The plague of 1348-50, known as the Black Death or just "the Death," was the highly infectious disease now known as the bubonic plague; it's caused by a bacillus carried by fleas, which infest certain kinds of rodents including the prairie dogs of the American southwest. In its first pass through Europe it killed about one-third of the population and in some places as much as one-half; it returned to England, although in much less …showed first 75 words of 397 total…

…showed last 75 words of 397 total…and demand was voracious; after the plague the situation was exactly the opposite: there was lots of land, far fewer mouths to feed with a now plentiful agricultural crop, and a severe shortage of labor. This situation empowered both the unladed laborer and the tenant, both of whom could now negotiate with their landlords for better terms; and it threatened the incomes of those landlords, who were of course the ruling class of medieval England