Skip to content
Auralith
Menu
Log inGet started

Year 7 · History · Medieval life · Lesson 2

The Black Death

The Black Death of 1348: symptoms, medieval beliefs about causes and cures compared with modern knowledge, and its effects on surviving peasants.

Whiteboard video lesson: The Black Death

17-minute video lesson

Teaching, worked examples and 20 practice questions solved step by step.

Watch free for a month

What your child will learn

  • Describe the Black Death
  • Compare medieval and modern explanations
  • Explain why cures failed
  • Explain its effects on society

The method

  1. Belief then.
  2. Why.
  3. Knowledge now.
  4. Why different.

Key words: Black Death, plague, buboes, miasma, flagellants, labour shortage.

Worked examples

The first three practice questions from the lesson, with every step.

Question 1

When did the Black Death reach England?

  1. Step 1: 1300s

Answer: 1348

Question 2

What were buboes?

  1. Step 1: Swellings

Answer: black swellings on the body

Question 3

Name one symptom of the Black Death.

  1. Step 1: Fever

Answer: buboes / fever / vomiting