Settings – the Peak District and Oran

The Bubonic Plague and Eyam

Lead mining and Eyam

Puritans and the English Revolution

Year of Wonders is a semi historical novel.

Geraldine Brooks based her work upon the true story of the outbreak of plague, or the Black Death, in the English village of Eyam (pronounced EEM - rhymes with SEEM) in 1666.

Geraldine Brooks

Brooks is interested in exploring the impact of the villagers’ choice to quarantine themselves.

‘What would it be like..to make such a choice, and to find that, in consequence, two-thirds of your neighbours were dead within a year? How would faith, relationships and social order survive’?

Brooks spent years reporting current affairs in the Middle East.

During this time, she became intrigued with the lives of the Middle Eastern women.

She wrote about Islamic women in her first book, Nine Parts of Desire.

She has recounted how, during these years, she saw ‘women who lived lives that were highly circumscribed and restricted, until thrown into sudden turmoil by a crisis such as war or famine. These women would suddenly find themselves having to step out of their old roles and assume vastly challenging responsibilities. I saw women who had travelled enormous personal distances...

...traditional village women in Eritrea who became platoon leaders in the country’s independence war...

...Kurdish women who led their families to safety over mined mountain passes after the failure of their uprising against Saddam Hussein...

...If these women could change and grow so remarkably, I reasoned that Anna could too’.

Eyam and Oran

Eyam is in Derbyshire, almost in the centre of England.

‘Our village is a thin thread of dwellings, unspooling east and west of the church..our walls are hewed of the common grey stone..beyond the cottages lie..tilled fields and grazing commons..’ p.11

In the novel’s epilogue, Anna recounts how she comes to live in Oran, in Algeria, as the wife of Ahmed Bey, ‘the wisest and kindest man’ (p.301) she has ever known.

The dramatic changes within Anna’s personality are echoed by the vivid contrast in her surroundings.

‘As I continue to study and learn, I hope to accomplish a worthy life’s work here’. p.303

‘‘I will never forget the dazzle of the sunlight, glinting of the white walls...

‘...or the way the city spilled down the mountain and embraced its wide blue harbour...’ p.300

... It has taken my eyes a long time to get used to the brightness of this place...’.

... For one who lived so long in a misty world, the vividness here can sear the sight’. p.302

Many of the events of the novel are historically correct –

In 1666 a George Vicars really did bring the Plague into Eyam through a bolt of infected cloth.

William Mompesson (in the novel Michael Montpellion) was the newly appointed rector of Eyam and, with his predecessor, the Puritan minister, Thomas Stanley, he persuaded the villagers to enter voluntary quarantine, bury their own dead and even worship outdoors to limit the spread of the disease.

The local squire and his family, the Bradfords, did flee from the plague.

However the Reverend's wife, Catherine Mompesson, died of the plague.

The Eyam Museum's website lists the victims’ names and date of death. The list of plague victims in July 1666 attest to the devastating spread of plague through the village.

Spread by fleas and carried by rats.

Famous outbreaks – Middle Ages 1340s – quarter to half of Europe’s population died.

The Great Plague of London in 1666.

Still exists today - Sydney had an outbreak of the plague in the early 1900s.

Globally, the World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year.

Symptoms of infection include: swollen, tender lymph nodes (called "buboes")

high fever

chills

headache

haemorrhages under the skin, causing blackish discoloration of the skin

A plague ridden hand

Various types of minerals have been mined in Derbyshire since prehistoric times.

Lead was used in the past for plumbing, roofing, windows, and to create paint pigments.

Window with lead piping

Carving of a miner in a Peak District church from around 1000

‘Soon they were dragging Mem...towards the adit of the flooded mine...The mine was a wide one, and I could see the slick stones descending into darkness’. p.90

Flooded mine shafts

‘ ‘She’s sinking..she’s no witch. God forgive us, we’ve killed her’. I ...peered into the dark but I could see nothing but the distorted reflection of my own bloodied, anguished face peering back at me from the surface of the water’ . p. 90

In 1649, after 10 years of civil war, the English Parliament, trialled and executed its King, Charles the I.

England then began a period of rule by the Puritans, which ended in 1660 with the return of Charles’ son, Charles II.

Execution of Charles I, 30th January 1649

England had always been a Catholic country until the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547)

Henry VIII wanted to obtain a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne Boleyn.

During the 1500s, new ideas about how Christian worship should be conducted that challenged the Catholic Church, gained popularity, especially in Holland, Germany, Scotland and England.

Unable to obtain his divorce, Henry dissolved the Catholic Church in England in 1534, and founded the Church of England, with himself as the Head of the Church.

The Church of England was influenced by Protestant ideas.

Martin Luther posting his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church in 1517

Charles I, although himself a Protestant, married the French princess Henrietta Maria, a devoted Catholic.

This caused a great deal of concern amongst his subjects who feared the Catholic Church would return to England.

Rumours abounded that Charles was secretly a Catholic, or if not, he was seen as too ‘High Church’ to be a good Protestant.

When Henry dissolved the monasteries in 1534, the new Protestant religion, had been enthusiastically accepted by most English people.

Over the next 80 years, however, some people still felt that the Church of England was still too influenced by Catholicism.

Because they sought to purify the Church of England, they became known as ‘Puritans”.

The Puritans were able to tap into general dissatisfaction with the suspected Catholic Charles I and use this to gain political power.

Not only was Charles seen as too sympathetic to Catholics, he also had problems with his Parliament.

Parliament wanted greater input into the affairs of the realm, but Charles believed that only Kings had the right to govern countries, and that this was ‘divinely ordained’ by God.

This view was seen as arrogant by many English people who wanted some share of political power.

England entered a 10 year period of Civil War, which ended in the trial and conviction of Charles I as a ‘traitor’ and his subsequent execution.

A severe Christianity.

The Puritans feared what they called ‘worldliness’. Acording to the Puritans, all human effort and contemplation should be directed towards the worship of God.

They beleieved that pleasures of the world ditracted one from God, and indeed were the ‘Devil’s work’.

The Puritans argued for greater simplicity of worship. They believed images of Jesus, Mary and the Saints were ‘Popish’, hence Anna’s comment that ‘it was their sermons we grew up listening to in a church bare of adornment..’. p.7

Catholic Church - Asam Church, Munich

Puritan Church – Old Ship Meeting House, Massachusetts

‘.. It was their notions of what was heathenish that hushed the Sabbath and quieted the church bells, that took the ale from the tavern and the lace from the dresses, the ribands from the Maypole and the laughter out of the public lanes’. p.7

•Inns closed •Sports banned

•Theatres closed •Make up and colourful clothes banned

•Maypoles cut down •Work on the Sabbath – even walking – unless going to church - banned

•Music banned •Christmas celebrations banned

•Dancing banned •Gardens of non-edible plants i.e. roses, daises – frowned upon

•Games of card and dice banned •Church attendance compulsory

‘The young Martin girl minded the baby and Jamie for me while I worked. She was a decent girl and watchful with the children but Puritan in her ways, thinking that laughter and fun are ungodly’. p.24

‘Mr Stanley was a sincere man, uncommonly gentle for a Puritan and no fanatic, but still his Sunday had been a severe Sabbath and his church had been a cheerless place’. p. 100

‘For all the years of my childhood, when the Puritans held sway here, we wore for our outer garments only what they called the Sadd Colours – black for preference, or the Dark Brown called Dying Leaf’. p. 49

Puritans favoured simple, stark clothing