Confronting Plague by Carolyn Hughes
England, 1361
When courage must survive in the face of history’s cruellest plague...
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| About Carolyn's story Confronting Plague - England, 1361 |
My series of historical novels, THE MEONBRIDGE CHRONICLES, is set in the middle of the fourteenth century. Plague features in two of the books: Book 1, Fortune’s Wheel, which is set in the immediate aftermath of what we call The Black Death (1349-50), and Book 4, Children’s Fate, in which plague returns (1361). This second occurrence of the disease was thought of as the “Children’s Plague”, because many of the victims were very young. Why isn’t clear but, perhaps, as the children weren’t born at the time of the earlier outbreak, they didn’t have the immunity that folk, including their parents, who survived it might have acquired.
My story for the COURAGE anthology, Confronting Plague, is a reworking of the plague aspect of Book 4. I thought it demonstrated well the courage that people, young and old, had to muster in order to face their fear and incomprehension of plague.
Of course, in the fourteenth century, death was everyday – illnesses were mostly incurable, accidents commonplace. Medieval people often ascribed every disaster, be it the loss of a child, dead cows, a bad harvest, or the failure of the butter to churn, either to God’s will or the Devil’s work. If a particular disaster was “God’s will”, the reason for His anger might be people’s sin, and the disaster His punishment – which was what priests told their congregations. But I’ve often thought many people must have wondered which of their sins could be so terrible that God would want to punish them, and especially their children, so severely?
When I was still writing Children’s Fate (2020), the world was plunged into chaos by the coronavirus, COVID-19. The way the coronavirus spread apparently so fast and so easily was frightening. But, in 2020, doctors and scientists did at least know what coronavirus was (they understood the nature of viruses), how it spread (for example, coughing), had some idea of how to mitigate it (for example, isolation), had a way of testing for the disease and toiled to find a vaccination.
But medieval people of course understood neither the “what” nor the “how” of plague, nor did they have any clear idea of treatment, let alone cure. Mightn’t their very ignorance have made them more afraid? At any rate, it seems to me they had to muster extraordinary courage to confront it and endure.
About Carolyn:
Carolyn Hughes is a writer of The
Meonbridge Chronicles series, historical fiction set in fourteenth
century England. The first Chronicle, Fortune’s Wheel, is set in the
immediate aftermath of what we call The Black Death. Times of social change are
always fascinating, and trying to depict the great upheaval in society brought
about by the plague was the inspiration for the book. In the subsequent novels,
Carolyn has sought to reveal the lives of mostly ordinary medieval folk through
stories that tell of experiences especially pertinent to the time but which also
resonate today. The stories focus particularly on the lives of women, if only
because women in history often have not had much opportunity to “speak”.
There
are now eight books in the series. More will follow.
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| Fortune’s Wheel, the First Meonbridge Chronicle |
Website: www.carolynhughesauthor.com.
Amazon series: https://mybook.to/MhkUql
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| read a snippet |
Confronting Plague by
Carolyn Hughes
England, 1361
When courage must survive in the face of history’s cruellest plague
In June 1361, plague returned to England. Mariota, who survived what we now call The Black Death of 1349-50, must summon her courage to face the horror of what she knows very likely lies ahead. Young Betha, who wasn’t born eleven years ago, but now witnesses the terror first hand, must find unfamiliar, untested, courage, believing it her duty to support her family.
Betha was at the far end of the
garden, feeding the chickens, when someone called out to her from the other
side of the wattle fence that separated their garden from that of their
neighbour, Thomas, the village carpenter. She looked up, and saw his mother,
Mariota, smiling at her.
‘Good
morning, Betha,’ said Mariota, her pale eyes twinkling. ‘Your flock is looking
very fine.’
Betha dropped a slight curtsey and thanked her. ‘Ma’s very fond of them,’ she said. ‘Are you visiting your family today?’
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publication date: 17th June 2026 e-book pre-order |
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"Meonbridge Chronicle" is a fascinating read! I am amazed at Carolyn's way of depicting medieval medical lack of knowledge without making it sound like gross ignorance. Even today, there's so much knowledge that still escapes us, yet somehow we manage to pretend it's not all that important.
ReplyDelete"Confronting Plague" from COURAGE was a fascinating read.
ONE MORE SLEEPIES!
It feels like the night before Christmas :)
Many of us found Covid hard to cope with... the plagues of the past? Makes you think doesn't it!
DeleteI think Carolyn is right that our experience of the Covid pandemic has changed the way we think about the plague. Her story made me think about the medieval attitude to such suffering. Better or worse then? I don't know! I think every reader will have his/her own opinion...
ReplyDeleteCertainly makes you think about how people of the past relied solely on the preaching of the Church.
DeleteThe randomness of survival - or even who became ill and who didn't -- what other explanation could there be but divine wrath?
ReplyDelete