Let’s discuss about smallpox in Tudor England and explore the famous cases, societal impacts, attempts at treatment, and the lasting legacy of this formidable disease. Let’s go into the world of Tudor and Elizabethan England, not through its famed monarchs or dramatic court intrigues, but through the silent adversary that left both marks on the skin and the fabric of society: Smallpox.
Rough Transcript of Smallpox in Tudor England
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History Podcast. Today we are going to talk about smallpox, because why not start out the week with a little chat about a deadly disease, right? So it’s Monday, start the week outright. I’m starting the week right with a new pen because I finished a pen over the weekend.
There’s nothing more satisfying of a feeling than finishing a pen. Like I feel like I’ve accomplished so much. When I finish a pen or a notebook, I’ve like written in all the pages of the notebook, just like, wow, look at what I accomplished. You know, it’s just a thing. So this is the one I’m writing with now.
I really like these pental gels. This one, however, does not have a needle point. It has the, like the non needle point and I’m not as fond of that one as I am of the needle points as we all know. But hey, it’s what we’ve got. I wanted to get through it. These ones go pretty fast. Their [00:01:00] ink does not last a long time.
Um, but anyway, that’s my pen share for the day. So, Let’s get into it. Um, if you are new here, very special, warm. Welcome to you. I’m Heather. I’ve been podcasting on t England since 2009. This channel is where I put all of my podcast episodes from all of my different shows, as well as loads of extra content where I talk about random things like pen.
Have like this video right here about smallpox, really quick, alsos, like Theresa, shout out to you. You are like, I don’t even know what to say. Thank you so much for the super. Thanks. That was amazing. Um, I opened up my phone yesterday morning and I, and I saw that and it was just like, wow. Theresa, thank you.
So thank you Theresa for the super. Thanks. Um, that was awesome. Uh, okay, so, all right, let’s get into it. The reign of the Tudors was a time of sweeping change, reformation, political intrigue, [00:02:00] and unfortunately the spread of deadly disease. We did a video a couple weeks ago on the Sweating Sickness. Today we’re gonna talk about smallpox.
Smallpox was responsible for the deaths of countless people across Europe, and its scars, both literal and figurative, left deep marks in society. And of course, it continued all the way up until, you know, the 20th century. The vaccination against smallpox was one of the first, the inoculation. I remember having read George Washington had ordered inoculations against Smallpox to all of the soldiers in the Revolutionary War.
So it wasn’t just the Tudor period, but it was especially, you know, one of those things that the, that the tutors had to, um, had to think about in addition to the sweating, sickness. Um, and it affected everybody. Of course, one of the most famous cases in the 16th century was Elizabeth. I. She caught smallpox in 1562.
Of course, everybody was panicked because she did not have any children. There was no air. She, it was [00:03:00] very severe. Um, for time, it was uncertain whether she would recover. And also some of the people who were taking care of her contracted smallpox. She was left with minimal scarring. Of course, others were not so lucky.
The disease left. The notorious pock marks on people’s faces on survivors, leaving them a lifetime reminder of their brush with death. There was also Mary Queen of Scots. She had smallpox as a child, but she emerged relatively unscathed. She didn’t have any lasting marks, which would’ve marred her famed beauty.
Her escape from the physical remnants of the disease was actually really unusual, and some even saw that as this divine sign of her destiny for greatness. Edward II also got smallpox. He wrote a letter in 1552 to a friend of his saying that he had had a bout with smallpox, a small bout with smallpox, but he was quite past it.
He got measles right after smallpox, [00:04:00] so it’s like a one-two punch. And that, of course, weakened him considerably. He recovered from both, but they might have contributed to his early death that he had, um, soon after. These royal cases, of course, are just the tip of the icebergs. Small hawks did not discriminate between royalty and commoner, rich or poor, and it’s spread across England.
And the subsequent efforts to contain and combat it tell a fascinating story of a nation grappling with a silent, invisible enemy. During the Medieval period, many devastating illnesses like the Black Death overshadowed the presence of smallpox. By the time the tutors came into power, smallpox began to manifest more noticeably.
Historians and scientists speculate on the reasons for the uptick, but it could include the rise of urbanization and trade. The tutors, of course, saw significant growth in urban population centers and international trade. More [00:05:00] people living in close quarters in cities. Increased movement between cities and countries.
