The first confirmed outbreak of the sweating sickness arrived in London on the 19th of September 1485, just weeks after Henry VII had secured the throne at the Battle of Bosworth. Within days, the disease had killed several thousand people, including two lord mayors, six aldermen, and three sheriffs, leaving the new Tudor regime in a state of panic. Unlike the Black Death which lingered for years, this new plague spiked with terrifying speed and vanished just as quickly, often claiming life within eight to ten hours of the first symptom. It struck with a suddenness that defied the medical understanding of the time, beginning with a sense of apprehension followed by violent cold shivers and severe pains in the neck and limbs. The cold stage lasted only half an hour to three hours before the characteristic sweat broke out without any obvious cause, accompanied by delirium, rapid pulse, and intense thirst. No skin eruptions were noted by observers, yet the disease left victims in a state of general exhaustion and collapse or an irresistible urge to sleep that physicians like John Caius believed was fatal if the patient gave way to it. The mortality rate was so high that half the population perished in some areas, and the disease did not discriminate between the rich and the poor, earning nicknames like Stoop Gallant or Stoop Knave to reflect how the proud castes were forced to stoop before their own mortality.
The Royal Tragedy
The disease found its most devastating victims among the elite, particularly striking young men and seemingly fit individuals who were the pride of the nation. In 1502, Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Henry VII, died at Ludlow Castle on the 2nd of April, just six months short of his sixteenth birthday. His wife, Catherine of Aragon, also fell ill with what was described as a malign vapour proceeding from the air, but she recovered while Arthur succumbed to the illness. The mystery deepened when researchers opened Arthur's tomb in 2002 but could not determine the exact cause of death, leaving historians to speculate on the nature of the pathogen. The pattern of death continued into the 16th century when Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, died of the sweating sickness in 1551 at the age of fifteen, only an hour before his brother Charles also succumbed to the same fate. Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, then died of the disease at age thirteen, having held the dukedom for just an hour after his elder brother died. These royal deaths highlighted the disease's peculiar affinity for the young and the powerful, contradicting the common belief that the poor were the primary victims of such plagues.The European Plague
The sweating sickness did not remain confined to England but spread with alarming speed across the continent, reaching Hamburg by a ship from England in July 1529. The disease traveled along the Baltic coast to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and south to Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Marburg, and Göttingen by September of that year. It emerged simultaneously in the cities of Antwerp and Amsterdam on the morning of the 27th of September, prevailing for a short time in each location, generally not more than two weeks. By the end of 1529, it had entirely disappeared from mainland Europe except in the eastern part of the Swiss Confederacy, where it lingered into the next year. The disease did not recur in mainland Europe, and cases were unknown in Italy or France, except in the English-controlled Pale of Calais. The 1528 outbreak reached epidemic proportions, with the earliest written reference appearing on the 5th of June 1528 in a letter to Bishop Tunstall of London from Brian Tuke, who had fled to Stepney to avoid infection from a servant at his house. Henry VIII broke up the court and left London, frequently changing his residence, while Thomas Cromwell lost his wife and two daughters to the disease. Cardinal Wolsey contracted the illness and survived, but the disease's rapid spread and sudden disappearance left a trail of devastation that baffled contemporary observers.