Author: Kelly Mass
Narrator: Chris Newman
Unabridged: 0 hr 44 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Findaway Voices
Published: 05/10/2022
Genre: History - Medieval
Here we have it: We may be looking at the years 2020-2021 and think a certain virus has been bad for the world population. However, what happened in these two years is nothing, proportionally, to the hundreds of millions of people who got wiped out by rat infestations spreading insanitary bacteria, resulting in the disease and death of huge parts of the European population in the mid-centuries.
The genesis or origin of the Black Death is a point of contention. The epidemic started in Central Asia or East Asia, but it wasn't till 1347 that it made its conclusive presence in Crimea. It spread out through the Mediterranean Basin, reaching Africa, Western Asia, and the remainder of Europe through Constantinople, Sicily, and the Italian Peninsula, probably brought by fleas surviving on black rats carried by Genoese servant ships. There's proof that the Black Death was spread out in big part by fleas-- which trigger pneumonic plague-- and the person-to-person contact by means of aerosols that pneumonic plague permits, which would clarify the epidemic's fast inland spread out, which would be expected if the main vector was rat fleas triggering bubonic plague.
The Black Death was the 2nd significant natural catastrophe to strike Europe in the late Middle Ages (the first being the Great Scarcity of 1315-- 1317), killing between 30 and sixty percent of Europe's population.
In the 14th century, the plague disease might have decreased the worldwide population from c. 475 million to 350-- 375 million. So, more than 100 million people died from it, which was almost a fourth of the world’s population.
To mention that such were difficult times, is an understatement. My empathy for those unfortunate souls has reached an entire new level of suffering. I don’t know about you, but when I did my research, I wanted to know more about it. I hope you feel the same way.
Einhard served Charlemagne, king and Holy Roman Emperor, for 23 years. From that experience, combined with his in-depth research, Einhard penned this biography of Charlemagne in the style of Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars. Because he felt ind...
Werewolves have long been a staple of popular culture. In the 19th century and 20th century, there were countless books, plays, and films about people who turned into wolves or wolf like humanoids and went on rampages. The figure of the werewolf i...
In the time period between the fall of Rome and the spread of the Renaissance across the European continent, many of today’s European nations were formed, the Catholic Church rose to great prominence, some of history’s most famous wars o...
In 1095, Pope Urban II delivered a powerful call-to-arms to begin the First Crusade. Robert the Monk, likely an eyewitness, recorded this speech years later, after the crusade had ended. In his account, Urban described horrific crimes committed agai...
The notable German historian and monk Ekkehard of Aurach was also a crusader. He wrote a comprehensive world history text, but upon returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1101, he rewrote his portion on the First Crusade. “On the Opening ...
"Against the Infidels” is Fulcher of Chartres eyewitness account of Pope Urban II’s call-to-arms in 1095. This speech launched the First Crusade, but the several historical transcripts record it slightly differently. Fulcher’s acco...
Although many have heard of the Crusades and some of the more famous orders like the Templars, few know about the Livonian Crusade or the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. This organization was one of many Catholic military orders that sprung up duri...
Before the Mongols rode across the steppes of Asia and Eastern Europe, the Cumans were a major military and cultural force that monarchs from China to Hungary and from Russia to the Byzantine Empire faced, often losing armies and cities in the proc...
Looking into the past, the Crusades seem incomprehensible. What combination of religious fervor, hatred of people of different faiths, and gall led Europeans of 1100 AD to make their way thousands of miles to conquer the Holy Land? Why did they cont...