Who treated the sick? Care and prevention, c1250 to c1700

Most sick people in medieval and early modern England never saw a doctor. This lesson looks at who did the treating, where care happened, and how people tried to stop the plague.

Practise this lesson free (7 questions)

Medieval carers and hospitals

Physicians trained at university, were expensive, and diagnosed by studying urine and the stars.
Apothecaries mixed and sold herbal remedies. Barber-surgeons let blood, pulled teeth and did simple operations.
Most people were cared for at home, usually by women of the family, using remedies passed down the generations.
Hospitals were run by the Church, such as St Bartholomew's in London (founded 1123). They gave rest, food and prayer rather than cures, and many would not take infectious patients.
Prevention: the Regimen Sanitatis gave advice on diet, exercise and keeping clean; people also prayed and went on pilgrimages.

Case studies: the Black Death and the Great Plague

Black Death (1348 to 1349): it killed between a third and a half of England's population. People prayed, joined processions, carried sweet-smelling herbs against miasma, and flagellants whipped themselves. Some avoided the sick or fled.
Great Plague (1665): it killed about 100,000 Londoners. The authorities shut up infected houses, marking the door with a red cross and the words 'Lord have mercy upon us'; watchmen stopped anyone leaving. Searchers checked the dead, public gatherings were limited, cats and dogs were killed, and fires were lit to clean the air.
By 1665 local government did more, but ideas about the cause were still mostly the same.

Change, c1500 to c1700

The dissolution of the monasteries (1536 to 1540) closed many Church hospitals; some, such as St Bartholomew's, were refounded with royal or town money, so care became less tied to the Church.
Pest houses were set up to isolate plague victims.
Thomas Sydenham (1624 to 1689), the 'English Hippocrates', stressed careful observation of patients' symptoms and treated diseases as separate types, for example telling scarlet fever apart from measles. His ideas changed how doctors diagnosed, but treatments changed little.
Worked example

Explain one way in which the response to the Great Plague (1665) was similar to the response to the Black Death (1348).

  1. State the similarity: both relied on ideas about miasma and God.
  2. 1348: people carried sweet herbs and prayed for forgiveness.
  3. 1665: fires were lit to purify the air and people still prayed; the cause was still unknown.

Answer: In both, people blamed bad air and God's will, so they used herbs, fires and prayer, because nobody knew microbes caused the disease.

Key idea

Medieval carers: physicians (urine and stars), apothecaries (remedies), barber-surgeons (bloodletting, teeth), and above all women at home. Church hospitals gave care, not cure. Black Death (1348): prayer, herbs, flagellants. Great Plague (1665): houses shut up and marked with a red cross, searchers, killing cats and dogs. Sydenham stressed observing symptoms.

Key words
Miasma
The old idea that bad air from rotting matter causes disease.
Dissolution of the monasteries
The closure of England's monasteries from 1536 to 1540 and the transfer of their wealth to the Crown.

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  1. Who usually had the most medical training in medieval England?

    1. Apothecaries
    2. Barber-surgeons
    3. Wise women
    4. Physicians, who studied at university
    Show the answer

    Answer: Physicians, who studied at university

    Physicians were expensive and few.

  2. What did medieval physicians use urine charts for?

    1. Comparing the colour and smell of urine to diagnose illness
    2. Measuring blood pressure
    3. Finding germs
    4. Deciding hospital admissions
    Show the answer

    Answer: Comparing the colour and smell of urine to diagnose illness

    Urine was thought to reveal imbalances.

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Checked by the GCSE-ready editorial team, 17 October 2026. Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.

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