Did the Black Death of Europe affect the peasants more than the nobility?

Question

I seem to remember a teacher saying that for whatever reason the Plague killed poor people and rich people alike. That doesn't make sense to me and I can't find any evidence about it so I was wondering if anyone knew if that was true and if so, why. Logic would tell me that the peasants would have it the worst.

Answer 1

Well, you don't explain why you believe that. Logic alone is not enough. You need facts. What is your logic based on ?
I really doubt that you can find any evidence of that. At the middle ages peasants were of no importance to practically anybody.
Records were kept about what people who kept them considered to be important. Peasants were not in that category.
Besides, why do you say that peasants were more affected ?
The factors that might have made a difference, like a healthier life style, better health care, more hygiene, vaccination, etc, were very much the same for all, meaning that they did not exist.
Some doctors advised the patients to avoid bathing, something that was already very seldom done.
When the Plague struck everybody fled, including doctors, but there was nowhere to escape, thus, I really think that the Plague indeed killed without discrimination

Answer 2

First of all a plague (bacteria, virus) has no feelings and does not choose poor over rich or rich over poor. It IS a fact that more peasants died from the plague only because they represented the overall population. (Remember feudalism) As for sanitary nobles where as much slobs as the peasants. The only difference would be that they bathed 4 times or so more than the peasants. Medicine please, no matter how much money you had you could not buy the cure or treatment for the disease(there was none). Sometimes those who had a treatment done and survived from the plague died of an infection.

REMEMBER IF YOU ARE FROM A EUROPEAN HERITAGE YOU HAVE SOME SORT OF IMMUNITY AGAINST THE PLAGUE, YOUR ANCESTORS WHERE THE SURVIVORS NOT THE DEAD

Answer 3

Plague is rude and doesn't respect social position. The truth probably is that the lack of proper sanitation affected all, so the plague did. Though on the other hand, the nobility had better diets and living conditions, so maybe the poor fared worse. Either way, the Black Death destroyed the institution of serfdom in Europe and led to social changes that allowed the poor to rise above. Interesting side note, Miguel de Nostradamus(famous seer who supposedly predicted many things) became well known for helping to heal plague victims and recommended better personal hygiene to prevent further outbreaks.

Answer 4

It them both alike, but peasants would probably be the first ones (and most likely) to get it first because of their poor living conditions. Where as, the nobility would be a little better off, though they would still catch the plague. Then there is the fact that many people barred off their homes to keep people out, I would htink nobility would be the ones to comes up with that idea.

Answer 5

The Black Death did impact rich and poor alike. At the time there was zero understanding of the cases of disease. Some thought it was caused by "bad vapors", the wrath of God, Jews poisoning the water, etc. So not knowing the cause, there was no way to prevent it or avoid it. For a great account see the Amazon.com reviews of the book "In the Wake of the Plague; The Black Death and the World it Made" by Norman Cantor (link below). It even includes a review from the New England Journal of Medicine.

http://www.amazon.com/Wake-Plague-Black-Death-World/dp/product-description/0684857359

Answer 6

The bubonic plague only affects two creatures- rats and humans and they are infected by fleas. So rich or poor the plague did not discriminate but it really depended upon the housing density. One would imagine that the poor would have lived in higher population density than the rich but this is actually not so. In the big cities which were very heavily over-populated being wealthy usually only meant that you lived on a higher floor of a tenement building with better possessions than the poor who lived on the lower floors of the same building closer to the sewerage and filthy filled streets. With proximity as such most of the wealthy were just as vulnerable.

Answer 7

As someone pointed out there were more peasants than noblemen so proportionally only they were effected equally. According to PBS the main cause for the Plague was the fact that wheat for bread was being grown in the bogs and such placed are incubators for a bacilli that is deadly and undetectable till recently! Hence whoever ate bread on a regular bases was endangered!

Answer 8

The peasants did have it worse but not much. You have to remember the plague happened in the 1300s in Europe and rich and poor did not bathe often,wash their clothes, and people just dumped garbage and human waste anywhere they could. Basically the peasants suffered more but not much more.

Answer 9

Percentage wise more peasants died than nobles. Only because there were more peasants than nobles. However, they both died equally. No one back then was known for their ability to be clean and in large towns and cities there was no plumbing or sanitation.
After the plaque ran its course the peasants were better off. Labor was in short supply to work the land of the nobles; skilled craftsmen few and far between. The nobles had to give workers a better deal or someone else would.

Answer 10

Statistics show that about 45% of the peasants died. Also about 45% of the priests. The losses for the aristocracy were about 30%, but as they were so few in number, the statistical sample in unreliable. After the plague, the peasantry were economically better off.

The Black Death, began with a minor outbreak of bubonic plague, medical term Yersinia Pestis, which started in the Gobi Dessert. It was transmitted throughout China and reached Europe when a Kipchak army, besieging a Crimean trading post, catapulted plague-infested corpses over the city walls. Plague spread throughout Europe, carried by fleas in the fur of rats, and eventually reached the Dorset coast on 24th June 1348.

Contagion carried quickly, and about two thirds of the population became infected. The morbidity rate was about 66%, i.e. if you caught it, you had a two to one chance of dying. Chroniclers relate how the disease raged in a town for about a month and then left. It moved gradually northwards until it had burnt itself out. Within twelve months, nearly half the population was dead.

After the problem of burying the dead in plague pits was over, people tried to get back to normality. But life was never the same again. The decreased population meant a shortage of labour and workmen demanded and received pay increases. The government of Edward III tried to cap pay increases by an Act of Parliament, The Statute of Labourers, the first government attempt to control the economy. Workmen who demanded too much were placed in the stocks, that is trapped in a wooden gadget for a day, and employers who paid over the odds were fined. The Act was largely unsuccessful as employers coaxed workers from other employers, with promises abundant pay increases, and wages kept on rising. One recorded case shows that a joiner who built the stocks for the punishment of greedy workers was paid three times the legal rate for his labour.

The government also passed The Sumptuary Act of 1367, making it illegal for the lower classes to spend their new wealth on new apparel of ermine or silk. Only the aristocracy and some senior gentlefolk were allowed to wear these items. Today when barristers are raised to the rank of Queen’s Council, they are said to ‘take silk’, indicating their elevation in status. The Act has never been repealed, so if you wear silk, and if any of Edward III’s commissioners are still alive, you could get put in the stocks!

By the reign of Richard II, the economy had settled down and landowners switched from labour intensive methods, grain production, to low labour processes, particularly sheep farming. Increased wool production boosted the economy and became the nation’s chief export, making England a major economic power.