ME3408 THE BLACK DEATH AND THE PEASANTS’ REVOLT IN ENGLAND
   
Lecturer Professor Chris Given-Wilson (Room 5, 71 South St)
   
Credits 30
   
Availability not available, 2011-12
   
Class Hour  
   
Description The Black Death was the greatest natural disaster in recorded history, killing one third or more of the population of England (and Europe) between 1347 and 1350. This option will examine the social, economic and political consequences of the plague in England during the second half of the fourteenth century, with particular emphasis on the part it played in stimulating violent social unrest such as the great rising of 1381. Original sources in translation will be used extensively.
   
Basic Reading
  • The Black Death, ed. Rosemary Horrox (Manchester, 1994)
  • M. Ormrod and P. Lindley, The Black Death in England (Stamford, 1996)
  • A. Dunn, The Great Rising of 1381 (London, 2002)
   

Course Structure

One two-hour meeting per week
   
Assessment

60% examination - 3-hour paper
40% coursework - 3 pieces of work one of which may be an oral assessment
   

Learning Outcomes
  • Consideration of dramatic change caused by natural disaster
  • Reflection on causes of social change and unrest
  • Combine various forms of history - economic, social, religious
 
   
Restrictions None