15. The Black Death Did Not Spare Royalty and Nobility
While many historical outbreaks, like London’s cholera epidemic, are linked with poverty and squalor, no social strata were left untouched by the Black Death. While only one reigning monarch died during the Black Death’s own reign of terror, many members of noble families and noted scholars died as well. Daughters, mothers, brothers and other relations of kings were not spared, nor were the wealthiest and most powerful families.
Alfonso XI of Castile, the king of Castile, León, and Galicia, also known as el Justiciero or the Avenger, died from the Black Death in 1350. He was the only actively reigning monarch of Europe to fall to the plague. However, many members of royal families died. Anne of Bohemia, the first wife of England’s King Richard II and daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV died in 1394. Blanche of Lancaster, daughter of wealthy Plantagenet Duke, Henry of Grosmont, wife of John of Gaunt and mother of King Henry IV died in 1368.
Giovanni Boccaccio, author of The Decameron and noted chronicler of the plague, died fell to the disease himself in 1375. Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, perished from the Black Death in 1374. One can only imagine the amount of potential art and literature lost with the death of so much of Europe’s population. So many lives cut short cannot happen without a corresponding loss of culture and creation.
