Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Conference, 8–10 April 2021
Anika Esther Martin, Eastern Washington University, undergraduate student, “The ‘English Bath’: English Sweating Sickness and the 1529 Continental Outbreak”
Abstract: Sudor Anglicus, or "English Sweating Sickness," was a peculiar disease which afflicted England during the Tudor period. First appearing in the late summer of 1485, Sweating Sickness quickly proved itself to be a terrifying killer. Those who contracted the Sweat were struck ill suddenly, often died within the first twenty-four hours, and suffered from a host of symptoms, the most visible of which being a raging fever and oppressive sweat. Between 1485 and 1551, five major outbreaks of the disease wracked the country, attracting the worried attention of those beyond England. In 1529, those anxieties were realized when a German ship unknowingly carried twelve sick passengers into the city of Hamburg, Germany, introducing the Sweat to Europe. This paper centers on the 1529 continental outbreak of English Sweating Sickness, tracking its path across Europe and exploring the different ways in which mainland Europeans reacted to the disease. Did they follow English precedents in handling the Sweat; or did they develop new policies and remedies? In approaching these questions, I will pay special attention to the German public health system, including a discussion of their city quarantines and medical pamphlets.
The “English Bath:”
English Sweating Sickness and the 1529 Continental Outbreak
Anika Esther Martin
Eastern Washington University
Undergraduate
Abstract:
1 Sudor Anglicus, or "English Sweating Sickness," was a peculiar disease which afflicted
England during the Tudor period. First appearing in the late summer of 1485, Sweating Sickness
immediately proved itself to be a ruthless killer. Those who contracted the Sweat were struck ill
suddenly, often died within the first twenty-four hours, and suffered from a host of symptoms,
the most visible of which being a raging fever and oppressive sweat. Between 1485 and 1551,
five major outbreaks of the disease wracked the country, attracting the worried attention of those
beyond England's borders. In 1529, those anxieties were realized when a German ship
unknowingly carried twelve sick passengers into the city of Hamburg, Germany, introducing the
Sweat to Europe. This paper centers on the 1529 continental outbreak of English Sweating
Sickness, tracking its path across Europe and exploring the different ways in which mainland
Europeans reacted to the disease. Did they follow English precedents in handling the Sweat; or did they develop new policies and remedies? In approaching these questions, I will pay special attention to the German public health system, including a discussion of their quarantine measures and medical pamphlets.
Martin Luther was angry. It was October of 1529, and the famous father of the Protestant
Reformation was in Marburg, Hesse, Germany to settle the question of the Eucharist, a subject
which had bitterly divided the protestant movement. Luther was already skeptical of the meeting
before his arrival, and a day of closed-door debate with his reformist rival, Ulrich Zwingli, had
only heightened tensions among those gathered. The weather wasn’t helping the situation either.
Like a manifestation of the storm brewing within the Reformation itself, the summer and fall of
2 1529 had been miserable, marked by erratic temperatures, unusually heavy rainfall and widespread flooding.i Cooped up in Marburg Palace, restless from the weather and increasingly hostile towards his fellow reformers, Luther was near the end of his patience when warnings about a foreign sickness reached the colloquy.
Sudor Anglicus, commonly known as “English Sweating Sickness,” first appeared in
England in 1485. Within months, the disease was infamous, known for its infectiousness, high mortality rate, and unmistakable symptomatology: The afflicted were struck ill suddenly, laid low with sweat and high fever, and often died within the first 24 hours. For 66 years, sporadic epidemics of the disease would spring up, seemingly at random, and spread throughout the country. Then, in 1551, just as suddenly and mysteriously as it had begun, it ended. Sweating
Sickness thus passed from infamy into obscure history; a peculiarity relegated to Tudor England.
But while England was most effected by the disease, the Sweat was not entirely confined to the nation’s borders.
In 1529, English Sweating Sickness was brought to continental Europe by ship.
