented to the mayorandaldermen,andadmissions

to the guild of leatherersrecorded in the City LetterBooks,forexample.45

The Great Wardrobe, themechanism formanaging theroyalassetsandprovisions,isglimpsed in September.Edward issued a writ of aidfor one year, for Thomas deTottebury, clerk of QueenPhilippa’s greatwardrobe, tobring timber from her parksof Havering-atte-Bower

(Essex),Bansted(Surrey)andIsleworth (Middlesex), andstone from the quarry ofTollesworth (Surrey), andfrom all quarries in thecounty ofKent by the townsof Maidstone and Aylesfordon the Medway. Workmenwere to cart and prepare thestone,and‘tocausethesametobebroughttoherwardrobein “LaRioll” London, at hercharges’.46 La Riole was a

substantial property in theparish of Great St ThomasApostle, to which suchimports occurred roughlyyearly, both before and afterthe principal plague months,suggestingbusinessasusual.

Thecontinuingconductofthe war against Francenaturally remained a subjectof considerable interest toLondon traders.Manywouldhave been heartened to hearthe proclamation on 11

September,transmittedbythesheriffs to the citizens, that atruce had been concludedwithFrance fora termof sixweeks,from13Septemberto25 October. However,negotiations for peace wereby no means complete, andon 25 September the kinggave a commission toWilliam,Bishop ofNorwich,theEarl ofLancaster,RobertdeUfford,EarlofSuffolk,SirWalter de Mauny, and John

deCarleton, to treat formallyfor peace with France. Asuccessfuloutcomecouldnotbe depended upon, sosimultaneously Edward wasaugmentinghisforcesincaseof failure: on 1 October heissuedawrittothesheriffsofLondon (and themayors andbailiffsofseventeenotherseaports) to unload merchantships and send them to jointhefleet.47

TheTowerofLondonhadseveral roles at this time,including acting as a royalpalace, a storehouse, the siteof the royal mint and as aroyal prison. Both the latterare glimpsed when, on 26September, the kinginstructed John Darcy,constable of the Tower, torelease one Nicholas de Luk(de Lucca), lately a serjeantofPercivaldePortico,masterof king’s money in the

Tower. De Luk had beenimprisoned there foraccounting anomaliesidentified by de Portico, buthadprotestedthathewasableto fully account for anyinconsistencies. Lacking anycounter-argument from dePortico, the king ordered deLuk’s release.48 Anothernotorious London prisonmakes an appearance at thistime,whenanorderwassent

from the king to sheriffs ofLondon to release WilliamTalentyre, clerk, fromNewgate prison, pending acourt hearing on a chargeagainst him of writing acharter with the king’s sealattached, ‘ingeniouslyabstractedfromcertainoftheking’sletterspatent’andthenfastenedtothatcharter.49

London citizensthemselves and the minutiae

of their lives also surface inthe documentary records,most commonly throughpersonal disputes and thewills they left.Disputes overproperty came before thecourtknownas theAssizeofNuisance, held at theGuildhall. On 26 Septembertwocomplaintswereheardbythemayorandaldermen,bothtouchingly ‘modern’ andfamiliar.Thefirstwasapartywall dispute of sorts. Alan

Gille and John deHardyngham, wardens ofLondon Bridge, alleged thatThomas Isoude, rector of StMargaret Friday Street,removed a rain gutter on thesouth side of the church tobuild a kitchen, and replacedthe old gutter with two newgutters, one to receive thewater from the church, andthe other, leading into it, thewater and waste from thekitchen. However, the water

from both fell instead uponthetilesandpartywallsoftheBridge tenement adjoiningthe church, causingfoundations,wallsandtimberto rot. The rector was givenforty days to remedy thesituation.50

The second case was avery early example of anancient lights dispute.William Peverel, QueenPhilippa’s tailor, complained

that Matilda (Maud) atteVigne had built a cellar,blocking the light of thewindows in his tenement inthe parish of St ClementCandlewickstreet opening ontoherlandandgarden,whichhe was intending to enlarge.Matilda replied that she hadbuiltonherownland,asshewas entitled to do, and thattherewasnocaseagainsther.William maintained that theformer owner of her plot,

Gilbert de Colchester, hadgrantedbydeed toWilliam’spredecessor,inperpetuity,thelight of the windowsoverlooking her tenement,withtherighttoenlargethemat will, and he produced adeed sealed with Gilbert’sseal.Matilda denied that anysuch arrangement was evergranted by Gilbert anddeclaredthatthedeedwasnothis.The casewas referred tothenextHustingofCommon

Pleas.51Theoutcomeremainsamystery;theAssizewasnotto hear petitions again foreightmonths.

