Sect. 1.—Poverty.
The ordinances of Henry the VIIth, which, although adapted to the times, bore hard upon the people, soon produced their fruits. The great diminished the number of their servants, and as, moreover, many of the peasantry were thrown out of employment in consequence of a conversion of large tracts of arable land into pasture[97], the population of towns increased even to an overflow, and the consequent activity of trade gradually rendered the towns flourishing. But this change took place too rapidly. Wealth and luxury engendered, it is true, numerous wants which were a source of gain, so that the English were at this time considered luxurious and effeminate[98], but there was a general scarcity of workmen and artists, and hence it happened, that from Genoa, Lombardy, France, Germany and Holland, innumerable foreigners immigrated and took possession of the most lucrative branches of employment. This was a peculiar hardship on the natives, who from their imperfect knowledge of the arts, could not compete with the more skilful foreigners, and were besides treated by them with insolence and contempt. The distresses of the poor thus increased yearly, and their indignation at length broke out. A great insurrection of the English artisans arose throughout London, and might have proved destructive to the foreigners, had affairs been in a less orderly state. The popular commotion was, however, suppressed without any considerable sacrifice, and Henry the VIIIth on a solemn day, appointed at Westminster, for passing judgment upon the prisoners, bestowed a pardon on them; for he saw into the causes of their discontent, and very soon after caused restrictive alien laws to be enacted[99].
Sect. 2.—Sweating Sickness.
All this took place in April and May of the ever memorable year 1517, and London was again indulging in hopes of better days, when the Sweating Sickness once more broke out quite unexpectedly in July, and in spite of all former experience, and the most sedulous attention, inexorably demanded its victims. On this occasion it was so violent and so rapid in its course, that it carried off those who were attacked in two or three hours, so that the first shivering fit was regarded as the announcement of certain death. It was not ushered in by any precursory symptoms. Many who were in good health at noon, were numbered among the dead by the evening, and thus as great a dread was created at this new peril as ever was felt during the prevalence of the most suddenly destructive epidemic: for the thought of being snatched away from the full enjoyment of existence without any preparation, without any hope of recovery, is appalling even to the bravest, and excites secret trepidation and anguish. Among the lower classes the deaths were innumerable[100]. The city was moreover crowded with poor; but even the ranks of the higher classes were thinned, and no precaution averted death from their palaces. Ammonius of Lucca, a scholar of some celebrity, and in this capacity private secretary to the king, was cut off in the flower of his age, after having boasted to Sir Thomas More, only a few hours before his death, that by moderation and good management he had secured both himself and his family from the disease[101]. Also of those immediately about the king, Lords Grey and Clinton were carried off, besides many knights, officers and courtiers. Mourning supplanted the hilarity and brilliancy of the festivals, and the king, while in miserable solitude, into which he had retired with a few followers, received message after message from different towns and villages, announcing, that in some a third, in others even half the inhabitants were swept off by this pestilence. It had never before raged with so much fatality. The minds of men had never before been so frightfully appalled. The festival of Michaelmas, (29th September,) which in England was always kept with much religious pomp, was of necessity postponed; nor was the solemnity of Christmas observed, for there was a dread of collecting together large assemblies of people[102], on account of the contagion; and just about this time, when the Sweating Sickness had abated, the plague, according to the account of some historians, began, which, although probably not very virulent, prevailed during the whole winter in most English towns, and continued to keep up the distress of the people. The king on this occasion also quitted his capital, and retreated, in company with a few attendants, before the contagion, frequently shifting his court from place to place. It was during this period of trouble (11th of February, 1518) that the Princess Mary, afterwards Queen, was born[103].
Thus the Sweating Sickness lasted full six months, reached its greatest height[104] about six weeks after its appearance, and probably spread from London over the whole of England. In Oxford and Cambridge it raged with no less violence than in the capital. Most of the inhabitants of those places were, in the course of a few days, confined to their beds, and the sciences, which then flourished, for they were never more zealously cultivated in England than at that time, suffered severe losses by the death of many able and distinguished scholars[105]. Scotland, Ireland and all other countries beyond sea, were on this occasion spared. The neighbouring town of Calais alone was reached[106] by the pestilence; and according to later observations, it may be considered as certain, that only the English who resided there, and not the French inhabitants, were affected, as it is also ascertained that the rest of France continued throughout free from the disease. Had this not been the case, contemporary writers would undoubtedly not have omitted to make mention of so important an occurrence.
Sect. 3.—Causes.
