The plague took the lives of million of Europeans from the 14^th until the 17^th century. In England, its destruction stayed mainly in the south of England concentrating around the poor quarters of London. But for one small village in England’s rural north, the plague would be devastating and historic. The case of the small village of Eyam in Derbyshire is famed throughout England and serves in the modern age of an example of the importance of self quarantine in the face of deadly disease.

It all began with the decision of the village tailor, George Viccars to purchase a box of fabric from a London dealer and bring it to Eyam to make clothes for the locals. Viccars didn’t know the box was full of fleas carrying the bubonic plague. Three days later he was dead.

The village knew plague when they saw it and drastic action was taken to ensure it didn’t spread outside of the village. The village went into self induced quarantine under the guidance of the retired vicar and the serving vicar. They asked the villagers to make this sacrifice to save the lives of everyone else. The villages made the difficult moral decision and complied.

The next few months were hard, families, men, women and children became sick and died. One woman lost her husband and six children within the space of a single week. The village lived with the disease throughout September and October of 1665, minimizing contact with each other, receiving provisions from neighboring villages who left food for them at the town boundaries and holding all public ceremonies outside to minimize the spread of the illness.

During that time, the small village of Eyam with a population of approximately 700 people lost 260 of its inhabitants to the plague. The plague affected 76 different families and wiped out a few of them forever. Many households had only a single survivor who lived to tell the tale of those terrible months.

Many people did survive and they recorded the histories and passings of their neighbors on the front of their home and these records still exist. All the villagers learned how to bury their neighbors, friends and family members. It was a time unimaginable for most of us today as these simple country folk showed a spirit of community almost gone in these modern times.

Today, Eyam pays homage to those that lost their lives in 1665 with a plague museum as well as plaques on the house of the victims. The cemetery still keeps their bones and the locals still hold testament to their title of England’s “plague village.” They may have not realized it at the time but those few deaths became famed throughout England, making their way into every child’s schoolbook and taught as an example of ill fate.

Eyam was just one small village of the hundreds affected by the bubonic plague but its history provides a glimpse into the lives of its survivors and victims, making the epidemic more than just statistics of people who live long ago but a testament of human endurance and the belief in the sacrifice of a few to save the lives of many.

History Store History DVDs Replica Guns Replica Swords Scale Model Kits

History Collectors: We offer a wide selection of museum quality replicas and authentic items representing nearly every century of the Common Era and the most significant civilizations of ancient history. Once you browse through our online catalogue, we are certain you’ll find the perfect gift for yourself or a loved one with an interest in history.

Tags: 14th Century, 15th century, 1665 Plague, 16th century, 17th century, Black Death, Black Death in Eyam, Bubonic plague, deadly disease, Derbyshire, disease in the middle ages, England, fleas and bubonic plague, George Viccars, History DVDs, History Store, London, Plague, replica guns, Replica Swords, scale model kits, self quarantine, the plague

The term “Renaissance”, or rebirth, was coined by historians in the mid 19th century to describe the period in Western European history that was characterized by a resurgence of ideas, philosophies, and culture from the classical period. A golden age of cultural, intellectual and ideological movements occurred between roughly the early 14th to the late 16th century in Europe that drew on many elements of classical Greek and Roman history. From the decadence of the Middle Ages and the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church increasingly exerted a dominant influence on European life and became the defacto broker of power in Europe. So it was that within this cultural setting, the dominant ideas of the Renaissance emerged from the collection of city-states in Italy and proliferated throughout Europe via the well connected commercial routes of the time.

Florence, in particular, was emerging as a powerful city-state through its commercial strength as a textile producer and banking center. Its burgeoning economy and growing mercantile class made it a focal point for the cultural transformations that would be associated with the Renaissance. The fall of the Byzantine Empire also fueled change in Western Europe as exiled Greek scholars established themselves in the west, bringing with them copies of classical philosophical texts, literature, and salvaged art works and opening to the Europeans a door to the riches of the classical Greek and Roman periods that had been lost through the centuries of internal tribal warfare and barbaric invasions.

