Causes of the Plague

Living through a plague epidemic was a terrifying time. Unlike modern scientists, people at the time did not know about germs or bacteria and so could not properly explain what caused the plague.

Click on the images to find out more about explanations for the causes of the plague in modern times and the seventeenth century

Modern Explanations for the Plague
Seventeenth-Century Explanations for the Plague

Quick Questions

1) Which of these explanations do modern scientists think caused the plague?
  • Rats
  • Fleas
  • Miasma
  • Bacteria called Yersina pestis
  • An imbalance in the four humours
2) During the English Civil Wars, many soldiers were stationed in the town of Pontefract. In 1645, plague broke out there and it is thought that soldiers moving around the area helped to spread the disease. Read the petition of Isaac Watson. What did Isaac Watson think had caused this disease, which he called the 'pestilence'? What other explanations did people in the seventeenth century give for the cause of the plague?