Beginning in Hamburg, Germany, the Sweat spread through the German-speaking states and out into central Europe, ultimately killing thousands. While the trajectory of the continental outbreak was nearly identical to the four prior English epidemics, the way in which the disease was received and managed was different in a number of ways, especially within the protestant
German states. Quarantine measures, a more robust public health system, higher literacy rates, and the example of English treatments all meant that Germany was much better equipped to take on the disease than England. In analyzing and comparing the English and German responses to
Sweating Sickness, a fascinating new layer is added to the story of disease in Early Modern
Europe.
3 In the late 15th century, the English were familiar with periodic epidemics of malaria,
typhus, and bubonic plague.ii These illnesses were known quantities with centuries of familiarity
and tried, if not always true, treatments. But English Sweating Sickness was unknown when it first struck during the summer of 1485, a fact which was attested to by the Italian humanist and
chronicler, Polydore Virgil, who noted that the Sweat was a new disease “which no previous age
had experienced.”iii This newness and the unknown origin of the disease could only have
heightened the fear felt by the English people as Sweating Sickness spread through the countryside and into the cities. By early fall the Sweat made its way into London, and while the
exact death toll is unknown, contemporary estimates placed the number in the thousands.iv In
response to the epidemic, Henry VII’s coronation was postponed until late October, a testament
to the fear generated by the disease.v
English Sweating Sickness was infamous for its sudden onset, the speed with which a
victim could die, and of course, oppressive sweating. One record, from the city of Chester, offers some insight into how Sweating Sickness could rock a community. According to the source, “… there were 91 deaths within 3 days, of which 71 occurred in a single day.”vi Though just a
snippet of information to work from, the Chester account adds to the overall body of mortality
data, and shows just how deadly the disease could be in a single day.
Beyond its high mortality rate, Sweating Sickness also killed its victims at break-neck speed, striking down previously healthy people without warning and often killing them within hours. In fact, a common adage at the time said one could be “merry at dinner and dead at supper.”vii The story of the ill-fated Dukes of Suffolk, Henry and Charles Brandon, were just one
tragic example of this facet of the disease. Both Brandons were studying at St. John’s College
Cambridge in July of 1551 when the Sweat hit the community. The boys fled to the nearby
4 Bishop of Lincoln’s palace, where they were supposed to meet their mother. Unfortunately, their
mother arrived just as both fell ill and “[s]carcely had she embraced them that the duke was
attacked by the fatal symptoms, and within five hours he was dead. Half an hour later his brother
also breathed his last.”viii
Focusing on the physical symptoms of English Sweating Sickness, the disease derived its
name from the heavy perspiration that its victims experienced. In one letter, the Venetian ambassador wrote “[t]he patients experience nothing but a profuse sweat, which dissolves the
frame…”ix Yet this wasn’t an entirely accurate assessment of the illness, as though the waterfall of vile-smelling sweat was a striking visual, it wasn’t the only significant symptom that the ill experienced, nor the most deadly. The “sweating” involved in Sweating Sickness was just a notable byproduct of a far more dangerous fever. It was really the high fever that most likely killed its victims, though sweating-induced dehydration couldn’t have helped matters.
The fever, in fact, was so notable that the physician John Caius had his own name for the
disease, referring to it as Ephemera in his book on the subject. The alternative name was derived
from the word “ephemeral,” meaning something which lasts for a very short period of time or
only one day. Caius argued that the named “English Sweating Sickness” was misleading, as it
was the high fever that killed, not the sweating. Therefore, the name Ephemera was employed by
the physician to describe the feverish 24 hour course of the disease.x
Though Caius’ name was more accurate, the nickname “English Sweating Sickness” was
hard to shake, having gained international recognition long before it ever physically reached
Europe. In Germany, when one didn’t use the proper name Sudor Anglicus, the Sweat was
variably referred to as “die English Schweiß-sucht” or “de Englische schwiet,” both terms which
roughy translated to the English Sweat. Another popular term, equal parts morbid and mocking,
5 also made the rounds in Germany; “Das English Bad” or “The English Bath.”xi No doubt from
the relative safety of their continental home, Germans felt comfortable cracking jokes about the
most famous symptom of the disease.