Money from the new middle classes went towards commissioning artists and architects to create masterpieces in quantity and scale unmatched till then. Artists such as Giotto, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Lippi, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Lotto, da Vinci, Michelangelo, to name a few, elevated art to a new level and form of cultural expression. The Renaissance began to flourish in the kingdoms to the north of Florence as well, with new ideas and momentum of change spreading along trade routes. Venetian Italy and the regions of the Netherlands also were transformed by new ideas, aesthetics, and commerce.

New intellectual movements stirred Western Europe as well. Authors such as Sir Thomas More and Erasmus of Rotterdam made notable contributions to a growing canon of western intellectual thought on humanism and the capacities of the individual to reason and contend for themselves with the depths of the human spirit. A growing intellectual need arose to balance a world image dominated and guided by religion with a concept of a mankind’s experience on earth as a breathing, thinking being exercising a measure of self determinism.

The Renaissance looked to the past, to the classical period, in order to push itself forward. A fascination with art and literature and thought from a previous era contributed to an era of new literary, artistic, and intellectual development for the Europeans.

Renaissance Store Renaissance Breast Plate with leather back Renaissance Noble Bodice (Reversible Black) Renaissance Style Fencing Rapier - CAS Iberia Garden of bagatelle Tapestry (Jardin de Bagatelle)

Tags: 14th Century, 15th century, 16th century, Botticelli, Brunelleschi, da Vinci, Donatello, Erasmus of Rotterdam, fall of Roman Empire, Florence Italy, Garden of bagatelle Tapestry (Jardin de Bagatelle), Ghiberti, Ghirlandaio, Giotto, greek scholars during the Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, Lippi, Lotto, Masaccio, Michelangelo, rebirth of ancient philosophy, Rebirth of Culture, rebirth of ideas, Renaissance Art, Renaissance artists, Renaissance Breast Plate with leather back, renaissance culture, Renaissance Literature, Renaissance Noble Bodice (Reversible Black), renaissance philosophy, renaissance store, Renaissance Style Fencing Rapier - CAS Iberia, Sculpture of David by Michelangelo - 1504 A.D., Sir Thomas More, The fall of the Byzantine Empire, The Renaissance, The Santa Maria del Fiore - Duomo, western culture

The expansion of European influence and power through Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas in many ways began with the flow of traders, travelers, and missionaries intent on establishing themselves in non-Western territories and strengthening their own nation’s resources. Already in the 15th century the Portuguese established trade with parts of Africa and by the 16th century the movement of European powers into foreign lands for expansionist political and commercial purposes was well underway.

The Europeans began a system of global expansion that had not been seen in the west since the fall of the Roman Empire. The presence for nearly a millennium of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East made European colonial expansion a political and cultural imperative as much as an economic one. Soon European political ambitions and their quest to find alternative trade routes to Asia during the 15th century resulted in a collision between the European and the Islamic worlds. An initial period of European extension into other territories first began as mercantile exploits that aimed to increase the wealth of European monarchies through settled commercial outposts and agricultural systems whose only purpose was to fuel and feed the European continent. The slave trade also grew out of this mercantile period as an offshoot of the desire to maximize production and profits.

A second period in European colonialism began at the end of the Napoleonic wars as European powers struggled to maintain their colonial territories. The wars in Europe depleted the strength and resources of the French, Spanish, and Portuguese particularly. In this second phase, the British also reduced their focus on their colonial outposts after their experience with the rebellion of their American colonies and the abolition of slavery in 1807. The abolition of slavery ended the once endless stream of labor that fueled the economy in the British Caribbean colonies and made them profitable.

A new phase of imperialism began in the 1880s through the beginning of World War I when a resurgence of colonial expansionism encapsulated almost all of Africa and most of Asia. In this era, the military and political problems between the European powers on the European continent manifested themselves on the colonial front. Furthermore, incentives for colonial expansion in Africa grew out of a reaction to the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism in the north and the discovery of gold and diamonds in the south. In Asia, the Europeans increased their colonial efforts mainly due to the weakening Asian regimes which made their countries vulnerable to new exploits. Following World War I and World War II, the European grip on its former colonies weakened, leading to the independence and formation of new countries made from the diverse ethnic and religious groups that were once subjugated by the Europeans. Today, these former colonies struggle to find their national identities while maintaining tenuous relations with the European nations that once exploited them for centuries.