Deathwasever-presentinthe crowded city, and manywealthier citizens withproperty interests wereaccustomed to drawing upwills for enrolment in theCourt of Husting. Thesummer of 1348 in Londonwasunremarkableintermsof

will-making, with two willsdrawn up in July, five inAugust and six inSeptember.52 The court wassuspended at harvest time(August and September) andformajorfairs,buteightwillswere enrolled in July 1348,which was not an unusualnumber for the height ofsummer. Another potentialindicator of concern overmattersofmortality, requests

from wealthy citizens forpapal permission to chooseone’sconfessoratthehourofdeath, reveals no especialchange from levels inprevious years: two marriedcouples, Simon de Berkyngand his wife Lucy, andThomas Leggy, then Mayorof London, and his wifeMargaret, received indults ofthis sort in July and Augustrespectively,53 but that was

thesumtotaluptoSeptember1348. By this date wealthyLondonerswereneitherdyingin excessive numbers nor, itwould appear, expecting to.To the east, the picture wassimilar for the poorcustomary tenants workingthe land of the Bishop ofLondon’s manor at Stepney.Theperiodical court rolls areincomplete,butthecourtheldon30October1348,coveringareas of Stepney, Hackney,

Mile End, Stratford andHolywell Street, reports nodeaths from the previouscourt (undated, but probablyat least a month earlier),confirming instead threetenements held in the lord’shands(duetoearlierdeathsoftenants, one at least datingbacktoSeptember1347).54

These reflections ofLondon urban life in thesummer and autumn of 1348

are just snippets, but takentogether they provide aflavourofdailylifeanddeathinthebusiestcityintheland.None of the documentsmentionanythingatallaboutthe plague, but in just a fewweeks, byAllHallows’ Eve,this familiar socialenvironment was to facepotentialobliteration.

AnEnglishPestilence

The various chroniclessuggest a date for the arrivalof the plague in Englandbetween late June and lateSeptember.We must assumethat what they meant by‘arrival’ was the firstappearance of the symptomsand the evidence of anabnormal death rate. Theactual date of landfall may

have been some days orpossibly weeks earlier, whenthe pathogen was still in itsincubation stage and its firsthuman carriers wereinfectious but not displayingany symptoms.55 However,there are no certainindependentmanorialorroyalaccounts of pestilenceanywhere in England beforeOctober 1348, and I suggesthere that theplaguemade its

first Englishmanifestation inlate September or earlyOctober,andnotinAugust.56The royal family itself mayhave received one of theearliestblows.

Preparations for themarriage of Edward’sdaughter Joan to Pedro,infante of Castile, had beenunderwaysinceasearlyas1January 1348, withestablishments that any male

heirwould inherit the titleofKingofCastile.57EnroutetoSpain,Joanandherentouragedeparted Portsmouth in earlyAugust, arriving some timebefore the20th.Sheperishedoftheplagueon2September.Edward was probably atClarendon when the newsarrived, but had returned toWestminster before he wroteto the Spanish royal family.His letter, dated 15 October,

makes clear his inwarddesolation caused by the‘stingofthisbittergrief’,butilluminates a brave face onthe tragedy as he acceptedthat he had a daughter inheaven who can ‘gladlyintercede for our offencesbeforeGodhimself’.58

Nor was this the sum ofEdward’s personal woes. On5 September, at a lavish andfully regal funeral, Edward’s

3-month-old son,William ofWindsor, was laid to rest inWestminster Abbey. Theinfant’s body had beenbrought from Brentford(perhaps having been bornethere by boat fromWindsor)to London accompanied byfifty paupers ‘of the King’salms’, carrying torches, forwhichtheywerepaidISeach,and laid out in state in theabbey church. Curiously, theaccounting for the paupers’

expenses only appears in theMichaelmas term ofEdward’s twenty-third year;in other words, after thecessation of the plague overoneyearlater.59

Probably through theinsistence of a king spurredon by such personal disaster,on28September1348RobertHathbrand, the prior ofChristchurch Canterbury,acting during the vacancy of

the Archbishopric, sent toRalph Stratford, Bishop ofLondon, the orders fromEdward III originally sent tothe lateArchbishop Stratfordin August. The letter isknown as Terribilis, from itsopening word.60 In itHathbrand underlines theimminent disaster: ‘it is nowto be feared that the …kingdom is to be oppressedby the pestilences and

wretched mortalities …whichhaveflaredupinotherregions’. Such languageindicates that to hisknowledge the disease hadnot yet attackedEngland.Byway of rationalising thecoming plague, HathbrandsuggestedthatGodusedsuchdevices to ‘terrify andtormentmenandsodriveouttheir sins’, and exhorted thebishoptoorganisesermonsatsuitable times, and

processionseveryWednesdayandFridaytohelppacifyGodthrough prayer. Thosecitizens partakingwere to beoffered indulgences grantingthemareductionoftheirtimeinPurgatory.Thebishopwaspersonally to ensure thatthese measures were set inplace throughout thecityanddiocese of London, tocommunicate to his fellowbishops in the southernprovince, and to report back

to the prior before 6 January1349 to explainwhat actionshad been taken. RalphStratford received theseinstructions by 5 October1348, and communicatedthem to, among others, theBishops of Exeter andHereford.There, themessagewastobespreadtothepeople‘during procession andsermon in the cathedral’,61and it is thusvery likely that

this was the mechanism forinformingLondoners,too.

We can be sure that byearly October, all of Londonwas aware that death wasthreateningsouthernEngland,andthatthecitynowlayinitspath.Quitepossibly, the firstinfected carriers had alreadyentered the city, and theinexorable, invisible spreadhadbegun.

Geoffrey le Baker (d. c.1360), a clerk of Swinbrook,

Oxfordshire, in an importantchronicledetailing theperiod1303–56, claimed that thepestilenceenteredLondonon29September1348.62Alaterannal from BermondseyAbbey in Southwark,covering the years 1042–1432, repeats this date, butmay have been based on leBaker’s work. However, thisdate seems rather too early,given the circumstantial

evidence from other sources.The number of willsLondoners drew up (six inOctober) and the number ofpapal assents to chooseconfessors does not paint apictureof fearorpanic,evenif they might hint at anincreasingconcern.