Beyond petty name-calling, numerous contemporary accounts of Sweating Sickness
written by ambassadors to England indicate that Europeans were interested in the disease prior to
1529. These coeval descriptions of the early English outbreaks, sometimes salacious and
sensationalist in nature, makeup a sizable percentage of the surviving primary source documents
on Sweating Sickness. From this, it can be extrapolated that there was a high demand for disease
updates; something that was especially true when high profile figures were involved.
For example, during the 1528 epidemic, Henry VIII’s paramour, Anne Boleyn, fell ill
with the Sweat. The French ambassador at the time, Monsieur du Bellay, detailed the situation in
two separate letters. “One of the ladies of the chamber… Mademoiselle de Boulan found herself
infected with the sweat, in great haste the King departed and went twelve miles from hence… As
for now, Monseigneur, the love has not diminished. I do not know if the absence, combined with
the difficulties with Rome, can bring this about.”xii Anne Boleyn recovered, but her brush with
death made international news, no doubt further intriguing a continental audience which hadn’t
yet experienced the disease first hand, though this would soon be remedied. For just one year
after Anne Boleyn’s illness, a ship unknowingly carried 12 sick passengers to the city of
Hamburg, releasing English Sweating Sickness into mainland Europe.
The Sweat arrived in Hamburg in July of 1529. Immediately, the disease was recognized
as Sweating Sickness. Over the next five to six weeks, 1,100 people reportedly died in Hamburg,
a full 20th of the city’s population at the time.xiii From Hamburg the Sweat traveled “… along the Baltic coast, reaching Poland and Prussia…, Denmark and Sweden…” eventually even
6 reaching Norway, Finland, and Russia.xiv It also spread southward to Vienna, blasting through
southern Germany and even into Switzerland.xv
Quarantine measures were enacted at various levels throughout the German-speaking states to slow the spread of the disease. The monastery at Rhena, for example, was ordered to
prohibit any travel from the towns of Lübeck and Wismar, as both were dealing with large scale
outbreaks.xvi School shut-downs were also utilized. “Fear of infection led to the temporary closure of the universities at Heidelberg, Leipzig, Tübingen, Marburg, and Wittenberg…”xvii
Further, a German contemporary of the disease, G.C.F. Lisch, noted in a 1532 essay that the
university of Rostock matriculated no students in 1529 due to Sweating Sickness, though it is
unclear whether the students simply stayed away for fear of death, or if the school made the decision to close on its own accord.xviii These attempts at containment were in stark contrast to
England, where a public health system was all but nonexistent in the early 16th century. When diseases such as plague or Sweating Sickness broke out in England, the wealthy would simply pack up and leave for another estate, abandoning those who had nowhere else to go. It wouldn’t be until the end of the century that public health measures like plague orders and quarantines
became more common place on the island.xix
Initially, the favored German method for treating Sweating Sickness was the
“Netherlands Regime.” This treatment recommended that the afflicted be “…made to sweat for twenty-four hours without intermission…”xx While making a Sweating Sickness victim sweat
harder may sound counterintuitive, sweating was actually considered to be the friend of
physicians in early modern medicine. The heavy perspiration was interpreted to be the body
fighting back against the illness, forcing the disease outward. Ergo, making the patient sweat
more meant fewer harmful toxins left in the body.
7 According to the Netherlands Regime, this extra sweating was supposed to be achieved
by piling warm blankets on top of the sufferer and heating the room until it was sweltering hot. It
was considered imperative that the patient didn’t emerge from under the blankets for the full 24
hours, for fear that the cold would surely kill them. Therefore, if a victim of the Sweat attempted
to escape the heat, they were supposed to be held down or even sewn into their bedding.xxi Even
by the standards of the day, the Netherlands Regime was considered harsh at best, and cruel at
worst. One German observer described the treatment as “stewing to death.”xxii Johannes Letzner,
a German historian and religious scholar who lived during the 16th century, noted that some
even died of heat stroke or asphyxia during such dangerous ministrations.xxiii
The belief that something like the Netherlands Regime might work was based on the
prevailing medical theory of the day; the miasma theory of disease. Miasma theory contented that “bad air,” or “miasma,” carried particles which could spread infection between people.xxiv
Essentially, it was believed that bad smells caused sickness. In his writings on Sweating
Sickness, Thomas Forrestier asserted that the disease was caused by “… dirt, stinking carrion, foul air, humidity, and bad vapors…,” all of which were hallmarks of miasma theory and similarly attributed to other illnesses such as plague. Thus, belief in this theory of disease painted the ways in which people were treated for Sweating Sickness, and the methods by which others attempted to prevent catching it, both on the Continent and in England.
