The capital provided the perfect conditions in which it could flourish. The overcrowded houses and streets, the filthy gutters infested by rats, were the best breeding ground possible.
There was no one to look after the sufferers. They were left to die and their foul-smelling corpses gave off such offensive odours that to come near them meant almost certain death.
People sought to escape from the crowded towns and the roads were full of men and children taking with them all they could carry on packhorses and donkeys. Some remained to do what they could and it was agreed that the bodies must be buried. Sir Walter de Manny then bought a piece of ground called Spittle Croft because it had belonged to the masters and brethren of St Bartholomew’s Spittle. It consisted of about thirteen acres. Pits were dug here and the dead buried. Within a year it was rumoured that fifty thousand bodies lay there. It was enclosed by a high stone wall to shut in the pestilence which continued to rage through England.
It seemed to many that the end of man was in sight. ‘This is God’s revenge on mankind,’ said the pious. Towns were deserted; hamlets lost every one of their inhabitants; ships floated aimlessly along the coast until a storm carried them off for ever; the reason was that every member of their crews had succumbed to the plague.
Frightened people looked round for scapegoats and as was customary in such cases on the Continent the Jews were blamed. It was said that they had poisoned the wells and springs with concoctions of their own distillation from spiders, owls and other such venomous animals. Many were tortured and as was to be expected in cases of extreme agony confessed to what was wanted.
Some more discerning people had discovered that it was the ships which carried the plague from one place to another because it always appeared first in the ports; but none realized that the carriers of the disease were the rats which were infested with vermin. In due course the traffic between countries was so slight because of the diminished world population that the plague began to disappear.
But the prosperity which had existed in the country was no more. There was no one to till the fields. Labourers were so scarce that they demanded higher wages. There would be inevitable famine and even though the population was decreased there would not be enough corn to meet its needs.
The belief that doom was staring them in the face had different effects on certain people. Some lived riotously indulging in sexual activities with an almost pious air because as they said it was necessary to be fruitful and replenish the earth as soon as possible. To Hungary and Germany came religious fanatics who called themselves the Brethren of the Cross. When they came to England they were known as the Flagellants. They declared that they would take upon themselves the sins of the people which had brought Divine vengeance on the world in the form of the plague. They marched through the streets in dark robes with red crosses on the front of them and on the black caps they wore. They carried scourges tied in knots with points of iron fixed on them. People flocked to hear them preach and to follow them. They were forbidden to have anything to do with women and if they did and were caught were sentenced to several lashes of the scourge.
Every day at an agreed hour they marched through the streets, when they threw off their robes so that the top half of their bodies were naked and they whipped each other as they went along. When they reached a certain spot they lay down one by one, each man before he lay giving the one who had lain before him a lash from his whip.
People watched them in awe, many joined them for it seemed to be a noble thing to take on the sins of the world. Some said that the plague was subsiding due to their efforts.
Edward, thankful that he and his family had escaped the pestilence—apart from Joanna—gave himself up to restoring the prosperity to the country.
He saw that it was impossible to pay the labourers the wages they were now demanding and the fields must be tilled; work must continue and because there were fewer people to perform these tasks it would be disastrous to the country if the high wages they were demanding were to be paid.
He acted promptly and brought in the Statute of Labourers. In this it was laid out that :
‘Because a great part of the people and especially workmen and servants have died of the pestilence, many, seeing the necessity of masters and great scarcity of servants will not serve unless they receive excessive wages and some are rather willing to live in idleness rather than labour to get their living; we, considering the grievous incommodities which a lack of ploughmen and such labourers has brought on us ordain :
‘That every man and woman of our realm in England of what condition he be and within the age of three score years, not exercising any craft, be bounded to serve him which shall require him; and take only the wages which was accustomed to be given in such places ...
That saddlers, skinners, cordwainers, tailors, smiths, carpenters, masons, tilers, shipwrights and carters and all other workmen shall not take their labour above the same that was wont to be paid; and if any take more he shall be committed to gaol.
‘That butchers, fishmongers, hostellers, brewers and other sellers of victuals shall be bound to sell the same for a reasonable price so that the sellers have moderate gains but not excessive.’
Gradually the country settled down to its normal routine. The greatly depleted population striving to make it the prosperous country it had been before the plague had struck.
Many children were born during the following months and this was taken as a sign that God’s anger was appeased. The Flagellants swore that they were responsible and went about the streets beating themselves in ecstasy.
But with the plague fading away and so much work to be done, the people lost interest in the Brothers of the Cross.
They were now anxious to return to prosperity. They noticed that many women bore twins and more frequently than ever before some of them produced triplets.
‘The bad times are over,’ declared the people. ‘God is smiling on us again.’
THE PRIDE OF ISABELLA
THE King was disturbed to receive a letter from his sister Joanna the Queen of Scotland. When he had last seen her he had been sixteen and she a child of seven. He had been very sorry for her, being sent off to marriage in Scotland which was by all accounts a dour and wild country.
He immediately went to Philippa to tell her of what Joanna proposed.
‘She wants a safe conduct to England,’ he said. ‘You can guess what she seeks.’
Philippa nodded. ‘A pardon for her husband. What will your answer be?’
‘No,’ replied Edward shortly. ‘Soon I shall have to go into France again. It would be folly to give the Scots a rallying point in their King.’
‘But you have no great opinion of David.’
‘David! ‘ the King laughed. ‘Who would believe that laggard was the son of Robert the Bruce! ‘
He paused frowning. Who would believe that he was the son of his dissolute father? Great fathers sometimes had weak sons and weak fathers great sons. He was assured that the King who followed him would be a great one. The Black Prince, already the idol of the people, a man who had proved himself in war as a leader of men. I shall die happy, thought Edward. It was time the Prince married though.
Philippa said: ‘Poor Joanna, I do not think she will ever be happy with him. It is common knowledge that he is a rake.’
‘He seems to have settled down with Katherine Mortimer,’ replied Edward.