The Sweating Sickness, known in Latin as Sudor Anglicus or “English Sweat,” was a devastating epidemic that plagued England during the Tudor dynasty. Characterized by extremely rapid onset and a high fatality rate, it often claimed victims within hours of the first symptoms. Appearing abruptly in 1485 and vanishing just as suddenly after 1551, the disease struck in five distinct waves. Its sudden arrival and disappearance, without ever being definitively identified, remains a perplexing medical mystery.
The Sudden and Deadly Symptoms
The illness began with a distinct, short-lived cold stage, often giving victims only hours to live. Symptoms included violent shivering, dizziness, and intense aches in the neck, shoulders, and limbs. This initial phase lasted anywhere from half an hour to three hours, accompanied by profound exhaustion and apprehension.
Following the cold stage, the body transitioned into a burning, feverish heat, immediately followed by a profound, drenching sweat that gave the malady its name. This sweat was often noted to have a foul, unusual odor, and was accompanied by a severe headache, delirium, and a rapid, weak pulse. Shortness of breath and chest pain were also common, suggesting rapid systemic collapse.
The final stage was marked by total prostration, with an overwhelming urge to sleep; those who succumbed to this exhaustion often died. Mortality rates were high, reaching up to 50% in some affected communities. Death could occur within 3 to 24 hours of the first symptoms appearing, making it a uniquely fast-acting killer compared to other prevalent diseases.
The Historical Appearance and Disappearance
The first confirmed outbreak coincided with the start of the Tudor period in 1485, immediately following Henry VII’s victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Four subsequent major epidemics followed in the 16th century: 1508, 1517, 1528, and 1551. The disease was primarily constrained to England, earning it the name Sudor Anglicus.
The 1528 outbreak marked the single major instance where the contagion spread beyond the English Channel into continental Europe. Carried by ship, it appeared in Hamburg, Germany, then swept across central and eastern Europe, traveling through Scandinavia and into Russia. This continental foray quickly receded, demonstrating the disease’s characteristic pattern of spiking quickly and then vanishing.
After the final recorded wave in 1551, the Sweating Sickness disappeared from the historical record. This vanishing, after 66 years, adds substantially to the enigma of the disease. The illness never returned to England, leaving historians and epidemiologists to speculate about its unusual life cycle.
Unraveling the Etiological Mystery
The precise cause of the Sweating Sickness remains unknown, as contemporary medicine lacked the tools to identify the pathogen. Current scientific inquiry focuses on several possibilities due to the similarity of symptoms to modern diseases. One leading hypothesis suggests the disease may have been a form of hantavirus, a zoonotic pathogen carried by rodents.
The symptoms share characteristics with Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), including rapid onset, fever, and a high mortality rate. Hantavirus outbreaks are often linked to increases in rodent populations following wet weather, a condition that preceded several Tudor epidemics. However, hantaviruses are rarely spread person-to-person, which seems to contradict the highly contagious nature described in historical accounts.
Another plausible theory points to a virulent form of relapsing fever, a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks or lice. Relapsing fever also appears seasonally and has a sudden, severe onset, aligning with the historical descriptions. However, the lack of mention of the distinctive rash or black scab that accompanies most forms of relapsing fever makes this identification uncertain.
The English Sweating Sickness must be distinguished from the later “Picardy Sweat” (Suette Miliaire), which afflicted France between 1718 and 1861. While similar in name, the Picardy Sweat was a milder illness that invariably presented with a rash lasting about a week, a feature not described in the original English accounts. This distinction reinforces the conclusion that the original epidemic was a unique biological entity that vanished without a trace.