Plague mortality and demographic depression in later medieval England.

Both direct and indirect evidence implies that England experienced a lengthy period of stagnant or declining population during the later fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Black Death of 1348-1349 had brought about profound changes in England's agrarian economy, and this subsequent demographic depression is most commonly interpreted by historians as the result of plague mortality, recurring in severe outbreaks after the disease's introduction into the country. This paper reviews the evidence and assumptions behind this interpretation, in light of recent research by historical demographers and epidemiologists into bubonic plague epidemics and general mortality crises during the post-medieval period.