Four citizens receivingindults to choose their ownconfessors were ThomasCavendish, a draper onCheapside, and Nicholas

Ponge, a vintner nearBishopsgate, and tworelatives,Matilda andRobertWhite,thelatteracanonofStPaul’sCathedral. In terms ofthe numbers ofwealthywill-makingLondonerswhoweredying, only two wills wereproved.63 Covering parishesimmediately to the north andeast of the city, the court ofthe Bishop of London’smanorofStepney,heldon30

October 1348, records nodeaths whatsoever, in starkcontrast to itsnext session inearly December andsubsequentones.64Soitmustbe concluded that as yet, thepestilence had not physicallymanifestedinthecity,evenifits psychological presencemay have begun to makeitselffelt.

Further indirect supportfor a lack of any increased

mortalitycanbederivedfromthe analysis of 193 probateslisted for May 1347 throughto November 1348 in theregister of Hamo de Hethe,Bishop of Rochester, adiocese which encompassedparishes as close to Londonas Greenwich. The lastentered probates date to 3November1348,andasteadymonthly average of aboutnine probates characterisesthesample.By23December,

however, with ‘the plaguenow raging’, anyone withinthe diocese was empoweredby papal licence to hearconfessionsofthevictims.65

DuringOctober1348, thewarwithFrance,negotiationsover prisoners capturedduring the king’s Scottishcampaigns – especially theyoung King David II – andother domestic matters seemto have taken up more of

Edward’s energies than anypreparation for the plagueitself. Perhaps, havingestablishedtheframeworkfora spiritual response, he feltable to set the responsibilityon the shoulders of thebishops. Certainly hisbusiness relating to Londonreveals no specific evidenceof disaster. He remained atWestminster throughoutmostofOctober(certainlyfromthe4th to the 24th), and on the

8th he issued a writ to thesheriffs of London forproclamation tobemade‘forsuch men-at-arms, hoblers,archers, and others, as werewilling to serve the Kingabroad, tobeatSandwichonSunday before the Feast ofSaints Simon and Jude (28thOctober)atthelatest’.66

Two days later, Edwardissued safe conduct untilsummer 1349 for Joan, wife

of David II of Scotland, tocometotheTowerofLondonto keep her husbandcompany, following it upwith similar safe conductuntil December for Thomas,Bishop of Caithness, to treatfor David’s liberation fromtheTower(aneffort thatwasunsuccessful).67 On 12October protection was alsooffered to the prior ofBermondsey(aCluniachouse

still dependent on its Frenchprovince, so ‘alien’), towhom the king had givencustody of the priory duringthe war with France; royalprotection extended to thepriory and its community.Similar consideration wasgiven to alms-gatheringactivities by hospitals inLondon, and he issued royalprotectionfortwoyearstothemaster and brethren of thehospital of St Thomas the

Martyr in Southwark.68Lastly, an investigation intothe theft of £188 worth ofjewelsandotheritemsfromaturretintheTower,sometimebetween their deposition in1347 and 25 October 1348,ledthekingtoissueaformalpardon to Bishop WilliamEdington ofWinchester, alsothe king’s treasurer, and toThomas Crosse and John deBuckingham (canons of

Edward’s new college atWestminster), whoseresponsibility it was tomanage such royal assets.69These issues andcorrespondences, focusingoncurrent events and royalresponsibilities, do not seemto accord at all with theimage of a city alreadywracked by death anddisease.

The clearest indication

that the killer had not yetbegun its harvest was theletter written on 24 Octoberby the Bishop ofWinchesterwhile in his chambers in theepiscopal palace on the westside of Southwark. Thepalacewasavery substantialThames-side residence andguaranteed the bishopexcellent access to the cityand Westminster on the farside of the river. Edington’sletter,writtentothepriorand

chapter of St Swithin’sWinchester and to all otherclergy in his diocese, was acall to spiritual arms toprotect Winchester and itspeople.Knownas‘AvoiceinRama’ in reference to theMassacre of the Innocents,70the letter conjured up starkand fearful imagery. Of thevillages, towns and citiesconsumed by the plague, itmourns that ‘all joy within

them ceases, all sweetness isdammed up, the sound ofmirth silenced, and theybecome instead places ofhorror …’ It confirmed thedreadfulnews that ‘thiscruelplague has now begun a …savage attack’ on England’scoastalareas.

Edington, echoingZouche, Shrewsbury andothers, commanded that themonksgatherintheirchoironWednesdays and Sundays,

and recite the sevenpenitential psalms and thefifteen psalms of degrees ontheir knees. On Fridays, thecommunity was to processthrough the market placesinging thesamepsalms,andalso ‘the great litanyinstitutedbythefathersofthechurch for use against thepestilence’.For thepeopleofhis diocese, though, the timefor defence had passed: theplague was in all likelihood

alreadyamongthem.TowhatEdington’s‘great

litany’ refers is not exactlyclear. It is obvious that aspecial processional prayeragainst the plague had beenconstructed.Itmayhavebeenbased in some form on themissa pro mortalitateevitanda, the Mass foravoiding the plague, whichhad been compiled by PopeClement VI in Avignon.71

ThisMasspromised260daysof indulgence to all whoheard it and were trulycontrite and confessed, andguaranteedthatallwhoheardit on five consecutive days,kneeling with a candle intheir hands, would notsuccumb to suddendeath. Itsefficacy had apparently beenproved in Avignon andsurrounding parts. Whateverthecontentof the litanywas,the letter itself, written in

London, must surelydemonstrate that the plaguewas as yet unfelt in thecapital.

