Not medical advice. This site is general information only. In an emergency call your local emergency number. For advice about your own health, speak to a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified health professional.
Great Plague of London
About Great Plague of London
The Great Plague of London in 1665 was the last major bubonic plague outbreak in England. The plague killed approximately 100,000 people, about one quarter of Londons population. The disease spread rapidly through the densely populated city. King Charles II and his court fled to Oxford. The Lord Mayor enforced quarantine, marking infected houses with red crosses and the words Lord Have Mercy Upon Us. Bodies were collected at night and buried in mass graves. Daniel Defoe later wrote a vivid account in A Journal of the Plague Year, though he was only 5 at the time. Plague deaths had already fallen substantially before the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the city in September 1666, and historians doubt that the fire ended the epidemic. The 1665 plague was the last of the great plague cycles that had struck England since the Black Death.
Related Entries
Black Death 1347
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis that killed an estimated 75 to 200 million peopl...
Plague of Justinian 541
The Plague of Justinian was the first recorded pandemic of bubonic plague, beginning in 541 AD in the Byzantine Empire d...
Cholera Pandemics 1817
Seven cholera pandemics have occurred since 1817, killing millions. The first pandemic began in Jessore, India, in 1817 ...
Third Plague Pandemic
The Third Plague Pandemic began in Yunnan province, China, in 1855 and spread globally over decades, not ending until 19...