Common Tudor Diseases
Dysentery: Still active today, dysentery is a vile disease that causes a fever, stomach cramps, dehydration and diarrhoea. This is the disease that may have caused the death of Henry VIII's hated advisor, Cardinal Thomas Worsley whilst he was imprisoned. The infection is a virus which spreads through dirty water. In the Tudor era, water was usually contaminated by human and animal waste so society would avoid drinking water by drinking ale and wine for the rich. Smallpox: Smallpox is like a very extreme version of chicken pox. If you caught the disease, it would probably be fatal. In the autumn of 1562, Elizabeth I came done with the deadly disease, thankfully she survived but was physically scarred on her face for the rest of her life. As a result she wore heavy white makeup. Symptoms were fever, chills, headaches, back ache and sometimes rashes of pus filled blisters! In sever cases it could damage your insides. A small pox vaccination was developed by Dr. ...