1592–1593 London plague

Major plague outbreak in England June 2024 June 2024 London Plague of 1592–1593 London - John Norden's map of 1593.jpg Map of London in 1576 Several years August 1592 – December 1593, with cases until 1595 London, Kingdom of England 19,900+ Outbreak part of the ongoing second plague pandemic since the 14th century Yersinia pestis From 1592 to 1593, London experienced its last major plague outbreak of the 16th century. During this period, at least 15,000 people died of plague within the City of London and another 4,900 died of plague in the surrounding parishes.Creighton Charles Charles Creighton (physician) November 1891 A History of Epidemics in Britain: From A.D 664 to the Extinction of Plague https://archive.org/stream/historyofepidemi01crei#page/350/mode/2up Cambridge Cambridge University Press 353–354 London in 1592 London in 1592 was a partially-walled city of 150,000 people made of the City of London and its surrounding parishes, called liberties, just outside the walls. Queen Elizabeth I had ruled for 34 years and her government struggled with London's quickly growing population. Due to increasing economic and food shortages, disorder had grown among the underclasses in the city and beyond, whom moralist authorities increasingly struggled to govern.Riots and Liberties http://hfriedberg.web.wesleyan.edu/engl205/wshakespeare/riotandliberties.htm Wesleyan University 11 April 2019 A large and impoverished population made up the surrounding liberties, which became the first communities to be hit severely by the plague. Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present Infobase Publisher Kohn George 2008 228 Plague activity in England Plague had been present in England since the Black Death, infecting various fauna in the countryside, and known as plague since the 15th century.Benedictow Ole https://books.google.com/books?id=KjLHAOE7irsC&q=1592 The Black Death 1345–1353: The Complete History 2004 The Boydell Press Woodbridge 5 978-1-84383-214-0 Occasionally Yersinia pestis was transmitted to human society by infectious contact with the fleas of wild animals, with disastrous results for trade, farming, and social life.Bachelor Moving the Plague: the Movement of People and the Spread of Bubonic Plague in Fourteenth Century through Eighteenth Century Europe Fowler Catherine 126478296 May 2015 University of Southern Mississippi 17Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations Scott Susan Duncan Christopher 2004 Cambridge University Press 165 Increasing plague activity along England's southern and eastern coasts appeared during the late 1580s and the early 1590s. An outbreak at Newcastle in 1589 killed 1727 residents by January 1590, while from 1590 to 1592 Plymouth and Devon were affected with 997 plague deaths at Totnes and Tiverton.https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=kRMLAAAAIAAJ&pg=GBS.PA351 A History of Epidemics in Britain: From AD 644 to the Extinction of Plague Creighton Charles 1891 Cambridge University Press 351 The plague in London thumb|245x245px|John Stow copied and preserved records of the outbreak. 1592 London's first cases of plague were noticed in August. On 7 September, soldiers marching from England's north to embark on foreign campaigns were rerouted around the city due to concerns about infection, and by the 21st at least 35 parishes were infected with the plague.Berry Herbert Winter 1995 A London Plague Bill for 1592, Crich, and Goodwyffe Hurde English Literary Renaissance The University of Chicago Press 25 12 10.1111/j.1475-6757.1995.tb01425.x 145156545 A group transporting the spoils of a Spanish carrack from Dartmouth couldn't get further than Greenwich due to the outbreak in London and news of the plague had spread regionally. London's theatres, which had been temporarily closed by city authorities since a riot in June, had their shutdown orders extended to 29 December by the government.Berry Herbert Winter 1995 A London Plague Bill for 1592, Crich, and Goodwyffe Hurde English Literary Renaissance 25 5 10.1111/j.1475-6757.1995.tb01425.x 145156545Cheney Patrick https://books.google.com/books?id=4Xgf8ZuErGgC&dq=plague+of+1592-93&pg=PP262 Shakespeare, National Poet-Playwright Cheney Patrick Gerard Patrick Cheney 25 November 2004 Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-83923-5 Cambridge, UK 63 en Members of the aristocratic class sensed danger as the disease continued to spread and fled the city: "The plague is so sore that none of worth stay about these places" remarked one contemporary. Calendar of State Papers:Elizabeth 1591-1594 https://books.google.com/books?id=UPsUAAAAQAAJ&dq=Calendar+of+State+Papers:Elizabeth+1591-1594+the+plague+is+so+hot+in+these+places+that+none+of+worth+stay&pg=PA360 Queen Elizabeth – Volume 244: February 1593 244 360 Her Majesty's Stationery Office London Mary Anne Everett Green 1867 William Shakespeare, being among the plague refugees at this time, took the time to write his famed sonnets.When