The Sweating Sickness
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Not known in England before 1485, arrived at the very beginning of Henry VII's reign, and was first 
noticed a few days after the landing of Henry at Milford Haven on the the 7th Aug 1485, as there is 
clear evidence of its being spoken of before the battle of Bosworth on the 22nd August.

Soon after the arrival of Henry in London on the 28th August, it broke out in the capital and caused 
a great many deaths; this plague soon became known as the sweating sickness; it was regarded as being 
quite distinct from the plague, the pestilential fever or other epidemics previously known, not only 
by the special symptom which gave it its name, but also by its extremely rapid and fatal course.

The cause of the disease is blamed on the general dirt and sewage of the time, but no-one knows for 
sure; the first outbreak at the end of the Wars of the Roses means that it may have been brought over 
from France by the French mercenaries which Henry VII used to gain the English throne, particularly 
as they seem to have been immune.

Strangely, the disease seems to have been more virulent among the rich, than the poor; it is thought 
that it may have been Relapsing Fever which is spread by ticks and lice, usually in summer months 
when they flourish.

What follows is a description by Thomas Forestier, who recorded his observations of the 1485 epidemic;

	'... The exterior is calm in this fever, the interior excited... the heat in 
	the pestilent fever many times does not appear excessive to the doctor, nor 
	the heat of the sweat itself particularly high... But it is on account of the 
	ill-natured, fetid, corrupt, putrid, and loathsome vapors close to the region 
	of the heart and of the lungs whereby the panting of the breath magnifies and 
	increases and restricts of itself...'

From 1485 nothing more was heard of it until 1507, when the second outbreak occurred, which was much 
less fatal than the first; but in 1517 there was a third and much more severe epidemic; in many places, 
like Oxford and Cambridge, the death rate was high; in some places half the population are said to 
have perished; there is evidence of the disease having spread to Calais and Antwerp, but with these 
exceptions it was confined to England; contemporary observers distinguished the condition from plague, 
malaria, and typhus.

In 1528 the disease recurred for the fourth time and with greater severity; it first showed itself in 
London at the end of May, and speedily spread over the whole of England, though not into Scotland or 
Ireland; many people in Henry VIII's court fell sick with the sweating sickness and Henry developed 
a morbid fear of contracting the disease himself; he would change residences every other day in an 
effort to avoid coming within contact with those of his court who became infected.

He also busied himself with a study of the disease and its purported cures such as herbs laced with 
molasses and bleeding from certain points on the body, the arm, between the thumb and forefinger, or 
between the shoulders.

The French Ambassador to the English court, Du Bellai, wrote in 1528: 

	"...One of the filles de chambre of Mlle Boleyn was attacked on Tuesday 
	by the sweating sickness. The King left in great haste, and went a dozen 
	miles off... This disease is the easiest in the world to die of. You 
	have a slight pain in the head and at the heart; all at once you begin 
	to sweat. There is no need for a physician: for if you uncover yourself 
	the least in the world, or cover yourself a little too much, you are taken 
	off without languishing. It is true that if you merely put your hand out 
	of bed during the first 24 hours...you become stiff as a poker".

The most remarkable fact about this epidemic is that it spread over the Continent, suddenly appearing 
at Hamburg, and spreading so rapidly that within a few weeks more than a thousand people died; thus 
was the terrible sweating sickness started on a destructive course, during which it caused fearful 
mortality throughout eastern Europe; France, Italy and the southern countries were spared.

It spread much in the same way as cholera, passing, in one direction, from north to south, arriving 
at Switzerland in December, in another northwards to Denmark, Sweden and Norway, also eastwards to 
Lithuania, Poland and Russia, and westwards to Flanders and Holland; it declared itself simultaneously 
at Antwerp and Amsterdam and on the morning of the 27th September, arrived in England.

In each place which it affected it prevailed for a short time only generally not more than a fortnight; 
by the end of the year it had entirely disappeared, except in. eastern Switzerland, where it lingered 
into the next year; it seems that the terrible English sweat never appeared again on the European Continent.

England was, however, destined to suffer from one more outbreak of the disease, which occurred in 1551 
and with regard to this we have the great advantage of an account by an eyewitness, John Kaye or Caius 
of Gonville Hall, Cambridge, the eminent president of the Royal College of Physicians.

The disease began very suddenly with a sense of apprehension, followed by cold shivers (sometimes very 
violent), giddiness, headache and severe pains in the neck, shoulders and limbs, with great prostration. 
After the cold stage, which might last from half-an-hour to three hours, followed the stage of heat 
and sweating. The characteristic sweat broke out suddenly, and, as it seemed to those accustomed to 
the disease, without any obvious cause. With the sweat, or after that was poured out, came a sense 
of heat, and with this headache and delirium, rapid pulse and intense thirst. Palpitation and pain 
in the heart were frequent symptoms. No eruption of any kind on the skin was generally observed; 
Caius makes no allusion to such a symptom. In the later stages there was either general prostration 
and collapse, or an irresistible tendency to sleep, which was thought to be fatal if the patient were 
permitted to give way to it. One attack did not offer immunity and some people suffered several bouts 
before succumbing.

All accounts agree as to the summer preponderance of the sweating sickness; all the epidemics 
disappeared with the onset of winter; narrative accounts recorded in Holinshed's Chronicles of England, 
Scotland and Ireland and in correspondence reported a distinct age and sex predisposition: "It is to 
be noted, that this mortalitie fell chieflie or rather upon men, and those of the best age as between 
thirtie and fortie years. Few women, nor children, nor old men died thereof".

These narrative accounts emphasised the susceptibility of upper class men; such epidemiological 
characteristics, however, rely heavily on observer interpretation; the preponderance of wealthy male 
victims in narrative accounts probably reflects the high profile of these men within society rather 
than an actual susceptibility to the sweating sickness.

The Catholic Church could offer no reason for the deadly disease and religious beliefs were sorely 
tested; the plague had such a devastating effect that people started to question religion in general, 
such as "How could God allow this to happen?"; many, previously devout, people became disillusioned 
with the church and its power and influence went into decline; these doubts ultimately resulted in 
the English Reformation.