The bubonic plague (or ‘Black Death’) was a disease which brought death to most parts of Asia, North Africa and Europe. The first outbreak was recorded in 1331 in China. The plague started as a bloody swelling in the armpit or groin and quickly invaded the whole body. It was highly contagious and killed millions of people. The infection probably began on the steppes, the grassy plains...

 The youngest son of Henry II, John, inherited from his brother Richard the throne of England, as well as the Plantagenet dominions of France, which he had lost to the French by 1204. John’s failure to recapture these territories, his dispute with Rome over the Pope’s choice of a new Archbishop of Canterbury, and a high level of taxation, had the English nobility up in arms against...