In contrast to the Netherlands Regime, English treatments were relatively mild. The
English had many more years experience with Sudor Anglicus, and had therefore worked out more gentle approaches to handling the sick. While both English and German physicians believed that sweating was the key to survival, the English had a more restrained approach to making their patients perspire. For example, Polydore Vergil based his treatment for Sweating
8 Sickness on survivor testimonies. “He recommended that the victim retire immediately to bed
upon feeling the first symptoms of the Sweat. There he should lie quietly and not move for
exactly twenty-four hours, slowly adding clothing, so that perspiration would come gently and
naturally.”xxv The greatest danger for the sufferer was to be exposed to cold air, because “…
even an arm to be exposed for coolness outside the bedclothes… that is fatal.”xxvi Other
physicians concurred with this prognosis; to become too cold or too hot was to die.
There was also great debate about how, what, or even if a Sweat patient should consume liquids. During the 1517 epidemic, the papal nuncio to England warned that while a person was in the worst throws of the disease, it would be fatal for them to drink any cold beverage.xxvii John
Caius narrowed the kinds of liquid a victim could imbibe, as well as what healthy people who wished to avoid the disease could consume to prevent catching the illness. For those hoping to
avoid Sweating Sickness, he recommended that a “… drinke of swete malte and good water
kyndly brued…” should be preferred, while drinking wine should be entirely avoided.xxviii For
those who were already afflicted, he cautioned that drinking should be entirely avoided for the
first five hours, after which time the victim “… could be given ale sweetened with sugar.”xxix
German physicians looked to England for advice and guidance as Sweating Sickness spread across their country. The Netherlands Regime was too hard on patients, so it was necessary to develop a better treatment. Thus, the “English Regime” was born. This confusingly named method for treating the Sweat was based on the aforementioned English methods, but included minor tweaks by German physicians. This regiment instructed sufferers to avoid chills by laying under warm blankets, but stressed moderation like in the English tradition. Unlike
English treatments though, the regiment also urged the ill to “… take a moderate quantity of a warm, but not stimulating, drink, such as warm beer, and be refreshed with syrup of roses.”xxx
9 Furthermore, it was warned that “[p]atients were to be kept awake, by talking to them, putting
rose water or aromatic vinegar under their noses or rubbing it on their forehead.”xxxi
This last piece of advice was meant to combat the fatigue which Sweat sufferers experienced. Victims of Sweating Sickness complained of terrible pains and extreme exhaustion.
This included pain in the back, shoulders, extremities, muscles, and in the abdomen, as well as a
“maddening” headache.xxxii This pain was linked to the fatigue, as it was reported that “[u]nder the violent headache which they suffered, they frequently fell into a talkative state of wandering… after which the drowsiness commenced.”xxxiii It was feared that if a sick patient fell asleep, they may never awaken. So the English Regime recommended keeping the afflicted awake for their own protection.
The aforementioned treatments were circulated throughout the German-speaking states via medical pamphlets. Pamphlets and books on disease were already common in Germany by
1529. These treatise on illness were written by physicians and disseminated both for the academic community, and the wider public. This was not the case in England, where in all the
many decades of Sweat outbreaks, only one formal book on the subject was ever published in
English. In comparison, at least 83 works about Sweating Sickness were published in German during the 16th century.xxxiv The historian John L. Flood attributes this disparity in contemporary
literature to the values of Reformation Germany. Where “… England was still a Catholic country
in which there was no tradition of intellectuals communicating with the masses…,” Germany
already possessed a robust publishing industry and generally higher literacy rates.xxxv Therefore,
when Sweating Sickness struck the Continent, German physicians were able to hurriedly write a
pamphlet and release it to the public without much trouble.
