They were so close to us - this is a theme I keep noticing and enjoying on Showtime's The Tudors - but they were very different, as well, and that's also fascinating to see. The Tudors and everyone alive at the beginning of the 16th century lived closer to death than we do - especially from disease at an early adult age - and maybe that's why they lived so intensely.
The sweats affected everyone, royalty and peasant. It was most likely caused by an influenza virus, and could be horrifyingly rapid in its fatal result - dancing in court by seven, dead by eleven, as one of the sayings from the days of the Tudors put it, with only slight exaggeration.
Had Henry a time machine, he would have feared this illness even more than he did. The sweats would kill his daughter Queen Mary. (Elizabeth, his daughter by Anne, then became Queen. Hard to say exactly how Henry would have felt about that.)
As it was, Henry was worried enough. And in The Tudors, this worry is magnified to the point of being almost unbearable when Anne Boleyn gets the sweats. This is one of Jonathan Rhys Meyers' most powerful performances in the series. I found myself touching my own forehead for symptoms as I was watching.
They couldn't do much to either ward off or cure a deadly flu in Henry's time — not all that much different for us today. Henry does have a cabinet full of unctions, ointments, and remedies. Henry carefully explains to his friends what they do - in what for some reason is my favorite scene - and urges them to take a concoction of marigold, manus christi, sorrel, meadow plant, linseed vinegar ... and ivory scrapings.
I wrote them down ... you never know. And hey, they worked for Henry!
Anne recovers without the marigold infusion. I'm not giving anything away here - everyone knows how she dies - and I'm sorry she will, because I could watch her and this series forever.
In the remaining episodes of this season, there will be other deadly dangers to deal with. Including, as the ever perceptive Thomas More observes, the onslaught of Lutheranism, which he fears could be more perilous to the England he knows and loves than even the sweats.
Article comments
1 - Brent
I was under the impression that Henry's daughter Mary I died of ovarian cancer.
2 - Paul Levinson
Here's a reference for The Sweats - "HISTORICAL PROFILE: There is no convincing evidence of the disease prior to the Middle Ages, but several epidemics have occurred in recent centuries. The severe epidemic of 1557-1558, for example, killed Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary") allowing her younger half-sister, Elizabeth, to ascend the throne." Infectious Diseases in History (for some reason, I'm getting a "Banned word" error when I try to put in the link ... You can find this page if you search on The Sweats...)
But you're right - they are also references to ovarian cancer - though Wikipedia lists her cause of death as possibly ovarian cancer
All in all: we don't really know for sure, but The Sweats is certainly a good contender, giving the timing of that epidemic.