During Henry’s reign a strange disease plagued England. First seen after Bosworth, it spread in an odd manner and affected the wealthy over the poor, the middle-aged rather than young and old, and it preferred the countryside over the crowded cities. It was a fast killer; sufferers could be perfectly well at breakfast and dead by dinner. Nobody knows what sweating sickness was, what caused it, or how it disappeared so quickly. Nor does anyone know why it seemed to have been isolated to England. It was even known as Sudor Angelicus, English Sweat. The first outbreak started in the autumn of
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