10 English Sweating Sickness, and particularly the continental outbreak of 1529, was an
interesting episode in European history. It appeared at a time when mobility between nations was
becoming easier, when the world was simultaneously smaller and larger than ever before. With
newfound interconnectedness came the spread of previously isolated illnesses. Sweating
Sickness can be seen as a portend for the globalization of disease, a phenomenon which was
taken to devastating new heights in the Americas just as the Sweat disappeared from Europe.
Living in a world halted by Covid-19, it is cathartic to gaze back into the history of modern
pandemics and analyze the ways in which historical peoples managed disease. Sudor Anglicus,
with its mysterious origins and short lifespan, offers a small but substantial insight into the
beginning of the modern disease landscape.
i John L. Flood, "Safer on the Battlefield than in the City': England, the 'Sweating Sickness', and the Continent," Renaissance Studies 17, no. 2 (2003): 158-9, accessed May 29, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/24413344. ii James R. Carlson and Peter W. Hammond, "The English Sweating Sickness (1485-c. 1551): A New Perspective on Disease Etiology,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 54, no. 1 (January 1999): 23, accessed May 22, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24624471?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. iii R. S. Gottfried, "Population, Plague, and the Sweating Sickness: Demographic Movements in Late Fifteenth Century England," Journal of British Studies 17, no. 1 (Autumn 1977): 19, accessed May 29, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/175690?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. iv Gottfried, Population, Plague, and Sweating Sickness,” 20. v Flood, "Safer on the Battlefield,” 148. vi Paul R. Hunter, “The English Sweating Sickness, with Particular Reference to the 1551 Outbreak in Chester,”Reviews of Infectious Diseases 13, no. 2 (Spring 1991): 304, accessed May 22, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4455857?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. vii Alison Weir, Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2013), 392. viii Flood, "Safer on the Battlefield,”152.
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ix John A. H. Wylie and Leslie H. Collier, "The English Sweating Sickness (Sudor Anglicus): A Reappraisal," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 36, no. 4 (October 1981): 431, accessed May 29, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24625462. x John Caius, The Sweating Sickness: A boke or counseill against the disease commonly called the sweat or sweatyng, ed. E. S. Roberts (n.p.: The Project Gutenberg EBook, 2010), 113, kindle. xi Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 154. xii Anniina Jokinen, trans., “Two Letter by Monsieur du Bellay, June 1528,” Luminarium, 16 March, 2018, accessed 27 February, 2021, http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/dubellaysweat.htm. xiii John Christiansen, “The English Sweat in Lübeck and North Germany, 1529,” Med Hist 53, no. 3 (2009): 415-24, accessed 2 February, 2021, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2706052/. xiv Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 156. xv Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 156. xvi Christiansen, “Sweat in Lübeck,” 415-24. xvii Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 159. xviii Christiansen, “Sweat in Lübeck,” 415-24. xix Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 162. xx Flood, "Safer on the Battlefield,” 171. xxi Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 171. xxii Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 172. xxiii Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 172. xxiv Erica Mitchell, “The Origins of Germ Theory, Part 1: Enter Miasma,” September 25, 2015, accessed February 6, 2021, http://blog.eoscu.com/blog/the-origins-of-germ-theory-part-1- miasma. xxv Gottfried, Population, Plague, and Sweating Sickness,” 21. xxvi Polydore Vergil, Anglica Historica, 1485-1537, ed. Denys Hay, [Camden Society, XLIV] (London, 1950), 7-9, quoted in Gottfried, R. S. Gottfried, "Population, Plague, and the Sweating Sickness: Demographic Movements in Late Fifteenth Century England," Journal of British Studies 17, no. 1 (Autumn 1977): 21, accessed May 29, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/175690?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. xxvii Claire Ridgway, Sweating Sickness in a Nutshell (n.p.: MadeGlobal Publishing, 2014), 208, kindle. xxviii Caius, A boke, 309, kindle. xxix Ridgway, Nutshell, 229, kindle. xxx Flood, Safer on the Battlefield, 173. xxxi Flood, Safer on the Battlefield, 173. xxxii Ridgway, Nutshell, 41, kindle. xxxiii Carlson and Hammond, "Disease Etiology,” 27-28. xxxiv Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 164. xxxv Flood, “Safer on the Battlefield,” 165.
