I'd just like to reassure you all that the dreaded 'Sweating Sickness' only lasted for a brief period, lethal though that was- it appeared in 1485 bought from France probably by Henry VII's army who defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field in that year, ("A horse, my Kingdom for a horse!"), and reappeared in 1506, 1517, 1528, 1551 and 1578, and never appeared again. I got the town wrong, the most virulent epidemic began in Shrewsbury- not bad- I got the first two letters right!
Most modern investigators put the causes as the general filth the English lived in at that time, (we never washed!) or poor nutrition, some ascribe it to tick bites, fleas etc, others to a hansavirus. Whatever, it could and did kill in hours, and survivors gained no immunity from surviving an attack, leading one researcher to speculate that it may have been a toxin carried by biting insects rather than an actual organism. Also it preferred Englishmen- French, Irish, Scots etc appeared to be immune, but it felled Saxons in parts of Germany. Very strange.
Sleep easy!
Alan
