THE ENGLISH SWEAT: A Disease That Killed Thousands and Then Vanished Without a Trace

A mysterious illness appeared in medieval England that could kill a healthy person in just a few hours, then disappeared forever after claiming tens of thousands of lives.

The Disease Arrives in London

In late August 1485, the streets of London filled with thousands of people waiting for the coronation of King Henry VII. Just days before, on August 22nd, Henry’s Tudor army had defeated the last forces loyal to King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. This victory ended the bloody Wars of the Roses and made Henry the new King of England.

Soldiers and prisoners of war would soon arrive in London, adding to the crowds that already numbered in the tens of thousands. But even before the battle, many soldiers on both sides had been too sick to fight. They suffered from a new and puzzling disease that both armies simply called “The Sweat.”

The Sweat first struck without warning during the heat of summer. It killed thousands of infected people within just a few hours. The disease cut down soldiers and healthy young men and women like a deadly scythe. Just before King Henry VII’s coronation in August 1485, The Sweat was about to arrive in London.

Death Comes to the Capital

From the end of July until the end of October 1485, The Sweat killed approximately 15,000 Londoners out of a total population of just under 60,000. This meant one in four people died from the disease. No illness had caused such widespread death since the Black Death of 1348-1352, which may have killed up to one third of England’s entire population.

For almost three generations, from 1485 to 1551, this mysterious illness ravaged England several times. It appeared about every 20 years, causing unimaginable death and suffering during the summer months. Then, after 1551, it seemed to vanish from history like a ghost carried away by time.

A Disease That Haunted England’s Memory

The mysterious disease became known to history as “The English Sweat.” Those who survived called it simply “The Sweat.” The illness left such a horrific mark on England’s memory that even over fifty years after its last outbreak in 1551, William Shakespeare mentioned it in his 1604 play “Measure for Measure.” One of his characters spoke about life’s tragic ills, saying “Thus, what with the war, what with the Sweat, what with the gallows and what with the poverty…”

In Latin, scholars called the disease Sudor Anglicus. The English Sweat first appeared in early summer 1485. Thanks to the ongoing Wars of the Roses and King Henry VII’s coronation, large crowds gathered and groups of people traveled frequently. These conditions helped the English Sweat spread rapidly across the country.

Many historians who supported the Catholic Church later claimed that The Sweat was God’s punishment for King Henry VIII’s many wives and his break with the Roman Catholic Church. However, in 1485, when Sudor Anglicus first arrived in London, England’s split from the Church was still years away. It seemed as if a disease from the depths of hell had been unleashed upon all English people, rich and poor, young and old.

The Terrifying Symptoms

The onset of The Sweat was swift and sudden. It usually came at night while victims tried to sleep. The disease would cause chills and tremors, followed by a high fever that left victims sweating heavily and too weak to stand or even sit up. Within a few hours, the victim would usually be dead.

Thomas More, a noted writer and Catholic saint who lived from 1478 to 1535, witnessed several outbreaks of the dreaded English Sweat in and around London during his lifetime. More is most famous for writing “Utopia,” a renowned work about government that many consider a forerunner to the modern novel.

When describing what it looked like to watch a patient fall victim to Sudor Anglicus, Thomas More wrote: “The patients were placed instantly to bed… covered in clothes, windows being closed… the patient, finally, in his rehearsal of Hell, being bathed in an agonizing sweat, gave up the ghost…”

More also called The Sweat “more harmful than the sword.”

Rich and Poor Died Equally

Unlike other diseases that had struck England before, such as the Black Death of the 14th century, which seemed to affect rural peasants and urban poor more than others, Sudor Anglicus made no distinction between rural or urban areas, or between rich and poor people.

A physician named John Caius practiced in the town of Shrewsbury near the border with Wales. He was extremely active in treating the sick during the final outbreak of The English Sweat in 1551. Caius wrote that those who suffered from The Sweat “with peril of death, were either men of wealth, ease or welfare — or of the poorer sort such as idle persons, good ale drinkers or tavern haunts.”

Caius became one of the most quoted authorities on The English Sweat. His eyewitness accounts of the 1551 outbreak were widely read and were probably even familiar to William Shakespeare himself in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Caius seemed to believe that a dissolute lifestyle, whether rich or poor, caused people to be afflicted with Sudor Anglicus.

A Physician’s Detailed Account

John Caius wrote a detailed report in 1552 called “A Book or Counsel Against the Disease Commonly Called the Sweat or Sweating Sickness.” He described the disease as “beginning very suddenly, with a sense of apprehension,” followed by what he called a “cold phase.” This phase consisted of chills followed by severe headache, dizziness, and total exhaustion.

After the initial phase, according to Caius, came delirium, high fever, and then the infamous drenching sweat that gave the disease its name. If patients gave in to the near complete exhaustion that came with The Sweat, they would almost certainly die within a couple of hours.

Caius also observed that being infected by The Sweat once and surviving did not offer any protection from the disease. Many victims were infected twice or even three times within just a few weeks. They often died on their second or third infection.

The Final Outbreak

The outbreak of Sudor Anglicus that physician John Caius observed and recorded in the summer of 1551 was the last and most severe outbreak of the English Sweat to occur. It was the only outbreak of the sweating sickness that affected not only the British Isles but also spread to continental Europe. The disease caused high death rates in both France and Germany.

England was ravaged by The Sweat during multiple summers. In the summers of 1485, 1508, 1517, 1528, and finally 1551, Sudor Anglicus killed tens of thousands suddenly and unexpectedly in both rural and urban England. Then, after 1551, just as unexpectedly and mysteriously as it had arrived, Sudor Anglicus simply disappeared — never to return again.

The Mystery Remains Unsolved

Even today, after centuries of historical research and countless advances in medical knowledge, no one knows exactly what The Sweat was, where it came from, or why it disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived.

Most researchers and scientists today believe that The English Sweat was caused by an unknown form of hantavirus. A hantavirus is a virus transmitted from animals to people that attacks the lungs in human victims and is very often fatal. Many researchers believe that Sudor Anglicus was a hantavirus transmitted from rodents to humans during the summer months of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in England.

Though this theory is the most believable explanation, it remains only educated guesswork. The true origins of the dreaded English Sweat still remain a mystery that has puzzled historians and medical experts for centuries.

Source: Creative History Stories

NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice. (AI Policy)