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The first occurrence of the plague in England was in June 1348. It was brought into the country on ships from Gascony, which landed in the West Country. By the autumn of that year the plague had spread to all parts of the kingdom and it took two years to disappear again. However there were new outbreaks in 1360-62, 1369 and 1375.

It is not possible to give exact firgures of death rates but it seems safe to assume that at least one-third of the population was killed by the plague in 1348-50.