London Plague

1563

An outbreak of bubonic plague killed twenty thousand Londoners, roughly a quarter of the city's population. The royal court fled to Windsor. Playhouses and taverns were closed. Cross-shaped marks began appearing on the doors of infected houses, a grim medieval practice being rehearsed once again in Tudor London. The epidemic provided a rehearsal for the even more devastating outbreaks of 1603 and 1665 that punctuated London's early modern history.