Knowledge Organiser: The Great Plague 1665
Part of The Great Plague · GCSE GCSE History revision
This topic summary covers Knowledge Organiser: The Great Plague 1665 within The Great Plague for GCSE History. Revise The Great Plague in Medicine Through Time for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 5 flashcards. This topic appears less often, but it can still be a useful differentiator on mixed-topic papers. It is section 13 of 13 in this topic. Use this topic summary to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 13 of 13
Practice
8 questions
Recall
5 flashcards
Knowledge Organiser: The Great Plague 1665
Key Terms
- Great Plague: 1665 London epidemic — ~100,000 deaths (15-20% of city)
- Bills of Mortality: Weekly death counts by parish — first systematic disease tracking
- Plague orders: Lord Mayor's official measures: quarantine, red crosses, watchmen
- Searchers: Women employed to examine bodies and record cause of death
- Quarantine: 40-day lockdown of infected houses — the most effective measure (for wrong reasons)
Key Dates
- 1665: Great Plague strikes London; peak September — 7,000+ deaths/week
- 1666: Great Fire of London — possibly contributed to end of plague
- Compare: 1348 Black Death — same theories, less organised government response
- Compare: 1861 Germ theory — finally explains real cause of plague (200 years later)
Key Continuities (same as 1348)
- Miasma theory — still the dominant explanation
- Bleeding and purging — still used as treatments
- Prayer and religious responses — still widely practised
- Real cause (rat fleas, bacteria) — still unknown
Key Changes (different from 1348)
- Bills of Mortality — weekly systematic death recording by parish
- Organised quarantine — 40-day lockdown, red crosses, watchmen
- Plague orders — Lord Mayor issued official public health measures
- Searchers employed — first attempt to systematically record cause of death
- Lower proportional death toll: 15-20% (London) vs 30-50% (England, 1348)
- TCGT: Theories/Cures unchanged; Government/Tracking improved
Cross-Topic Links
- → Topic 34 (Black Death 1348): Comparing 1348 and 1665 is a core AQA skill — same wrong theories persisted, but 1665 shows improved government organisation despite no advance in understanding.
- → Topic 42 (Public Health): The Great Plague's Bills of Mortality and plague orders are an early form of organised public health — compare with Chadwick's 1842 report and Snow's 1854 investigation as later steps in the same tradition.
- → Topic 40 (Germ Theory): Miasma theory still dominated in 1665 — germ theory was 200 years away; understanding this gap shows the slow pace of explanatory change even as practical measures improved.
- → Topic 36 (Renaissance): Despite Vesalius (1543) and Harvey (1628), the Great Plague shows that new scientific ideas had not yet changed popular or official explanations of epidemic disease.
- → Unit 5 Topics 53-54 (Restoration England): The Great Plague and Great Fire (1666) both struck Restoration London — compare how authorities responded to each crisis under Charles II.
Common Mistakes
- Treating the 1665 plague as identical to the 1348 Black Death: Always use the comparison to show both continuity (wrong theories persisted) AND change (improved government organisation — Bills of Mortality, plague orders, quarantine houses) — this comparison is a core AQA skill.
- Saying the plague "killed a third of London": The 1665 plague killed approximately 100,000 Londoners — around 20–25% of the city's population; the Black Death killed 30–60% of Europe — keep the statistics distinct.
- Forgetting the role of government: The 1665 plague saw genuine government intervention — plague orders, pest houses, closing of infected houses — even if based on wrong theories; always credit what was done even when explaining why it was insufficient.
- Ignoring the link to the Great Fire: The Great Fire of 1666 arguably ended the plague by destroying the rat-infested slum areas of the city — this is a chance event (not medicine) that shows the role of chance in medical history.
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Practice Questions for The Great Plague
Approximately how many people died in the Great Plague in London in 1665?
What were Bills of Mortality introduced during the Great Plague of 1665?
Quick Recall Flashcards
8 questions on The Great Plague — practise free
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