 Black Assize of Exeter 1586

The Black Assizes is an epithet given to several outbreaks of "gaol fever" which struck various prisons and court-houses in England in the late 16th century and which caused the deaths of not only many prisoners awaiting trial but also the magistrates in the court buildings holding assizes.The basic cause was fever spreading from insanitary jails via prisoners into dirty and overcrowded courtrooms.