Here follow two translated extracts from letters written in June, 1528, by Monsieur du Bellay, French Ambassador to the court of King Henry VIII. They offer a contemporary account of the onset and course of the Sweating Sickness epidemic of that year; the fourth major outbreak of the disease. Du Bellay details the members of court who suffered or died from it and comments on the King's relationship with Anne Boleyn, who had the sickness at her father's house.

The original manuscript, Bethune MS v. 8602, has not yet been digitized. I have made these translations from the transcriptions printed in J. LeGrand's Preuves de l'Histoire du Divorce de Henry VIII, vol III, 1688. The transcription, as printed, has a few minor errors, which I have corrected and noted below. —AJ

June 18, 1528.

"One of the ladies of the chamber, Monseigneur, of Mademoiselle de Boulan found herself infected with the sweat, in great haste the King departed and went twelve miles from hence, & I am told that the Lady was sent, as suspected, to the Viscount, her father,² who is in Kent. As for now, Monseigneur, the love has not diminished. I do not know if the absence, combined with the difficulties with Rome, can bring this about.


This sweat, of which I speak is, Monseigneur, a sickness which has taken hold here over the past four days, and is the easiest to die of; one has a slight headache & ache in the heart, suddenly one begins to sweat, and there is no point to calling the Doctor, because if one covers oneself the least bit in the world, or covers oneself a little too much, within four hours, or sometimes in two or three, one is dispatched without delay, as one does with those terrible fevers, but it is no big thing, for there have not been those infected in London during this time more than around two thousand.


Yesterday, having gone to swear the truce,³ they could be seen, like flies, rushing from the streets and shops into their houses to suffer the sweat as the sickness overtook them. I found the Ambassador of Milan departing his lodgings in great haste, because two or three had suddenly been taken ill with it. If it must be, Monseigneur, that all the ambassadors have their share of this, at least in my case, you will not have gained your objective, because you will not be able to boast that you have starved me to death, & the King will have gained the advantage of nine months of my service at no cost, though it has not gained him the least profit.


By God in Paradise, Monseigneur, if this fire & fury should visit me, & if I should have to pass through the pit and the fire, I should not regret it so much as those who have it easier than me,⁴ but may God keep them so. To get back to London, I assure you that the priests have a better time of it than the doctors, except they cannot accommodate all the burials; if this continues, wheat will soon sell at a bargain.⁵ It has been twelve years since the last epidemic, in which ten thousand people died in the course of ten or twelve days, it is said, but that was not as severe as it is starting to be now; Monsieur the Legate⁶ had come for the term, but soon rebridled his horses again, & there will be neither summons nor term, everyone is so terribly afraid."

June 30th, 1528.

"The Lady is still with her father; the King keeps changing lodgings due to this pestilence, a good many of his people having died of it in three or four hours. Of those you know, only Poowitz⁷, Carey⁸, and Compton are dead, but Fitzwilliam, the marquess [Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter], my lord William,⁹ Brown, Carew, Bryant, who, at present, is a part of the privy chamber, Norris, Wallop,¹⁰ Chesney,¹¹ Kingston, Paget, and generally all those of the bedchamber except one, have either had the infection, or presently have it. It was said yesterday that some of them were at the point of death; I do not know if they shall escape it. The King has shut himself away alone, to protect himself; God willing, no difficulties will befall him.

At Monsieur the Legate's they play the same game, but, when all is said, those who are not exposed to the wind, do not die. Of the more than forty thousand infected in London, less than two thousand have died; it is true that he who puts even a hand out of bed during the twenty-four hours, suddenly becomes as stiff as a wall."¹²