The Plague That Disappeared After 66 Years
The “English sweat” killed thousands but remains a mystery today
“This plague came to us in the year 1485, with the armies that brought us the first Henry Tudor. Now every few years it fills the graveyards. It kills in a day. Merry at breakfast, they say: dead by noon.”
— Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
Although this plague plays a role in Hilary Mantel’s historical fiction trilogy tracing Thomas Cromwell’s life, it’s not the Black Death. Instead, it’s a disease that disappeared after less than 70 years and remains mysterious today: sweating sickness, also known as sudor anglicus, “English sweat.”
England suffered five significant outbreaks of the disease, four during Cromwell’s life. With an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 50 percent, it hit in the summers of 1485, 1508, 1517, 1528, and 1551. Because it came on without warning, sweating sickness frightened the English.
Accounts at the time suggest a sense of anxiety or apprehension preceded its onset. The first physical symptoms were chills, sometimes violent tremors, and joint pain. Then came a high fever, weakness, headaches, and thirst. Its name came from the heavy perspiration it caused, or, as a French physician present during the initial outbreak said, “grete swetyng and stynkyng.”
The disease often was fatal within hours. Generally, someone who survived more than 24 hours recovered. The perspiration subsided but was replaced by excessive urination, suggesting dehydration played a role in the deaths. Unfortunately, survival did not provide immunity and some suffered from it more than once. It was unusual because active, upper-class, or wealthy men in their 30s and 40s were the most frequent victims.
Did mercenary forces bring the disease to England?
The initial outbreak of the disease led to the belief, reflected in Wolf Hall, that it came from mercenaries hired by Henry Tudor when he invaded England to seize the crown in the summer of 1485. He became King Henry VII on August 22, when his army defeated King Richard III at Bosworth Field and ended the Wars of the Roses. After the battle, elements of both armies entered London, and almost…
