Blood Sweat and Tears

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n                                  When mankind isn’t busy wipingnout his fellow species, his fellow species are busy wiping out mankind. One ofnthe strangest epidemics was the English Sweating Sickness, which may benresponsible for causing one of the greatest sea changes in English social history.nThe first outbreak of the Sweating Sickness was in August 1485, and followednthe invasion by the forces of Henry Tudor at Milford Haven. Henry sailed fromnFrance with a small army of retainers and French mercenaries, landed in Walesnand quickly marched inland, gathering an estimated 5,000 more followers. 

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nHisnforces met those of the Yorkist King Richard III at Bosworth Field on August 22^ndn1485, and defeated and killed the King (the last English King to die innbattle), and Henry was crowned as King Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. Thisnwas effectively the end of the Wars of the Roses, with the Lancastriansntriumphant, (although there was a final battle between Lancastrian and Yorkistnforces at Stoke Field in 1487). The new King Henry moved quickly to London tonestablish his claim to the throne. 

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nHis army remained behind, and moved slowerntowards the capital. As they did, they were struck down by a strange newnillness, which followed in their wake. A person would be fit and well, but wasnthen taken by stomach cramps, headaches and lethargy, followed by a very greatnfever, with profuse sweating and internal heat. Subjects were usually deadnwithin hours, and the mortality rate was said to be ninety-nine out of onenhundred of those stricken. In September, the disease reached London, where itnraged for a month, killing – in the words of the chroniclers – ‘infinitenpersons’, ‘a wonderful number’, ‘many thousands’. 

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nPeople knew this was notnthe Plague or Black Death, nor was it a Pox, and those who recovered from itnwere not immune to a second or third attack, as an immunity did not occur innthose who managed to recover. The physicians could do nothing; there was noncure or remedy. Some citizens fled to the country, hoping to escape, but thendisease went with them, spreading it further afield. And then, at the end ofnSeptember, it stopped, just as quickly as it had started. It continued in thenprovinces for a little while longer – The Chronicles of Croylandnfor November 1485 reports the death of the Abbot from the Sweating Sickness innless than eighteen hours, (and that Lord Stanley had used the Sweating Sicknessnas an excuse not to join Richard III at Bosworth). 

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nWhat caused it was a mystery, somenblame the French mercenaries who sailed with Henry, some blame the bad seriesnof extremely rainy summers in the early 1480s, some thought ticks or lice tonblame (although there was no evidence of bites or rashes on victims). Outbreaksnof Plague pushed the Sweating Sickness out of popular memory – Plague killednover 30,000 in London alone in 1499. 

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nIn 1501, King Henry’s eldest son and heir,nPrince Arthur, was married (at 15 years old), to the infanta Catherine,ndaughter of the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille. 

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nIn 1502, the teenaged newly-weds went to Ludlow Castle, where, on April 2^ndnArthur died in mysterious circumstances, said to be of Sweating Sickness whichnhad broken out again in the area. His younger brother, Henry, at ten years ofnage, became the new heir – it had been thought he would become a cleric, andnmaybe a future Archbishop of Canterbury – as it was, when his father died inn1509, he was crowned King Henry VIII. To maintain the alliance with Spain,narrangements were made for him to marry his brother’s widow, Catherine ofnAragon, at, Henry claimed, the dying wish of his father. 

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nThey were married, inn1509, but Catherine did not produce Henry’s expected heir – she bore twonstillborn babies and four more who died as babies. Henry believed the marriagenwas cursed by God – he had violated the Law in Leviticus 20:21 “And if a manntake his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered hisnbrother’s nakedness: they shall be childless,” – and sought to have thenmarriage annulled. Pope Clement VII, who at the time just happened to be thenprisoner of Emperor Charles V, (who, as it just happened, was Catherine’snnephew), refused Henry permission to annul the marriage without a decree fromnRome. 

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nHenry grew tired of waiting for this decree to arrive, so had one issuednanyway, declared a split with Rome, placed himself at the Head of the Church ofnEngland, and married Anne Boleyn. If young Prince Arthur had not died fromnSweating Sickness, it is unlikely any of this would have happened, and Englishnhistory would have been entirely different. 

