What is What were the Plague Orders??

The Great Plague — GCSE History Revision

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The basics

Setting the Scene

📖 Setting the Scene

Over 300 years after the Black Death, plague returned to London in 1665. Samuel Pepys recorded the growing terror in his diary: seeing red crosses painted on doors, hearing the cry "Bring out your dead!" By September, over 7,000 Londoners were dying per week. The King fled to Oxford. The wealthy escaped to the countryside. The poor were locked in their houses, often with infected family members. Had medicine progressed? In terms of understanding the cause — barely. The same theories from 1348 were still being used in 1665.

What were the Plague Orders?: Government rules during the Great Plague: infected houses marked with a red cross, residents locked inside for 40 days, watchmen posted to enforce quarantine

Key terms

History glossary

What were the Plague Orders?: Government rules during the Great Plague: infected houses marked with a red cross, residents locked inside for 40 days, watchmen posted to enforce quarantine

Exam tip

Earn the mark scheme marks

📝 Exam Technique: Continuity vs Change

For comparison questions: The Great Plague shows CONTINUITY in medical ideas but CHANGE in government response.

Continuity: Same causes believed (miasma), same treatments used (bleeding), same religious responses (prayer)

Change: More organised government action, record-keeping, attempts at public health measures

Significance: Government role in public health was growing — a trend that would accelerate in 19th century

🏫 Edexcel 1HI0/10 — Medicine in Britain (Paper 1, Option 1HI0/10): This topic is tested on Paper 1 alongside the Historic Environment (Western Front). Edexcel question types differ from AQA:

"Describe two features of..." (4 marks) — Identify a feature (1 mark) + supporting detail (1 mark). Write two separate PEEL-style paragraphs. No evaluation needed.
"Explain why..." (12 marks) — Explain two or three reasons with specific evidence. Level 3 (7–9 marks) requires explained reasons; Level 4 (10–12 marks) requires explanation showing how factors connect or reinforce each other.
"How far do you agree that..." (16 marks + 4 SPaG) — Extended writing. Two sides: evidence FOR the statement, evidence AGAINST. Reach a supported judgement. Level 4 (13–16 marks) requires a consistently argued judgement. SPaG marks reward accurate spelling of key historical terms.

Now try it yourself

Quiz · Question 1 of 8

Approximately how many people died in the Great Plague in London in 1665?

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