NetGalley ARC | The Sweating Sickness Epidemic: Henry VIII's Greatest Fear

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Typically when you read books about the Tudors, the Sweating Sickness is always lurking, mentioned in varying amounts of detail depending on who it is impacting, when it pops up time and time again with no rhyme or reason. Hundreds or thousands are carried off at any given time and then it is gone as quickly as it appeared.

The Sweat might truly have been as, if not more, terrifying as The Plague. Of all of the diseases that those living in Tudor times, and through Henry VIII's reign in particular, had to deal with, it was the most mysterious. It remains that way today. We know almost nothing about it, what caused it first in 1485, why it struck England and Wales ALMOST exclusively, and why it nearly completely disappeared after the last major outbreak in 1551 during Edward VI's short reign.

Anyone familiar with the Tudors knows that Henry VIII was a big ol' baby and massive hypochondriac. At the first sniffle or sneeze, he was off from London to the supposed safety of the countryside. Yet the Sweat was something he rightly feared, as it would cross all class boundaries and no one was safe, no matter the precautions they were able to take due to their wealth or lack of it. In the times where the disease was ravaging England, Henry would reduce his household and move only with the most necessary of men needed to run his government as they tried to outrun death. Yet it continued to strike everywhere, from cities to villages to the open countryside.

The text is massively well-researched and makes fantastic use of available historical documentation to give a more concrete understanding of just how devastating this disease was to England. The sheer amount of people who died is staggering, even if we do not have exact figures. It's kind of hard to be exact when everyone in the village is dead. I also appreciate so much that where info was not available, the author did not speculate or fill the book with 'maybe' and 'possibly'. Sometimes, especially when we are 500 years off, it is better to just present what we have and say we don't know for the rest.

Instead, Dr. Porter deals only in facts. We simply do not know anything about it except that it struck quickly and indiscriminately, so there was no time to prepare any kind of defense. Attempts were made as it appeared, but these remedies were ineffective at best, and aided the disease at worst.

Dr. Porter also notes the differences between the Sweat and the Plague, comparing symptoms, chances of survival, remedies, etc. I think this is important in helping people understand that it was not just one disease all the time, as sometimes happens to those unfamiliar with the period.

Very informative, highly recommended.