The Great Plague arrived in the British Isles in 1348, marking the beginning of one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. It was part of the larger bubonic plague pandemic that swept across Europe, killing an estimated one-third of the population. The arrival of the plague had devastating social, economic, and cultural effects on British society. Communities were decimated, and fear and superstition prevailed as people sought scapegoats. Additionally, labor shortages shifted economic power to surviving workers, eventually contributing to social transformations, including changes in feudal structures and movements toward greater individual rights and freedoms in the ensuing centuries.