In the summer of 1348,

the English could be forgiven for thinking themselves unconquerable.

They had vanquished the old enemies,the Scots and the French.

Their king, Edward III,seemed the most powerful ruler in Europe.

But they would be conquered,

and by a king against whom neither longbows nor warships offered any defence.

King Death.His weapon was plague,

and by the end of his terrible campaign,

almost half the people of Britain would be dead.

The country would survive the trauma,

but first it had to undergo a purgatory of unimaginable misery,

because hard on the heels of pestilence would come rebellion and civil war.

The century of plague was a pilgrimage through pain,

and this is the story of that journey.