Could You Survive The Black Death?

You were in the right place at the right time. Maybe you lived in one of those isolated areas in the Netherlands, or even Poland! The Kingdom of Poland refused to do trade with anyone, and being landlocked, the kingdom was able to bypass the entire pandemic as it ravaged Europe for over 300 years.

You got sick--really sick. Death was at your door. But you managed to overcome the disease. Wealthy families could escape the spread of infection and were more likely to have better diets and healthier lifestyles, by medieval standards at least. Your better health gives you a resilient immune system, which could stand up to a disease like the bubonic plague if you were strong enough.

The king of France influenced a lot of people during the first outbreak in Europe. Like many in his kingdom, you think the strategic alignment of three planets caused your disease. No Earthly medicine could cure you, so you don't seek any help. The Black Death slowly rots your body from the inside out, and you die.

Concepts like pathogens, infection, and contagious didn't exist in the Middle Ages. Disease wasn't even a thing! So it's no surprise that you die of the plague when your prescription includes bleeding, sweating, and pigeon feathers. Doctors would cut open sores with the tips of feathers, hoping that you would bleed out the disease. It doesn't work, and you die in a bloody mess.

There's absolutely no shame in hard work. And there's good money to be had if you live long enough to spend it. Members of the clergy would even help out when it came to corralling the sick and cleaning up the dead. Unfortunately, this puts you right in the path of the disease. A cough or a sneeze infects you, and your good deeds ultimately become your downfall.

The Black Plague meted out over three centuries of pure mayhem across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. There's no escaping its wrath. London itself was hit over six times in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. You might have been lucky in 1593, but the plague could still claim you in 1603. Luckily, if you managed to survive it once, odds are good that you're immune to it now and you'll be juuuuuust fine.