Late Middle Ages · Europe · Disaster

1485

Sweating Sickness Arrives

1485

A strange plague appeared in England during Henry Tudor's army's march south from Milford Haven. Sudden sweating, fever, collapse. Whole households died within hours. Physicians had never seen it. It would return in five epidemics and then vanish from the historical record. Molecular biology still cannot identify it. Its association with Henry Tudor's invasion army led some to view it as an ill omen for the new dynasty.