As October drew to aclose, changes to civicadministration were in train.Thomas Leggy’s term at theGuildhall asLondon’smayorcame to an end, and he wasreplaced by John Lovekyn.72It was to be Lovekyn’s termthat encompassed almost

exactly the duration of theplague. Meanwhile, the kinghad selected John deOfford,then Chancellor of England,deanofLincoln,andprebendofStPaul’sCathedral, ashispreferred candidate for theArchbishopric of Canterbury.The Pope favoured thedecision(despitethefact thatthe chapter at Canterburywished another Londoncanon, ThomasBradwardine,to take his place). De

Offord’s selection wasinevitable given his powerfulsupport; once confirmed, hewouldgainaccesstothegreatLondonarchiepiscopalpalaceatLambeth,buthewouldnotbe able to retain all theproperties held through StPaul’sCathedral:inaletterof24 October to John deCarleton (the canon ofWellswho helped negotiate thetruce with France), the Popereserved to the latter the

canonry and prebend ofTottenhale, which de Offordwould have to resign on hiselevation.73 This moated sitestood on the site of themodern junction betweenEuston Road and TottenhamCourtRoad,and thus ineasyreach of the main westernroute to the city, but it hasnow long since vanishedcompletely. In contrast,Lambeth Palace, directly

across the Thames fromWestminster, still standsremarkablycomplete.

In late October, in achamberneartheheartofthepalace, Robert of Avesbury,the archbishop’s commissoryclerk, was no doubt hard atwork.AvesburywasprobablyLondon’s most credible eye-witness chronicler to theunfolding disaster thatencompassed the city, and itisinhisdeGestisMirabilibus

RegisEdwardiTertii thatweareprovidedwith thedateofAllSaints’Day,1November1348,as thebeginningof thevisible signs of pestilence inthe city, as it took root and‘daily deprived many oflife’.74

Two

THEPESTILENCEINLONDON

TTheCityInfected,November1348

HERE SEEMS littlereason to doubt thatAvesbury’sdateforthe

beginning of the nightmarewas quite accurate. Themaking of wills suggests asignificant increase at thevery end of October: of thesix wills drawn up in thatmonth,fourweredatedtothe

last five days. Within threeweeks, on 14 November, apapal indultwas issued toalltheclergyandpeopleofbothsexesofthecityofLondontopermit them to chooseconfessors to give themplenaryremissionat thehourofdeathuntilWhitsuntide(31May) 1349.75 Such broadpermissionsasmuchasadmitthattheabilityfortheexistingclergytoservicethelastrites

ofthepopulacewouldshortlybe (or indeed already was)compromised beyond anycapacity for regularmanagement. It may,therefore, have been withsome measure of relief toEdwardthaton13Novemberhismissionmetwith successinextendingtheFrenchtruceto 1 September 1349. Theagreementwas signed by therepresentatives of the twocountries, including on

England’ssideoneWalterdeMauny,inEdward’stentsjustoutside Calais.76 Edwardhimself was not a signatory,but he was nearby and mayhave been present: in whathas been described as aprominent propagandaexercise in the face of theoncoming pestilence, he hadset sail for Calais on 29October to see for himselfwhat lay in store for his

kingdom and his capital.77Having seen the appallingimpact of the pestilence, heheaded back fromFrance forSandwich on 17 November.The scale of the threat to hiskingdommustnowhavebeenstarkly clear and decisiveactionwasneeded.

On 20 November heissued a summons toParliament to all thearchbishops, twenty-one

principal bishops, twenty-eight abbots of the largermonastic houses, and threepriors, to discuss ‘variousurgent business (urgentisnegotiis) and the state of ourrealm of England’. Thesummons to the Bishop ofLondonwarned that thedeanandchapterofStPaul’s, andthearchdeaconsandclergyofhis diocese, should also bepresent; the dean andarchdeacons in person, the

othersbyproxy.Onthesameday, he issued orders forsheriffs in Cornwall,Somerset, Devon, Dorset,Southampton,Essex,London,Surrey, Sussex, Norfolk,Suffolk,LincolnandKentnotto attempt to leave thecountry. These included themajority of southern andeasterncoastalcounties.

Three days later, on hisreturn to Westminster, heissued orders effectively

closing the ports of London,Dover, the warden of theCinque Ports, Southampton,Newcastle, Harwich, Lynn,Ipswich, Rye, Boston,Shoreham, Great Yarmouth,Sandwich, Winchelsea andKingston-upon-Hull;forbidding the crossing fromEngland of any earl, baron,knight, squire or man-at-arms.78ItistruethatthenewsregardingFrancewould have

been of considerable importto those concerned with themanagement of the spiritualand temporal needs of therealm, and there would havebeenanurgentneedtoensureno inadvertent truce-breakingbyover-zealouscommanders.However, themeasures takento ensure that peacekeepersand arms-bearers could notleavethecountryalsopointtoa major internal issue. Itseemshighlylikelythatthese

commandments andconvocationswerefocusedasmuch on what the kingdomcoulddoaboutthepestilence,and that the restriction ofmovement was intended toensure that a solid commandand control structureremained in place in therealm,andinparticularatthegreat ports such as London,duringthecrisis.

