Great Plague of London

Setting the scene

The Great Plague of 1665-1666 was the last major bubonic plague epidemic in England, killing an estimated 70,000-100,000 people in London—about 15-20% of the city's population. It was part of the Second Plague Pandemic that had ravaged Europe since the Black Death. The plague likely arrived in London in late 1664 via Dutch trading ships, as England was at war with the Netherlands. By spring 1665, deaths were rising in the crowded, unsanitary parishes outside the walls. The warm summer accelerated spread.

What happened

The plague peaked in September 1665, with over 7,000 deaths per week in London. The wealthy, including Charles II and his court, fled to Oxford. Authorities implemented plague orders—houses with infected were locked and guarded for 40 days, marked with red crosses; mass graves were dug; dogs and cats were killed as carriers; fires were lit to purify air. Samuel Pepys's diary provides a vivid eyewitness account. The plague devastated the poor, who could not flee, and disrupted trade and daily life.

Why it still matters

The plague waned in winter 1665-66, partly due to cold killing fleas, and ended after the Great Fire of London in September 1666, which destroyed much of the crowded housing where rats thrived. The Great Plague was England's last major outbreak—improved quarantine, the Great Fire's rebuilding with brick, and the brown rat displacing the black rat (which carried plague fleas) ended plague in England. The plague's trauma influenced Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year (1722) and remains a cultural touchstone for pandemic response, especially after COVID-19.

Background

The fire of 1666 later reshaped the city. Even centuries later, this episode remains a reference point for how empires rise, fracture, and transform.