Medieval Bodies- Famine and Pestilence: The Calamitous Fourteen Century Medieval London was a magnet, drawing people

e to it not only from the Home Countries but also from the rest of England and beyond > Many would have found only dire poverty > Food cost more in London > Overpopulation y !"## London was drawing on the agricultural produce of a large part of southern England and the midlands, up to $# miles or more from the capital, in order to feed its population > %he city authorities controlled both prices and &uality of basic foodstuff > Loaves were ba'ed and a complicated calculation was applied to define the weight of a standard halfpenny loaf for the ensuing year > Effort were made to ensure the &uality of drin'ing water Eg banned the diggin of cesspits too close to wells However all the city(s attempt to ensure that people had access to clean water and cheap food could not protect them on times of poor harvest > !)*"+!)*$, !"#,+!"#*- grain prices rose alarmingly >!"!$- disaster struc' > London chronicler .!"!/0- poor people ate for hunger cats and horses and dogs, rumors of cannibalism > Effects- downturn in London(s population despite the migration of people from the countryside see'ing refuge from the famine 1n sic'ness and in health . Famine0 %he poor of medieval London had little acces to medical aid when sic' > Medical aid- ( arber+surgeons(, midwives, home remedies and prayers for he intercession of saints > Hospitals similar to the present day (hospice( or (asylum(- care rather than cure, refuge for the needy, ecclesiastical estalishments staffed by clerics and providing spritual needs > Hospitals sch as 2t 3ames and 2t 4iles- provides a refuges for sufferers from lepsy, some of whom are wrongly identified and only suffer from non+contagious s'in diseases > Findings of the graveyard at 2t Mary- Most were men and died under the age of "# > suffered from illness in childhood and were e5posed to everyday 'noc's and stresses and probably to heavy manual labour from an early age > some might be poor migrants see'ing wor' in London !6th century- hospital inmates appear to have had a higher life e5pectancy > led relatively longer lives despite suffered from severe diseases or malnutrition in childhood > died from disease such as tooth decay urials in hospital chapel- show that clergy and wealthy patrons had better health and nourishment > %aller, worse tooth due to diet rich in sugar %he 7ance of 7eath . lac' death0 Medieval doctors were helpless in the face of a horrifying and unfamiliar disease that burst upon Europe from the east in late !"68 . lac' death0 > ubonic plague . named for the agonising and putrefying swellings or buboes that disfigures the victims(s body0, pneumonie plague . 2pread by snee9e0 > caused by a bacterium that normally infects rodents and their fleas > 2ome attributed its origin to a natural corruption of the air arising from putrefying

corpses: to 4od(s punishment for th esins of man'ind: to the stars, in particular a catastrophic con;unction of the " planets in the sign of <&uarius: or to deliberate action by (foreign agents( > 1n 2pain, =ortuguese pilgrims were accused of poisoning wells, and in many parts of Europe 3ews became the scapegoats 4raveyards with roughly made lead crosses %he authorities were still controlling the proper disposal of the dead > %he bodies had been laid in these burial trenches up to five deep, but some were in coffins and all had been carefully placed =lagues tended to 'ill especially the wea', the very young and the elderly, and those in their twenties and thirties were more li'ely to survive > East 2mithfield site as the only fully analysed plague cemetery London population dwindled > lac' death > (%he Children(s plague( in !"/! > 4reat =lague of !//$ > %he 4reat Fire in the following year London was able to recoup some of its losses of population > 1mmigration from the country and from smaller provincal towns continued as shortage of labour forced up wages > advantages of a smaller population- the mass starvation of !"!$+!"!8 did not recur> %here were bad harvests in !6"8+!666, but careful management of London(s grain supply 'ept bread prices reasonable