If such were the king’splans, they were almost

immediatelyconfounded.Theplague overwhelmed anyintentionsand,aswillbeseenshortly, the intendedParliament was never held.One man who might haveexpected to attend such aParliament was AleynFerthing, six-times MemberofParliamentfortheBoroughof Southwark. His name islast mentioned in connectionwith a Parliament in 1348,and it seems certain that he

perished in the epidemic. Bychance, in 1832, workmendigging for a sewer on thesiteofthemedievalchurchofSt Margaret in Southwarkfound his Purbeck marblegrave slab, inscribed aleynferthinggist[icidieudeson]alme eit merci amen. It hasbeen relaid in SouthwarkCathedral,79 and is probablytherefore the only extantfunerary monument in

London made at the time oftheplague.

The king was, of course,not alone in his preparationsagainst theunseenkillernowrampant in thekingdom.Thenumber of Husting willsdrawn up increased to ten inthemonth ofNovember, andincluded several cityworthies. Sir John dePulteney, four times mayorand founder in the 1330s ofthecollegeofpriestsattached

to thechurchofStLawrence(afterwards called Pountney),willed on 14 November theestablishment of a chantry inStPaul’sCathedral,andmadearrangements for the sale ofhis great mansion called‘Coldharbour’ for a price of£1,000. John deKelleseye, agoldsmith from the parish ofSt Mary Aldermary, by hiswill dated 11 November,instructed his wife todistributeeverymonthforher

lifetime seventeen silverpennies, one each to twelvepoor men, three pence to apoor infirm man, and twopencetoapoorwoman.Johnde Hicchen, a pepperer andtherectorof thechurchofStAntonin since at least 1345,willedon28Novemberthatafraternity called the wardensof the Honour of St Anneshouldcelebrateanniversariesfor his soul, presumably inthe chapel of St Anne in his

church.80Hicchen’s will is

particularly important. Itwasformallyenrolledon2March1349, but an addition on thewill itself reveals that theactualdateofhisdeathwas2December 1348, just fourdaysafterthewillwasdrawnup, showing that enrolmentcould occur after a veryconsiderable lag, and thusthat many Londoners were

very probably dying muchearlier than the Hustingenrolment evidence suggests.This lag explains why onlythree wills were enrolled inNovember, and nonewhatsoever in December.Indeed,itisonlythedramaticrise in the number of willsmade in December thatindicate a catastrophe at all.The need for probate in theecclesiastical courts prior toenrolment at Husting

provides one reason for thelag, but it was almostcertainly exacerbated by theplagueitself:panic,deathandconfusion allwould have ledto changed priorities forsurvivors and a reduction intheoperatingefficiencyofthecourts. The significance ofthis lag relates clearly to ourunderstanding of the actualspeed of the plague’stransmissionwithinthecity.

Another possible

indicatorofsuddendeathisa‘cluster’ of threepresentations of guardianshipto the courts between lateOctoberandthebeginningofDecember. The children ofJohn Broun of Fleet Streetwere entered formally intothe guardianship of hiswidowElena on 23October;Alice, widow of John deLauvare, acknowledged thereceipt of certain sums ofmoney in trust for their

children Robert, Simon andRichard on 14 November;andon5DecemberNicholasBole, a skinner,acknowledged guardianshipof the daughter of Simon dePulham, whose widowKatherine he had married.81Wills do not survive for thethreedeadmen,sowecannotbesurehowrecentlytheyhadperished, and furthermoresuchacknowledgementswere

not uncommon business inthe courts.A cluster of threecases in seven weeks is,however,unusual.

ThecourtoftheBishopofLondon’s own manor ofStepney,lyingimmediatelytothe north-east of the city,convenedon9Decemberandprovides clear evidence ofrisingmortality.Sixdeathsofcustomary tenants, all livingintheparishofHackney,hadoccurred since 30 October.

They included three siblingsof a single family, Sarra,ThomasandRichardPymme,holding between them onecottage,athirdofatoftand3rods of land. That theywerepoor is demonstrated by thefact that theyhadnoanimalsto offer as heriot (a kind ofdeath tax) to the bishop astheir lord.82 Bishop Edingtontookstepstosavethesoulsofthose who might die. On 17

November hewrote fromhisSouthwark palace to hisarchdeacon in Winchester,granting to all rectors, vicarsand chaplains across hisdiocese the right to hearconfessionsonaccountofthepestilence, requesting thatthey ‘encourage recourse tothe sacrament of penance onaccount of unexpecteddeath’.83 His diocese, ofcourse, encompassed all of

Surrey and thus numerousvillageson the southbankoftheThamesnearLondon.

It is difficult to imaginewhat Londoners were facingduringthesefirstweeksoftheplague. The disease andwinter arrived in the citytogether, in a year alreadyrenowned for its storms andconstant rain. John ofReading, a monk atWestminster during theplague (and another London

eyewitness), wrote that rainhad covered the south andwest of England ‘fromMidsummer to Christmas,scarcely stopping by day ornight’.84Shortgrimdaysandlongdarknightssetthescenefor theunfoldinghorror.Theknowledge that the plaguewas at hand would havesharpened a general fear intooutright terror; every coughor twinge of pain a potential

sign that a foul end was athand. Reports would havespreadthroughthecityofthefirstdeaths,perhapsdownbythe waterfront, or near thecity gates; people may havetried to flee infected quartersor streets, before new deathsin previously untouchedplaces set aside any thoughtofescape.

