They were so close to us - this is a theme I keep noticing and enjoying on Showtime's The Tudors - but they were very different, as well, and that's also fascinating to see. The Tudors and everyone alive at the beginning of the 16th century lived closer to death than we do - especially from disease at an early adult age - and maybe that's why they lived so intensely.The Sweats affected everyone, royalty and peasant. It was most likely caused by an influenza virus, and could be horrifyingly rapid in its fatal result - dancing in court by seven, dead by eleven, as one of the sayings from the Tudor times put it, with only slight exaggeration.
Had Henry a time machine, he would have feared it even more than he did. The Sweats would kill his daughter Queen Mary ... (Her death is also attributed to possibly ovarian cancer.) Elizabeth, his daughter by Anne, then became Queen. Hard to say exactly how Henry would have felt about that.
As it was, Henry was worried enough. And in The Tudors, this worry is magnified to the point of being almost unbearable by Anne Boleyn's catching The Sweats. This is one of Jonathan Rhys Meyers' most powerful performances in the series. I found myself checking my own forehead for symptoms as I was watching....
They couldn't do much to either ward off or cure a deadly flu in Henry's time - not all that much different for us, today. Henry does have a cabinet full of unctions, ointments, and remedies. Henry explains to his friends what they do - in what for some reason is my favorite scene - and urges them to take a concoction of marigold, manus christi, sorrel, meadow plant, linseed vinegar ... and ivory scrapings. (I wrote them down ... you never know.) Hey, they worked for Henry!
Anne recovers without the marigold infusion. I'm not giving anything away here - everyone knows how she dies - and I'm sorry she will, I could watch her and this series forever...
In the remaining episodes of this season, there will be other deadly dangers to deal with. Including, as the ever perceptive Thomas More notes, the onslaught of Lutheranism, which he fears could be more perilous to the England he knows and loves than even The Sweats....
Useful links:
Derriere and Bosom on The Tudors: More of What the FCC Would Deprive Us Of
Plagues and Peoples William H. McNeill's 1977 book
The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church G. W. Bernard's 2005 book
The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution my 1998 book
The Tudors Michael Hirst's brand new book!
my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
my reviews of other episodes of The Tudors: Episodes 1 and 2: History So Colorful You Can Taste It, Episode 3: History So Real You Can Feel It, Episode 4: The Penalty of Royalty, Episode 5: Madrigal Musical Chairs, Episode 6: Tectonic Chess
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
3 comments:
Paul thank you for telling us exactly what the sweats was i couldn't figure it out I thought it was sort of like the flu but wasnt sure.
Dani
Yeah ... medical historians are pretty sure it was a kind of flu, based on the symptoms (especially the rapid onset). Sometimes people mistake it for the Plague, but that was actually much more deadly.
This was in many ways my favorite episode so far!
By the way - for anyone else who'a reading this - Dani has a wonderful site - http://thetudorsonline.com - any time you even just feel like hearing the Tudors' music, it's a nice site to visit.
There are many factual inaccuracies with this series which are fundemental to the story. In episode 6 it is mentioned that Mary Boleyn (Anne's sister) is her older sister, infact she was three years younger. Also the fact that Henry Fitzroy is shown as the only accepted bastard son of Henry, once again false as he recognised his son Henry Carey son of him and Mary Boleyn also. Also the introduction of Anne to court is also a fabrication, she had been at the French court and then the English court, but was at the court of Henry a number of years before their relationship began. Also the homosexual relationship between william and the musician, i assume this is to be a basis for the homosexual group which surrounded itself around Anne during her reign, but to ommit the character of Francis Weston who was having homosexual relations with her brother George is rather strange, as he too was a close friend to the King. I find it strange and a little annoying that so much research can go into some aspects and yet others totally neglected, the series does not move massively fast through the era and so it should be historically correct.
I realise it is a TV adaptation and not a documentary but to have such obvious mistakes and ommissions it discredits itself. I would also encourage you all to look at the character of Margret Tudor. Princess Margret was NEVER married to Charles Brandon, she was married to James IV of Scotland. Mary tudor infact married Charles Brandon. This is such an important union in the Tudor era because their daughter Francis ultimately becomes an influential player in the running of the country when her daughter Lady Jane became queen.
I realise that faults can be found with most television series' but it is almost as if the half hearted attempt at research by this American production company has not actually considered English history or consulted historians of this era. It is poor and highlights the stupidity and ignorance of the Americans who made this and those who watch it without realising its historical inaccuracies. It is just good that this is about a topic which doesnt affect us today, unlike the thousands of awful documentaries or shows about the National socialist era in Germany which have come out of the US.
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