How Did Death Occur During The Middle Ages

With poor sanitation, limited medical knowledge, and frequent wars, early death was commonplace during the Middle Ages. However, during the time of the plague, death ravaged the countryside killing between one-third and one-half of the population. People who contracted this illness often died within a few days of manifesting the symptoms of headaches, high fevers, and excruciating pain in the arms and legs. Most people agree that the disease spread from China to Europe by traders, traveling along the Silk Road. Merchant boats with stow-away rats infested with fleas carried the illness from port to port. When the boats docked, the fleas bit the townspeople on shore giving them the sickness. These people would then in turn spread the sickness to their friends and family. Soon, whole villages were infected. After several years, the plague came to an end, but the results of this disease left many farms, villages, and cities barren and empty.

These fights historians have called the Hundred Years War because it lasted from 1337 until 1453. It all began when Charles IV died leaving his daughter as his only heir. Edward III of England claimed his right to the throne because his mother was a sister to the three latest kings of France. The French did not want an Englishman for a king and refused. Edward III responded by initiating the first battle of the Hundred Years War. Later, one English king, Henry V, made famous by William Shakespeare, renewed the war when he claimed his right to the throne because his great-great-grandmother was a French princess. The French refused, and Henry invaded France. Both sides met at the Battle of Agincourt where Henry took over a large portion of France. However, the French won the final victory at the Castilian in