The Black Death: The Deadliest Plague

The captain of the HMS Hermione was a sadist even by the not-very-high standards of the British Royal Navy in the 1700's. He was a prolific flogger, subjecting his crew to the cat-of-nine-tails. It was hardly a surprise when his crew rose up and mutinied. Even if the British Navy ...  Show more

In Medici Florence there were two ways of maintaining power - one was money and the other was murder. Isabella de’ Medici was the believed daughter of the Medici patriarch, a patron of the arts and a sparkling wit. But that meant nothing to her own husband, who murdered her, or h ...  Show more

Between 75 million and 200 million people died in the Black Death, or Plague, which caused social, economic and religious upheavals that had a profound effect on the course of European history. How did the Black Death come about? How did if affect particular populations? For how ...  Show more

The Black Death was gruesome: Symptoms included tumors, purple splotches, fevers and vomiting. But how did this disease manage to spread from the Gobi desert and kill approximately one-third of the population of 14th-century Europe? Find out in this classic episode.

In the late 1340s, people in cities, towns and villages across the medieval world began to fall ill from a mysterious pestilence. This six part series looks at the how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages, killing millions and transforming societies. Speaking to expert historian ...  Show more

The arrival of a terrifying pandemic made medieval people increasingly preoccupied with death, sin and the afterlife. In this episode, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Helen Carr about spiritual responses to the Black Death, from special prayers to self-flagellation. The primary sources ...  Show more