“They Are All Dead, Except a Few”

The initial outbreak of plague, later called the Black Death, in England in the winter of 1348–1349 parallels the actions and reactions to the current health crisis of COVID-19. King Edward III closed the courts, regulated travel in and out of the country, ordered larger cities—especially London—to clean their streets to avoid further contamination from “bad air” or contagious miasma. Many inheritance records of deceased landholders speak to the thousands of dead peasants and farms and businesses left untended. This paper addresses the actions of the crown during and just after this first outbreak of the plague in light of the contemporary pandemic, COVID-19.