The Sweating Sickness Epidemic
eBook - ePub

The Sweating Sickness Epidemic

Henry VIII's Great Fear

  1. 192 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Sweating Sickness Epidemic

Henry VIII's Great Fear

About this book

Among the array of diseases which brought death to Tudor England, the sweating sickness stood out, for the speed with which it struck, its dreadful effects on its victims and the death rates which it produced, that together generated a fear verging on panic when it was identified. The sweating sickness attacked the cities, towns and the countryside, not sparing the palaces. It threatened everyone, from the king in his castle to the beggars at his gates, including members of the dynasty and the political structure, the courtiers and those who directed the government, the church and the law. Contemporaries could do little more than make a bolt for it, and that included the king and his closest advisors, who moved furtively in a small group from one house to another away from London. The principal epidemics came between 1485, when it made its first appearance, and 1551, and it was confined to England and Wales, apart from one major eruption across northern Europe in 1529. Known as the English disease, this rapidly acting virus became Henry VIII's overriding fear, aggravating his well-known hypochondria and controlling his movements. The nature of the sweating sickness, its incidence and impact are all examined in this book, in the context not only of Tudor England and the problems of the Henrician succession, but also in the context of epidemic disease in Europe more widely. This book teases out the similarities and differences between 'the sweat' and its better-known, if equally feared, contemporary infectious disease, bubonic plague.

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Yes, you can access The Sweating Sickness Epidemic by Stephen Porter in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & British History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgements
  6. Abbreviations
  7. Chapter 1 The King and the Sweat
  8. Chapter 2 Plague and Pestilence
  9. Chapter 3 Environments
  10. Chapter 4 The Sweat in Henry VII’s Reign
  11. Chapter 5 A Sickly Decade
  12. Chapter 6 The Outbreaks of 1528 and 1529
  13. Chapter 7 The Final Epidemic
  14. Chapter 8 Recollections
  15. Appendix 1: The Household Orders of 1539
  16. Appendix 2: The Sweating Sickness in Holinshed’s Chronicles
  17. Notes
  18. Bibliography
  19. Plate Sections