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Bibliography
Primary Sources
Caius, John. The Sweating Sickness: A boke or counseill against the disease commonly called the sweat or sweatyng. Edited by E.S. Roberts. N.p.:The Project Gutenberg EBook, 2010.
John Caius originally published this book in 1552, one year after the final Sweating Sickness outbreak. It is the most comprehensive first-hand account of English Sweating Sickness that exists, and is especially valuable because Caius was a physician who actually worked on Sweat victims during the height of the epidemic. It is a surprisingly easy read and fairly short, though the strange spellings definitely take some getting used to. This version of the book included some annotations which were somewhat helpful, but really the writing is understandable after a few minutes of acclamation.
Flood, John L. Safer on the Battlefield than in the City : England, the Sweating Sickness , and the Continent.” Renaissance Studies 17, no. 2 (2003): 147-176. Accessed May 15, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/24413344.
This book is my best source for the 1528 Sweating Sickness epidemic, both in England and abroad. It is filled with large block texts of primary source documents, which were otherwise impossible to track down. Best of all, because the author speaks German, they go into great detail about how Sweating Sickness spread to and through Germany. Primary resources that were otherwise restricted to German speakers were conveniently translated here.
Henry VIII, King of England. Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn: The Love Letters. Mount Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper Press, 1937.
This book is a simple collection of the love letters written by Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn. Though it is helpfully translated into more modern English, it unfortunately lacks any annotations and so wouldn't be a good book for those unfamiliar with the source material. In regards to Sweating Sickness, it includes the letters that Henry VIII sent to Anne Boleyn during her bout with the Sweat in 1528.
Ingulf and Peter of Blois. Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland: With the Continuations by Peter of Blois and Anonymous Writers. Edited and translated by Henry Thomas Riley. United Kingdom: H. G. Bohn, 1854.
The Croyland Chronicle is the best and most comprehensive English chronicle covering the early years of Henry VII's reign, including the 1485 outbreak of Sweating Sickness. Sources that cover the 1485 outbreak are few and far between, so this chronicle is a highly valuable resource. Unfortunately, everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The Croyland Chronicle is infamously biased towards the Tudors, so one should always attempt to double check any information within it with another trusted source. This version of the book is helpfully translated into more modern English and a relatively fast read.
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Secondary Sources
Carlson, James R. and Peter W. Hammond. "The English Sweating Sickness (1485-c. 1551): A New Perspective on Disease Etiology." Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 54, no. 1 (January 1999): 23-54. Accessed May 22, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24624471?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
This scholarly journal article delves into a theory about what the English Sweating Sickness might have been. Specifically, the article makes the case that English Sweating Sickness was an early form of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF). It gets into the nitty-gritty of what Sweat victims suffered, and makes a very compelling case that the Sweating Sickness could have been a hemorrhagic fever in the same vein as CCHF or Ebola.
Christiansen, John. "The English Sweat in Lübeck and North Germany, 1529.” Med Hist 53, no. 3 (2009): 415-24. Accessed 2 February, 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2706052/.
This journal article by John Christiansen is a compliment to John L. Flood’s “Safer on the Battlefield” article. It focuses entirely on the 1529 continental outbreak of Sweating Sickness, but unlike the Flood paper, narrows in on the town of Lübeck and the region of northern Germany. There are long excerpts of primary German sources translated into English contained within the piece, which was especially helpful for the latter half of my paper.
Gottfried, R. S. "Population, Plague, and the Sweating Sickness: Demographic Movements in Late Fifteenth Century England." Journal of British Studies 17, no. 1 (Autumn 1977): 12-37. Accessed May 22, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/175690#metadata_info_tab_contents.
This scholarly journal article primarily questions long-held beliefs about the deadliness of English Sweating Sickness. Throughout history, the purported mortality rate of Sweating Sickness has been notoriously hard to pin down. Sometimes it was reported that the Sweat killed as many as half of those infected, while other times it supposedly only killed a small fraction. It concludes that, based on a wide array of data from the late 15th century, Sweating Sickness' deadliness and overall effect on English society has been grossly overestimated.