Did Shakespeare Write The Sonnets? - TheReadingTub https://thereadingtub.com/when-did-shakespeare-write-the-sonnets/ 2026-05-23 thereadingtub.com en-US In November, London's College of Physicians convened a meeting to discuss the "insolent and illicit practice" of London's unlicensed medical physicians with the intention to "summon them all" before the college for quackery.Kassell Lauren https://books.google.com/books?id=mYthttFYIZUC&dq=london+plague+1592&pg=PA75 Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London: Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician 2005 Clarendon 978-0-19-927905-0 London 75 en Queen Elizabeth's royal court also decided not to host the annual Accession Day tilt celebrations for the month due to the possibility of contagion at the royal court.Strong Roy C. https://books.google.com/books?id=gYEwaJfjMIEC&dq=plague+of+1592+Windsor+castle&pg=PA208 The Cult of Elizabeth: Elizabethan Portraiture and Pageantry Thames and Hudson 1977 978-0-520-05841-5 London 208 en Some records of the plague were copied by John Stow during his own research in the 17th century and have survived time despite the original documents being lost.Creighton Charles https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=kRMLAAAAIAAJ&pg=GBS.PA352 A History of Epidemics in Britain from AD 644 to the Extinction of Plague 1891 Cambridge University Press 352–353 Around 2,000 Londoners died of plague between August 1592 and January 1593. The Company of Parish Clerks began regularly keeping and publishing records of plague mortality on 21 December 1592. Government orders forbidding performances at theatres were again extended, into 1593.Acheson Arthur https://archive.org/details/shakespeareslos00achegoog Shakespeare's Lost Years in London 1586-1592, Giving New Light on the Pre-sonnet Period: Showing the Inception of Relations Between Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton and Displaying John Florio as Sir John Falstaff 1920 Brentano's New York 85 en 1593 thumb|left|304x304px|Queen Elizabeth's royal court evacuated to Windsor Castle such as they did during the plague of 1563. Death and infection rates rose steadily during the winter months, even though low temperatures often slow down flea activity during plague epidemics.Kohn George C. https://books.google.com/books?id=tzRwRmb09rgC&dq=1603+London+plague+impoverished+parishes&pg=PA232 Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present 2007 Infobase Publishing 978-1-4381-2923-5 232 en This was seen as ominous by Londoners observing the epidemic. More resourceful, upper-class individuals continued fleeing during 1593 as the government's countermeasures proved ineffective due to the disease-harboring conditions in some areas of London. Poorer, unsanitary parishes and neighborhoods were located near the city wall and River ThamesCummins Neil Kelly Morgan Ó Gráda Cormac February 2016 Living standards and plague in London, 1560–1665 https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/60592/ Economic History Review 69 3–34 10.1111/ehr.12098 5712346 LSE Research Online while the Fleet Ditch area of London, around Fleet Prison, became the most heavily infected part of the city. A prisoner named William Cecil (not to be confused with Lord Burghley), kept in Fleet Prison by Queen Elizabeth's command, wrote that by 6 April 1593 "The place where [William] lies is a congregation of the unwholesome smells of the town, and the season contagious, so many have died of the plague." Government letters indicated that the plague was "very hot" in London by 12 June and that the queen's royal court "was out in places, and a great part of the household is cut off." By August Queen Elizabeth's royal court had evacuated to Windsor Castle in order to escape the increasingly dangerous outbreak in London. The city's sugar refineries continued their business unabated even though public houses and theatres remained closed on government orders to halt the spread of infection.William Shakespeare https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/william-shakespeare 2011 History.com Alarm was raised at Windsor by the death of Queen Elizabeth's chambermaid Lady Scrope from plague on 21 August within the castle, which almost sent the royal court fleeing a second time.Urban Sylvanus https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=IWwdAQAAMAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA142 The Gentleman's Magazine (London, England), Volume 187 1850 John Nichols & Son 142 5 May 2019 But the government remained at Windsor Castle through November where Queen Elizabeth hosted her tilt celebrations. References Category:Second plague pandemic Category:1592 in England Category:1593 in England Category:1590s disasters Category:1592 in health Category:16th-century disease outbreaks Category:1593 in health Category:16th century in London Category:16th-century epidemics Category:Death in London Category:Disease outbreaks in London Category:Elizabeth I