Colonial History Store Colonial American Money Charleville Rifle with Bayonet - American Revolutionary War Spanish 17th Century Flintlock Pistol The Coveted East Indies DVD

Relive the Pirate Age with our new line of Pirate Clothing and Pirate Costumes. Perfect for theater, stage, film, movie or living history reenactment. We offer everything you’ll need to make the perfect pirate costume including pirate hats, pirate boots, pirate clothing,pirate guns, pirate swords, pirate coats, pirate vests, pirate pants and pirate sashes.

Tags: 15th century, 16th century, abolition of slavery, American Revolution, American War of Independence, Charleville Rifle with Bayonet - American Revolutionary War, Colonial American Money, colonial history store, Europe and the Islamic world, european colonial agricultural posts, European colonial expansion, European colonialism, European colonialism in the Middle East, European commercial outposts, European imperialism before World War I, European influence in Africa, European influence in Asia, European influence in the Americas, Napoleonic wars and colonialism, Ottoman Empire, Spanish 17th Century Flintlock Pistol, The Coveted East Indies DVD, world war i

By the early 1500’s fashions in Western Europe had developed to the extent that extreme trends abounded both in clothing and in shoe styles.  The pointed-toe poulaines, with points sometimes reaching such lengths that the tips were tied to the wearer’s knees with a strap, were one such shoe form and the chopines, or platform shoe, was another.  The sole of the chopine was extremely exaggerated in height and would raise the wearer in status and stature with platforms made from wood or cork.

The origin of chopines is somewhat disputed, with notions that it originated as a European trend through Venice, which was geographically more exposed to eastern influences (and much of the embellished forms of European dress between the 14th and 16th centuries arose from this exposure) or that it stemmed from the Iberian peninsula, where cork was abundant.  Whichever may be the case, it is certain that Venetians adopted the chopine with much enthusiasm as can be seen in multiple art historical examples as well as surviving examples of the shoe.

Venetian women were known for their sophisticated and luxurious costume as Venice was a thriving center for a growing mercantile class that bridged the cultures of east and west through trade and commerce.  Interestingly, not only did Venetian woman of the patrician class display the commercial riches of the time period but so did the Venetian courtesan, who in many ways held a unique position in society.  Venetian courtesans established themselves in society as a class apart from other women but in a manner that often elevated them in their associations with the male elite: they were often educated and cultured and carried themselves in such a manner that would scarcely differentiate them from the nobility.

Venetian noblewomen and their courtesan counterparts were often indistinguishable from one another in their costume, as evidenced by the well-known Carpaccio painting that identifies two Venetian women but leaves to the viewer to dispute whether they are women of the aristocratic class or courtesans. The discarded chopines in the painting may symbolize the ‘availability’ of the depicted women but in terms of their dress and their use of chopines, a definitive association cannot be made. What further remains a curiosity is the aspect and function of the chopines. They were a highly attenuated idea of a shoe and could not have been very comfortable, as often Venetian women would have to prop

Renaissance Store Salade Helmet with Bevor Italian Falchion Sword German Visored Sallet Helmet Renaissance Breast Plate with leather back

themselves up against their servants to be able to walk. That the liberated courtesan would want to compromise her freedom of movement wearing chopines of 8 or 10 or even 20 inches hight (as seen in an example from the Museo Correr dei Veneziani) also seems odd. However, in history it is often the case that form, function and desirability of costume are at variance and we can only appreciate the oddities of caprice.

*image: Vittore Carpaccio, Portrait of Two Venetian Women, c. 1490
*image: Twenty-inch Chopines, 16th century, Venetian, Museo Correr dei Veneziani

Tags: 14th Century, 15th century, 16th century, Carpaccio painting two venetian women, chopines, cork shoes, History of Renaissance Shoes, Italian Renaissance, platform shoes, pointed-toe poulaines, Renaissance Europe, Renaissance Fashion, Renaissance History, Renaissance Shoes, Venetian courtesans, venetian noblewomen, Venice Renaissance, wood shoes