London’s experiencescannot have been too muchdifferentfromotherEuropean

cities, so we can envisagehousehold after householdripped apart by theappearance of the symptomson husband, wife, mother,siblingorchild.Realisingthatthe contagion had settled onthem, did each, as inPiacenza,85callouttofriendsand neighbours, ‘Have pity,have pity,my friends… saysomething,nowthatthehandofGodhastouchedme’?Did

they reach out to relativesdrawing away in fear ofbecoming infectedthemselves?Didtheycallforwater, and plead not to beabandonedfordead;pleadforsomeone to hold them tightand comfort their wrackedbodies?

Few who contracted thedisease would survive forlong. The symptoms asdescribedinPiacenzainearly1348 must have been truly

terrifying to witness. First achilly stiffness and tinglingspread through the body,then,often, thebuboes,uptothe size of an apple, madetheirappearanceinthearmpitor the groin, growing,hardeningandburningwithafiercely intense pain. Feverconsumed the victim,accompanied by anintolerable stench. Vomitingor spitting of blood andfurther swellings or blotches

of dark blood on the skinsurfaces were followed bycollapse and a final coma.Geoffrey le Baker noted ofEnglish victims that, ratherthan developing buboes,some ‘had little blackpustules scattered over theskin of thewhole body’, andobserved that of these veryfew indeed survived.86 Therapidity of the diseasemeantthatthefateofthevictimwas

decided in five days or less,most commonly three, aperiod confirmed by theLambeth Palace clerkRobertof Avesbury, and anotherLondon eye-witness,Westminster monk John ofReading, who noted that‘ulcersbrokeout inthegroinor armpit which tortured thedying for three days’. Thedisaster chiefly overwhelmedthe young and the strong,according to le Baker, ‘and

hardly anyone dared to haveanything to do with thesick’.87

In Florence a range ofresponses to the plaguewereobserved in the citizens.88Some stockpiled food andwater and closed themselvesoffintheirhomes,refusingtospeak with anyone andhoping perhaps to wait outthe onslaught. Some, unableto take in the enormity of

what was happening, turnedto drinking and carousing,oftenmaking use of desertedprivate homes as much astaverns.Othercitizenstriedtocontinue their lives asnormally as possible, butequipped themselves withposies of flowers or herbs towardoff the evil humoursofthe disease. A final groupabandoned everything andattempted to flee the diseasebyleavingthecity.Nodoubt

Londoners reacted in verysimilar ways but, just as inFlorence, no matter whatcourse they took, the awfulharvestcontinuedtogrow.

Thereseemstohavebeenno issue of any formalordinances by the Londonauthorities toattempt tostemor hinder the path of theplague, despite the strictinstructions issued in severalEuropeantownsearlierintheyear. In Pistoia, strict

ordinanceswereissuedinthespringof1348.Noonewastotravel to or fromneighbouring towns such asLuccaorPisa.Noonewastotransport or trade in usedcloth of any sort.The bodiesofthedeadweretobeplacedin a wooden casket coveredbyalidsecuredwithnails,sothat no stench could issueforth, before being moved;that casket was also to serveas the burial coffin. No one

wastomovethedeadintoorout of the city under anycircumstances, and funeralswere to be strictly limited inscale.Menfromeachquarterofthecityweretobeselectedto move the dead – no oneelse was to undertake this;suchmenweretobepaidoutofcityfundsonproductionofa written receipt from themonastery,churchorhospitalto which the body wasdelivered for burial. The

ordinances also set strictlimits on butchery andtanning.89

At Tournai, in August1349, city ordinances wereissued, according to theAbbotofStGiles,asaresultof the ineffectiveness of thesecular clergy. They set outthe following: concubinesshould either be married orput away under threat ofbanishment.Thedead should

becoffinedandthegravedugimmediately, regardless ofthe hour, but Masses shouldbe saved up until Sundays;graves should be at least 6ftdeep and the coffins notstacked up, and there shouldalways be three graves readyper parish. Funeral feastsshould be curtailed andgatheringsatthehouseofthedead avoided. Finally, therewere restrictions on tradingafter noon on Saturday until

thefollowingMonday.By 21September, further

restrictions were imposed atTournai, limiting the numberof mourners to two perfuneral.90 Why London didnotimposesuchconstraintsisnoteasytoestablish,althoughit may relate to the morecommunal nature of civicgovernment at this time.There is a level ofarchaeological evidence that

wooden coffins were usedmorefrequentlyfortheburialof plague dead, suggestingthat some guiding strategymay have been implemented(seeChapter3).