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nIn 1507, a second outbreak occurrednin London but was far less virulent, and the lack of widespread mortality wasnput down to advancements in medical treatments. 

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nThe third outbreak of 1517 wasnincredibly violent – in some areas up to half the population died from SweatingnSickness, usually in between two or three hours of infection. The initialnshivering was taken to be a symptom of the inevitable death to follow. Thenpestilence raged for six months, killing high and low born with indifference.nThe scholars at Oxford and Cambridge died in numbers enough that the Englishnrenaissance is said to have faltered. The King and his inner court moved aroundnthe country in a bid to avoid the disease. Outbreaks also occurred in Calaisn(then under English control), where only the fair skinned people succumbed tonthe ‘Englishe Sickness’. And again, as before, it vanished as quickly asnit began. 

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nFor over a decade, it was not seen again, until the fourth outbreak in 1528.nThis visitation was even more terrible than that of eleven years earlier. Innbegan in London in May, once more appearing from nowhere and without warning.nStrong, healthy people were dead five hours later. This time it spread likenwildfire, annihilating the populace. All public business was suspended, to nonavail. And this time it did not limit itself only to the English – it ravagednEurope with an intensity that defies description. 

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nAn English ship was struck atnsea – it docked at Hamburg and twenty-two hours later a thousand people layndead. Sweating Sickness sped through the Baltic shores and by 1530 in somenareas it had killed two-thirds of the population. Norway, Denmark and Swedennwere struck – 400 people a day died in Copenhagen. Strangely, it seems not tonhave remained for longer than about a fortnight in any area, before spreadingnonward. Then it stopped altogether, and was not seen in mainland Europe again. 

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nThe fifth, and final, outbreak followed in England in 1551. Of all theninstances, this was by far the worst. It began in Shrewsbury, on April 15^th,nand in days 960 people had died, some in less than an hour. Panic broke out andnsocial order broke down. Clouds of poisonous mists were seen flowing along thenbanks of the Severn, and where they blew, the Sweating Sickness followed.nSlowly it crossed the country, bring death and terror everywhere – one writerndescribed it as a ‘depopulation’. People fled to Scotland, Ireland and France,nwhere they died, although the disease did not affect their Scots, Irish ornFrench hosts. 

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nThere is an invaluable eye-witness account made by John Caius, anneminent Elizabethan physician, called, “A Boke or Counseill Against thenDisease Commonly Called the Sweate, or Sweatyng Sicknesse,” which tells usnthe disease: – 

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nCaius describes in detail thencourse of the illness – from an initial feeling of apprehension and a cold,noften violent, shivering, followed by giddiness, nausea, aching in the limbsnand great tiredness. This might last anything from half an hour to three hoursnand was followed by great sweating and internal heat, after which camenpalpitations, more pains, delirium, intense thirst and an irresistible desirento sleep. There were no eruptions of the skin or rashes, and if the patientnsurvived twenty-four hours, they could be regarded as having survived. Mostndidn’t, and died within a matter of hours. Caius, (a latinised form of Keys),ngave practical advice on treating the afflicted, including using sweet herbs tonsweeten the air, a varied diet of fruits, and n‘that two persones lye not in one bed.’ 

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nHe contributed to thenextension of his former college at Cambridge, where Gonville and Caius Collegenis named for him, and went on to become Court Physician to Edward VI, QueennElizabeth and Queen Mary, although he was stripped of this honour for being,nincongruously, both a Catholic and an atheist at the same time. Caiusnwas one of the early scientific pioneers who advocated empirical investigationnrather a reliance on the authority of classical authors. 

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nThe Sweating Sicknessnsubsided again as rapidly as it had arrived, and apart from odd, isolatednincidents has never been seen again. Something that was feared more than thenBlack Death deserves to be more widely known. There has never been a fullnexplanation of its causes, Caius’s description gives us our best guess atndiagnosis, and the general opinion is that is was a strain of a pulmonarynhantavirus, transmitted from human to human (rather than by rodent carriers).nMaybe we will never know.

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