Hamer, W. H. "Epidemic Disease in England: The Evidence of Variability and of Persistency of Type, Lecture I." Lancet 167, no. 4305 (March 1906): 569-574. Accessed May 22, 2020. https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=8wJBAQAAMAAJ&rdid=book- 8wJBAQAAMAAJ&rdot=1.
This is a scholarly journal article from the March, 1906 issue of the Lancet. While it includes a description of many different epidemic diseases which have effected England throughout history, it includes a solid section on the English Sweating Sickness. It mostly concerns the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Sweat after 1551. This article is definitely not for someone who doesn't already know a good amount about the modern study of diseases. Some of the
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information is extremely outdated, and the conclusions that the author draws don't match up to the modern scientific understanding of viruses.
Hamer, W. H. "Epidemic Disease in England: The Evidence of Variability and of Persistency of Type, Lecture II." Lancet 167, no. 4305 (March 1906): 655-662. Accessed May 22, 2020. https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=8wJBAQAAMAAJ&rdid=book- 8wJBAQAAMAAJ&rdot=1.
This is the continuation of another journal article published in the Lancet in March of 1906. It includes some expanded information on the 1528 Sweating Sickness outbreak on the European continent, and also goes into depth about tick born fevers. The science holds up a bit better than the first article, but again, everything should be double checked for modern accuracy.
Harper-Bill, Christopher, ed. Medieval East Anglia. Woodbridge, England: Boydell Press, 2005.
This book is a great collection of works by many authors about different aspects of life in medieval East Anglia. The portion of the book pertinent to Sweating Sickness is found in the section “Health and Safety at Work,” where Thomas Forrestier is quoted in regards to the Sweat. The whole book is a handy guide to living in Medieval England, and anyone interested in the smaller stories of historical everyday life should add it to their library.
Hunter, Paul R. "The English Sweating Sickness, with Particular Reference to the 1551 Outbreak in Chester." Reviews of Infectious Diseases 13, no. 2 (Spring 1991): 303-306. Accessed May 22, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4455857?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
The bulk of this article is dedicated to analyzing the 1551 outbreak of Sweating Sickness in Chester. Using burial records, this paper is one of few that it able to actually produce some hard numbers about who was effected by English Sweating Sickness and how contagious and deadly it really was. Though the sample size is extremely small, because the Chester outbreak wasn't particularly large in 1551, the data presented within it has some interesting implications for other outbreaks.
Kannadan, Ajesh. “History of the Miasma Theory of Disease.” ESSAI: 16, no. 1 (2018): 41-43. Accessed June 7, 2020. https://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1657&context=essai.
An overview of the Miasmic Theory of Disease. Physicians working during the Sweating Sickness outbreaks largely prescribed to this medical theory, so if one wants to understand Tudor medical theory, they first need to know a little about Miasmic theory. This is just a short and simple overview of the theory.
Karlen, Arno. Man and Microbes: Disease and Plagues in History and Modern Times. NY, New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, (1995).
Look no further than this book for an amazing guide to the history of diseases. In the novel, Karlo outlines all of the background information on technical aspects of disease which this paper
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relies heavily on. It is a well, written, concise, and great entry-level book to understanding disease history, and the impact of diseases in the modern day.
Ridgway, Claire. Sweating Sickness in a Nutshell. N.p.: MadeGlobal Publishing, 2014.
This is a super short and basic guide to the Sweating Sickness. It briefly summarizes each of the five major outbreaks and gives some basic ideas as what the Sweating Sickness might have been. Most interestingly, it dedicates a whole section to Tudor treatments for the disease, compiled from a ton of primary sources. This book would be perfect for someone who is interested in Tudor history and wants to know a little more about Sweating Sickness. The only drawback is that the author takes the Croyland Chronicle at face value, and the Croyland Chronicle is notoriously biased.
Weir, Alison. Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2013.
Alison Weir manages to make extremely dense history fun and compelling to read in her biography of Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth of York was Henry VII's queen consort and this book does a good job of getting into her head and into the head of her famously reserved husband. In regards to Sweating Sickness, it offers a great section on the topic of their son, Arthur Prince of Wales' death, possibly due to the Sweat.
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