Dealing with disease in the 16th–17th centuries and the Great Plague

The Renaissance changed medical theory but everyday treatment was slow to follow. For ordinary people in Tudor and Stuart England, the apothecary, the wise woman, and the cunning man remained more accessible than the university physician. The Great Plague of 1665 is the standard case study — a moment that shows continuity in beliefs, modest improvement in response, and the limits of pre-germ-theory medicine.

Continuity of folk and herbal remedies

Most ordinary people still got their healthcare from:

• Wise women / herbalists in villages — knowledge passed orally; treatments included chamomile, willow bark, garlic.
• Cunning men offering charms, prayers, herbal recipes.
• Apothecaries in towns — sold prepared remedies (theriac, mithridatum), advised on illness.
• Family lore — household recipes (still books) for fevers, wounds, indigestion.

Treatments were a mix of:

• Herbal — willow, garlic, chamomile, mint.
• Mineral — mercury, antimony.
• Animal — lard, urine, ground bones.
• Magical — amulets, charms, ointments based on sympathetic magic.
• Galenic — bloodletting and purging continued.

Books such as Nicholas Culpeper's The English Physitian (1652) — published in English, not Latin — democratised medical knowledge but also kept Galenic ideas alive.

The role of apothecaries

Apothecaries developed into a regulated profession:

• 1617 — Society of Apothecaries founded in London.
• They prepared and sold drugs, often diagnosing patients (cheaper than physicians).
• Bridge between folk medicine and university medicine.
• By 1700 some apothecaries effectively practised medicine for the poor — anticipating modern pharmacists and GPs.

Hospitals and care

Hospitals remained largely places of care, not cure:

• St Bartholomew's and St Thomas's in London — refounded after the Reformation as charitable institutions.
• Bethlem ("Bedlam") — for mental illness, infamous for harsh conditions.
• Pest houses — set up in 1665 for plague victims.

Treatment was rudimentary; hospital infections were common.

The Great Plague of 1665

The last major outbreak of bubonic plague in England struck London in spring–autumn 1665.

• Death toll — perhaps 100,000 in London (~25% of the city's population).
• Rural areas also affected — famously Eyam in Derbyshire quarantined itself voluntarily.
• Cause — Yersinia pestis, spread by fleas on rats. Still unknown to contemporaries.

Beliefs about the cause

Beliefs about plague had only modestly changed since 1348:

• God's punishment — most common; sermons blamed sin (Plague Day fast 1665).
• Miasma — bad air from corrupted matter (still dominant).
• Astrological — alignment of planets.
• Foreign origin — Dutch ships, refugees.

But there were small shifts:

• Less emphasis on astrology than 1348.
• Some interest in observation (John Graunt's mortality bills).
• Less reliance on flagellation.

Responses to the plague

Compared with 1348 the response was more organised but still ineffective:

Government response:

• Houses of the infected marked with a red cross and "Lord have mercy upon us".
• Quarantine — 40 days for infected households.
• Watchmen posted to enforce quarantine.
• Pest houses built outside city walls.
• Bills of Mortality published weekly — early statistics.
• Searcher women identified plague deaths.
• Killing of cats and dogs (ironic — they could have controlled rats).
• Public events banned — funerals, fairs.
• Smoking tobacco encouraged (thought to cleanse air).

Personal response:

• Burning fires in streets.
• Posies of herbs and flowers.
• Plague water (herbal remedy).
• Carrying nutmeg, vinegar.
• Fleeing London — court left for Oxford; Charles II survived in safety.
• Rich families closed up homes.

Religious response:

• Days of fasting and prayer (e.g. 12 July 1665).
• Sermons on national sin.

Eyam — voluntary quarantine

In Eyam, Derbyshire, plague arrived in September 1665 in a parcel of cloth from London. Rector William Mompesson persuaded villagers to isolate themselves — supplies left at boundary stones — to protect surrounding villages. Of ~350 villagers, ~260 died. A remarkable example of communal sacrifice for public health.

End of the plague

Plague faded in autumn 1665 — possibly because cooler weather reduced flea activity, the Great Fire of London (Sept 1666) destroyed infested housing, and surviving rats developed resistance. London never had another major plague outbreak after 1665.

Comparison with 1348

Aspect	Black Death 1348	Great Plague 1665
Cause believed	God, miasma, astrology, Jews	God, miasma, foreign
Treatment	Prayer, posies, flagellation	Prayer, posies, quarantine, pest houses
Government	Local manorial	Centralised orders, Bills of Mortality
Death toll	30–60% of England	~25% of London
Quarantine	Italian ports	London nationwide

Continuity vs change

• Continuity — humoral theory, miasma, prayer, herbal remedies.
• Change — government coordination, Bills of Mortality, voluntary isolation, less antisemitism.

The Great Plague shows that scientific Renaissance ideas had not yet reached everyday practice. Real change waited for germ theory in the 19th century.