England in the Middle Ages 429 Edward III found it impossible, however, to conquer France, Edward ill and the successor of the French King, John II, managed before possiblJTo Edward died in 1377 to get back almost all the lands that ^j?"^^^f the English had occupied. For a p-eneration after the death of Edward III the war with Miserable o 1 1 rr 1 i. condition of France was almost discontinued. France had suffered a great prance deal more than England. In the first place, all the fighting had been done on her side of the Channel, and in the second place, the soldiers, who found themselves without occupation, wandered about in bands maltreating and plundering the people. The famous Italian scholar, Petrarch, who visited France at this period, tells us that he could not believe that this was the same kingdom which he had once seen so rich and flourishing. " Nothing presented itself to my eyes but fearful solitude and extreme poverty, uncultivated land and houses in ruins. Even about Paris there were everywhere signs of fire and destruction. The streets were deserted, the roads overgrown with weeds." The horrors of war had been increased by the deadly bubonic The bubonic 1 • o T A '1 •♦• plague of plague which appeared in Europe early m 1348. In April it 1348-1349, had reached Florence ; by August it was devastating France ^Xd^the^ and Germany; it then spread over England from the south- black death west northward, attacking every part of the country during the year 1349. This disease, like other terrible epidemics, such as smallpox and cholera, came from Asia. Those who were stricken with it usually died in two or three days. It is impossible to tell what proportion of the population perished. Reports of the -time say that in one part of France but one tenth of the people survived, in another but one sixteenth ; and that for a long time five hundred bodies were carried from the great hospital of Paris every day. A careful estimate shows that in England toward one half of the population died. At the Abbey of New- enham only the abbot and two monks were left alive out of twenty-six. There were constant complaints that certain lands were no longer of any value to their lords because the tenants were all dead.
