Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
The Black Death had begun in China. It reached France, Spain, and England by 1348. About 1/4 to 2/3 of the population of Europe died from the plague in the next 3 years. "During the next 300 years, the Black Death returned regularly, more than a hundred times, before finally dying out in the 1700s." [Furtado: 1001 Days]