Death comes even to kings.
University of Victoria Library . The many plagues which decimated England and Europe helped shape a culture in which death was an ever-present yet mysterious force in daily life. The prevalence of death imagery in medieval artwork may seem obsessive, but this cultural phenomenon was a vital part of medieval society's attempt to comprehend a very real danger. In an era with high mortality rates, mass deaths due to disease, and little knowledge of medicine and hygiene, death was an inescapable mystery. Whole villages and urban districts could be wiped out for no comprehensible reason.