Just one document hintsat a public informationsystem during plagueoutbreaks. A medievalparchment, found tucked intothe wall of a rectory inSherborne in the middle ofthe nineteenth century,

provides a glimpse of theadviceLondonersweregivenduring the plague,communicated through aproclamation at thechurchyardpreachingcrossatStPaul’sCathedral:

Be it known to allChristian men andwomen that our HolyFather the Pope hastrue knowledge byrevelation what

medicine is for thesickness that reignethnow among thepeople. In any wise,whenthatyouhearofthis bull, first say intheworshipofGod,ofOur Lady, and StMartin iiipaternosters, iii aves,and i credo, and themorrow afterimmediately hear youthemassofStMartin

and the mass whilesay ye the psalter ofOur Lady and giveone offering to StMartin, whatever thatye will, and promiseto fast once a year inbreadandwaterwhileyou live, or else getanother to do it foryou. And he thatbelieveth not of thisstands in the sentenceofHolyChurch for it

hath been preached atPaul’sCross.91

December1348

The plague’s impact on thecity in December 1348 isquite clear from the twenty-sevenHustingwills preparedduring this one month (fourwrittenona singledayalone– 13 December). This

represents a dramaticincrease, nearly three timesthe rate of November andequivalent to an averageyear’stotal.Thissteepriseinmortality is also reflected intheonecourtrollfortheyearthatwehavefromthesuburbs– in this case the Bishop ofLondon’s manor at Stepney.In December 1348 fourmembers of one family(mother, daughter and twosons) had died, and at the

court held there on 20January 1349, nine entiretenements were reportedvacantandinthelord’shandsowing to the death of thetenants.92Tothesouthof thecity, sudden clericalvacancies were filled byBishop Edington at thechurches of St MaryMagdalen, Southwark andWandsworth in January, andin February at Clapham,

Camberwell and St Georgethe Martyr, Southwark, allless than 5 miles fromWestminster. TheWandsworth institutionrecognised that, ‘with thepresent increasing mortality,the bishop must provide fortheneedsofhisflock’.93Thedeaths leaving thesevacancies probably occurredin December and January, aconclusion strengthened by

evidence from the court rollsfor themanor ofVauxhall, alittle more than half a milefrom Lambeth Palace andprobablyheldbyEdward theBlackPrince.Therollforthecourt held on 31 December1348 recorded four deaths ofcustomarytenants.94

Preferred burial locationsanddetailsofbequestssetoutin the wills indicate that thewill-makers came from all

differentareasofthecity,andfrom a wide range ofprofessions. For example,Henry Iddesworth, canon ofSt Paul’s and Archdeacon ofMiddlesex, madearrangements to leave hishouse in Wood Street andshopsintheparishofStJohnZacharytowardsthefoundingof a perpetual chantry in StPaul’sCathedral.EdmunddeHemenhale, a former sheriffof London and wealthy

mercer, arranged for twoexecutorstoreceivehisestateinthe‘greatseld’,ormarket,of Cheapside during theminorityofJohnandThomas,his sons, with a house inLothburysetasideforJohn.95Edmund’s family was stillyoung: Thomas was 5 yearsold at this time, and adaughter, Margaret, was just1.96 Edmund was probablyburied inStMartin-le-Grand,

since his wife establishedthere a chantry to them bothwhenshediedin1361.

Geoffrey Penthogg, awaterbearer, willed on 30DecembertobeburiedinthechurchofStBotolphAldgate.He left his wife Johanna amessuageandagardeninthePortsoken ward, and his sonJohn a garden in EastSmithfield. He was deadwithin tendays,asJohanna’swill, written on 9 January

1349, requested burial nearher husband. Against thisbackdrop, and despite the(time-limited) blanketindulgence issued inNovember, some citizenscontinued to apply for papalpermission to choose theirconfessors. Adam Pikemanand his wife Constancereceived permission inDecember, andAlexander deBacland and his wife inJanuary.

The wealthier were abletoplan,affordandimplementsuch arrangements for theirgoods and properties. Theywere able to choose thelocation of their graves,withat least some chance ofgetting their wishes evenduring the plague. This,however,didnotapplytothevast majority of London’spopulation. Being poor, theymight normally expect amodest plot in one of the

many small externalcemeteries attached to parishchurchesinthecity.Butwithmortalityspiralling,itbecameclear to Ralph Stratford, theBishopofLondon,thatthese,fairly numerous though theywere, might not suffice forthe disaster. Whether theconcept of emergencycemeteries was due to havebeen discussed at theParliament planned inNovember isunknown,but it

is certain that between theoutbreak of the plague inLondon and the end ofDecember, Stratford hadarranged for a new cemeteryto be established on the cityoutskirts.

The chronicler Geoffreyle Baker described how thebishopboughtthecroftcalledby Londoners‘Nomanneslond’. This fieldlay south of another fieldcalled Whitewellbeck in the

late thirteenth century,between modern St JohnStreetandGoswellRoad,andwas apparently the site ofexecutions from at least theearly fourteenth century.97 Itmeasured some 3 acres,according to the sixteenth-century historian John Stow,and acquired the name ofPardon churchyard. It wasapparently walled round andprovided with a chapel.98

This chapel is shown inremarkable detail on asixteenth-century map of thewater supply of the LondonCharterhouse; a three-bay,externallybuttressedbuildingwith windows in each bayandagabledroofsurmountedbyasmall,steepledlanternorbellcote (see Fig. 2). By theearly fifteenth century, theclosehadearnedthenameof‘Deademannescroft’.99 This

burialground isknownto liebetween what is now GreatSutton Street on the north,andClerkenwellRoadon thesouth (see also Fig. 3 on p.48).100