The influences which gave rise to this third eruption of the disorder among the English nation are obscure, and do not altogether correspond with those of the years 1485 and 1506. Thus it is especially remarkable, that, on this occasion, there is no express mention of the humidity which had so decided a share in the origin of the two former visitations of the Sweating Sickness, and the year 1517 was in most respects one of an ordinary kind. The English Chronicles state nothing remarkable on the subject, and from those of Germany we only learn that the winter of 1516 was very mild, and that a fruitful summer with an abundant vintage[107] and a cold winter followed. The summer of 1517 was unfruitful, although not on account of wet weather, so that in some parts, especially in Swabia, provision was made against a scarcity[108]. A great comet appeared in 1516[109], and in 1517 an earthquake was felt at Tübingen, Nördlingen, and Calw, during a violent storm, whereupon the “Haupt Krankheit”[110] (encephalitis), accompanied by fever, became more prevalent, although not remarkably fatal[111]. This phenomenon (the earthquake) was by no means unimportant[112] in its effects, and there is reason to suppose that it was followed by subterraneous commotions of still greater extent, for earthquakes occurred also in Spain[113]. As the date of this event is specified as the 16th of June, and as earthquakes occurring in unusual localities, that is to say, in districts not volcanic, are frequently cited as prognostics of great diseases, although in volcanic districts they evidently betoken nothing of the kind, we may hence with some reason assume a telluric influence, which perhaps reached the locality of the pestilence that broke out at the beginning of July, if not earlier. Besides, we cannot find any greater phenomenon, which, according to human conception, could have had a more immediate connexion with the English Sweating Sickness; and in this instance too, inquiry the most circumspect does not penetrate through the thick veil which envelopes the inscrutable causes of epidemics.
Sect. 4.—Habits of the English.
That next to the peculiar constitution which England imparts to her inhabitants, the predisposing causes of the Sweating Sickness lay in the habits of the English of those times, no one can possibly doubt. The limitation of the pestilence to England plainly indicates this. Not a single ship conveyed it to the French, or to the Dutch, who breathed a much moister atmosphere; and yet the intercourse between the English seaports and these immediately neighbouring nations was very frequent. Of intemperance, which most generally lays the foundation for disorders, both high and low were at this time accused. This vice of the English was proverbial in foreign countries[114]. Flesh meats highly seasoned with spices were indulged in to excess; noisy nocturnal carousings were become customary, and it was also the practice to drink strong wine[115] immediately after rising in the morning. Cyder, which in some parts, as for instance in Devonshire, is the common beverage[116], was, even in those times, considered by medical men as injurious, for it was observed that its use caused debility with paleness, and sapped the vigour of youth in both sexes[117]. Other similar facts respecting the mode of living at that time might perhaps be adduced, from which it would appear that, owing to the total want of refinement in diet, much that was improper was employed in English cookery, and that on this account the constitution was much injured. Horticulture, which the French had already brought to a state of great improvement[118], was still quite in its infancy in England. It is even said that Queen Catherine had pot-herbs brought from Holland for the preparation of salads, as they were not procurable in England[119]. Allowing that this account may not be strictly true, since it admits of other explanations, still it proves in itself what we would here enforce, and leaves us to draw conclusions from it beyond the mere fact of there being a scarcity of culinary vegetables. Much more important, however, as respects our subject, was the custom of wearing immoderately warm clothing, of which we have accounts worthy of credence. From youth upwards the head was covered with thick caps, in order to secure it from every chance of cold, and from the least draught of air; and as, by this injurious practice, the brain was subjected to a continual determination of blood, and a tenderness of the skin was induced, there was no disorder more frequent among the English in this century than catarrh[120], which was constantly reproduced by relaxing perspirations and heating medicines. If this malady be complicated with a scorbutic habit, or if it befall persons of debauched habits, whose vessels contain nourishment not properly concocted, the preservative vital power seeks a vent through the relaxed skin, and that which in itself is a needful and alleviating excitement of this tissue becomes a disease; the wholesome excretion degenerates into a colliquative drain, which forcibly carries off with it unusual animal matters that ought not to pass away through such an outlet, and the body yields to an attack to which it has been thus long predisposed. When we consider this debilitated state of the skin as the general complaint in England, taking into account the prejudicial influence of hot baths[121], which were much in use, and the diaphoretic medicines employed in most disorders; when we bear in mind the rare use of soap at that time, and the high price of linen, as also the extreme indigence of the lower classes, which almost always breeds pestilences, the utterly miserable condition and truly Scythian filth of the English habitations[122], and finally, the crowded state of London in the year 1517, we shall, as far as human research can penetrate, find the origin of the Sweating Sickness in this very year explicable from causes which have long been known to be capable of producing such effects. Something remains in the background, of which hereafter.