In the summer of 1528, a devastating outbreak of the mysterious “sweating sickness” swept through Tudor England. Terrified by the disease’s rapid lethality, King Henry VIII fled the crowded and infected streets of London, shifting from house to house to protect himself.
Meanwhile, his future queen, Anne Boleyn, retreated to the safety of the Boleyn family estate, Hever Castle in the Kent countryside. Despite her quarantine, the highly contagious disease found her. Anne developed the sweat’s trademark symptoms: an overwhelming sense of dread, severe shivering, and a fever accompanied by profuse, uncontrollable perspiration.
Word of her illness quickly reached a panicked King Henry. Deeply infatuated and unwilling to lose the woman for whom he was risking his marriage and the stability of the realm, the King dispatched his personal physician, Dr. William Butts, to nurse her at Hever Castle. Along with the doctor, Henry sent a desperate, impassioned love letter, famously expressing his helplessness and stating he would “gladly bear half of your illness” to ensure her recovery.
Fortunately for Henry, Anne fought off the dreaded sweat and made a full recovery, allowing her to eventually become Queen of England in 1533.
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