Theprincipalrouteoutofthecity to thisnewcemeterywas through Aldersgate, uppastStBartholomew’sprioryand along what is nowGoswell Road. The deadcould also have been taken

via Newgate and Smithfield,andthenceupStJohnStreet.It is not clear when thecemetery first began to takeburials, but an argument canbe made that, despite itsconsiderable extent, it wasapproaching capacity in theearly weeks of 1349. Thecartsremovingthedeadfromthe city must have beennumerousindeed.Asweshallsee, a later emergencycemetery of comparable size

at East Smithfield was ableeasily to contain 2,400burials, a figurewhich couldhavebeenachievedbya rateof some forty burials eachday in November andDecember. Such a rateaccords well with thesituation described at thebeginning of the plague byRobert of Avesbury, whonoted that ‘on the same day,20, 40 or 60 bodies, and onmany occasions many more,

mightbecommittedforburialtogether in the same pit’.101The figure also correspondswith the (later) eventsdescribed in Tournai whenthe plague hit that city in1349. There, ‘every day thedead were carried intochurches, now five, now ten,now fifteen. And in thechurchofStBrice,sometimes20 or 30.’102 Placing suchfigures in context, if London

did have 60,000 soulswithinits walls, in an untroubledyear we might expect sixburialsor lessperdayacrossthe entire city.103 This,however, was just thebeginning: thingswere goingtogetmuch,muchworse.

The king and histreasurer, Bishop WilliamEdington, both remained inLondon for much ofDecember. They were in the

royal chamber in the Towerof London on 14 December,when the ‘infirm andparalysed’ John Offord,Archbishop-elect ofCanterbury, took the oath offealtyforthetemporalitiesoftheArchbishopric,104 and theking was in Westminsterfrom before 28 Decemberthrough to January. Theywere therefore very wellplaced to witness the

unfolding catastrophe. On 1January 1349 Edward wascompelled to write toEdington, cancelling theplanned Parliament formally.Theletteraddresseda‘certainparliamentofoursconcerninggreat andweightymatters…and thestateofour realm,atWestminsteronMondayafterSt Hilary [19 January]’, towhichitwasintendedthatthebishop would appear inpersonwiththeotherprelates

andmagnates.Itexplained:

since a sudden anddeadly plague hasarisenthereandroundabout, and has sogrowninstrengththatmen are fearful to gothere safely duringthistime,wehave,forthese and otherobvious reasons,ordered that the saidparliament be

prorogued [until 27thApril 1349], and forthis reason, youshouldnotcomethereontheMonday.

The letter reiteratedinstruction that whenParliamentdidreconvene,theprior of Winchester and thearchdeaconwere to attend inperson, the chapter to sendone procurator and thediocesan clergy to send two,

andthatnoexcuseswouldbeallowed.105Thekingthenleftfor theAugustinian priory ofMerton,8milessouth-westofthe city, to celebrate theEpiphany on 6 January forjousting and games, some ofwhich may have involved afunerealaspect.106

It may have been ataround this time thataccusations of poisoning thewatersupplyof thecitywere

made.Fearofwell-poisoningby ‘foreigners’ and Jews hadalready gripped Europeancities and contributed to thedreadful massacres of Jews.England, of course, had nopermanent Jewishcommunitiesat this time,butit seems probable that otherscapegoatsweretargeted.TheConduit, the principal pipedwater supply situated inCheapside, was under theadministration of two

masters, at this time RobertFundour and William de StAlbans. They raised moneyfromtheleaseoftankardsforcollectingthewater,andfromcertainlocalpropertieswhoserentcontributedtotheupkeepof leaden pipes extending asfarasWestminsterandtotheconduit house itself. Theiraccounts,coveringatwo-yearperiod fromNovember1348,show that at one specifictime,theheftysumof32s2d

was spent ‘examining theConduit when it wasslandered for poison, bycommand of the Mayor’.107Clearlythesupplywasfoundtobeclean,andinanyevent,it would soon becomeabundantly obvious that thewater from the west of thecity was not carrying thisparticularscourge.

TheDepthsofDespair,January1349

And there was inthose days deathwithout sorrow,marriage withoutaffection, self-imposed penance,wantwithout poverty,and flight withoutescape.108

ThesewordswerewrittenbyJohn of Reading, theWestminster monk whowitnessed the calamity first-hand, and their brevityexposes the helplessness andhorror in the face of thecatastrophe far better thancould any extendeddescription. The sheer scaleof the disaster, becomingclear now to king andcommoner alike, must trulyhave felt like the end of the

world. The number ofHustingwills,bothdrawnupand enrolled in January andFebruary, leave no doubt onthis. Thirty-eight new willswerecompiledinJanuaryanda further fifty in February, amonthly rate eighteen timesgreater than that prior to theoutbreak; and four morecitizens received personalpapal permission to chooseconfessors,109 as the

wealthier now scrambled tosecure and safeguard theirinheritances, estates andsouls.

One striking aspect ofthese will-makers is theirfavouring of the church orchurchyard of St GilesCripplegate as a place ofburial at this time. St Gileswas the single most popularlocation within the list ofHustingwillswrittenbetweenOctober 1348 and the end of

1350, with no fewer thanthirteen wills specifyingburial there (four more eventhan at St Paul’s Cathedral,the next most popularplace).110Allwere drawn upbetweentheendofNovember1348 and the first week ofApril 1349, eight beingwrittenintheday