<P> All social classes were affected, although the lower classes, living together in unhealthy places, were most vulnerable . Alfonso XI of Castile was the only European monarch to die of the plague, but Peter IV of Aragon lost his wife, his daughter, and a niece in six months . Joan of England, daughter of Edward III, died in Bordeaux on her way to Castile to marry Alfonso's son, Pedro . The Byzantine Emperor lost his son, while in the Kingdom of France, Joan of Navarre, daughter of Louis X le Hutin and Margaret of Burgundy, was killed by the plague, as well as Bonne of Luxembourg, the wife of the future John II of France . </P> <P> Estimates of the demographic impact of the plague in Asia are based on population figures during this time and estimates of the disease's toll on population centers . The most severe outbreak of plague in the Chinese province of Hubei in 1334 claimed up to 80 percent of the population . China had several epidemics and famines from 1200 to the 1350s and its population decreased from an estimated 125 million to 65 million in the late 14th century . </P> <P> The precise demographic impact of the disease in the Middle East is very difficult to calculate . Mortality was particularly high in rural areas, including significant areas of Gaza and Syria . Many rural people fled, leaving their fields and crops, and entire rural provinces are recorded as being totally depopulated . Surviving records in some cities reveal a devastating number of deaths . The 1348 outbreak in Gaza left an estimated 10,000 people dead, while Aleppo recorded a death rate of 500 per day during the same year . In Damascus, at the disease's peak in September and October 1348, a thousand deaths were recorded every day, with overall mortality estimated at between 25 and 38 percent . Syria lost a total of 400,000 people by the time the epidemic subsided in March 1349 . In contrast to some higher mortality estimates in Asia and Europe, scholars such as John Fields of Trinity College in Dublin believe the mortality rate in the Middle East was less than one - third of the total population, with higher rates in selected areas . </P> <P> Because 14th - century healers were at a loss to explain the cause of the Black Death, many Europeans ascribed supernatural forces, earthquakes and malicious conspiracies, among other things, as possible reasons for the plague's emergence . No one in the 14th century considered rat control a way to ward off the plague, and people began to believe only God's anger could produce such horrific displays of suffering and death . Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer and poet of the era, questioned whether it was sent by God for their correction, or that it came through the influence of the heavenly bodies . Christians accused Jews of poisoning public water supplies in an effort to ruin European civilization . The spreading of this rumor led to complete destruction of entire Jewish towns, and was simply caused by suspicion on part of the Christians, who noticed that the Jews had lost fewer lives to the plague due to their hygienic practices . In February 1349, 2,000 Jews were murdered in Strasbourg . In August of the same year, the Jewish communities of Mainz and Cologne were exterminated . </P>

Briefly describe the impact of the black death in europe