Infectious diseases found it easier to spread. Also during the Tudor period, the distinction between smallpox and other diseases might have become clearer. It might have been that during the medieval period, smallpox was lumped in with other diseases, just under general diseases it, so it might have actually been more difficult to trace the actual prevalence of smallpox.
And then with the Protestant reformation, Other societal shifts, there was more detailed record keeping with the printing press, with, you know, people becoming more literate. A society based more on, on words and literacy. Um, people start keeping better records. So that gives us a clearer picture of smallpox and, and the growth of smallpox experience of smallpox in the Tudor period than we had in previous periods.
Also the Tudor period of course, was marked by religious upheavals, and that [00:06:00] changed and influenced how people viewed the disease. Some people saw it as a divine retribution for, you know, breaking away from the Catholic church, for example. While other people started looking for more earthly causes. We start to see a.
The very, very nascent beginnings of the enlightenment and the scientific revolution that would happen, you know, a hundred years later. But people are starting to look for more earthly reasons. I actually, oh my gosh, I literally have goosebumps. I think about this period. The thing that really gets me about this period is this beginning of the, what I find.
So I literally have goosebumps. You guys. What I find so fascinating about the the Renaissance is, um, people. Singing for the sake of singing. Right? It wasn’t just for church, church was a huge part of it, but people with the rise of secularism and you know, I’m actually personal share. I didn’t intend for this to go this way, but here we are.
Um, I’m actually fairly religious. I’m Episcopalian, I am [00:07:00] practicing. Um, and I believe in God. I believe in, you know, the universe and I’m very spiritual. So I have that, but also I, I. I also think that humans are pretty amazing and humanity is pretty amazing. I’m one of those people I don’t actually like a lot of individually, but humanity as a whole, I really get down with and I really love.
And, um, you know, looking at this rise of, of humans in seeing themselves as beings. Apart this life as an important life apart from what’s to come before. In the thousand years before, I mean, I, it wasn’t so much, I’m not, I don’t know as much about like Rome and, and Greece. I’ve been reading more about that period and listening to some podcasts.
But, um, we start to see after a thousand years of the church teaching that this life is just practiced for the life to come and people being not necessarily [00:08:00] okay with being poor and being surfs and stuff. We start to, people still kind of, it was drilled into them that. This life is, is just practice and this is your role in life and you’re a surf.
And that’s all there is. And um, obviously people found joy and people found contentment in, in different ways. But during the Renaissance we really started to see the beginnings of, of, of humanism, of people saying, look, we, we can live this life for now. We can live a beautiful life here. We can sing for the sake of singing.
We can make art for the sake of making art. And that then leads to writing for the sake of writing and studying for the sake of studying. Um, and that’s the stuff that, just that beginning I find so fascinating that that push pull between religion and secularism and uh, and just the idea that, you know, people in the past had always seen disease as something from God.
This is the period where we [00:09:00] really start to see people saying, well, maybe there’s germs. I mean, of course germs would take another 300 years. 400 years almost for, for germs to become a thing. But, um, you know, this is the, this is the start. This is the very seeds being planted. Um, and, and I, and I just find that very moving and, um, it’s like watching, we always say having a daughter, having a child.
That period of like watching this flower bloom, watching this, watching this little thing come to life. Right? And, and that’s what. That’s what this period is for me, is like that. Watching, watching humanity kind of wake up. Um, and, and I just, you guys against me, it moves me. I need a drink. So that’s not actually an alcoholic drink, it’s just coffee.
Uh, but [00:10:00] anyway, what was I talking about? Smallpox? I really went sideways, you guys. I really went sideways. Okay. We get back to smallpox. So yeah, we weren’t quite at the scientific, at the scientific revolution yet, but we’re so close, close. Start to see it. Ooh, I love it. Okay, so the way smallpox presented itself, fever, fatigue, headaches, back aches within a few days, the distinct and dreaded rash would appear.
First on the face and then spreading to the rest of the body. These reddish spots would then evolve into raised pustules, which upon rupturing left the characteristic scars that gave the disease its name. They were also called pox, which then is where you get small px. Transmission was mainly through direct contact, either from fluid from the blisters or particles expelled when an infected person coughed or sneezed.
Given the close knit structure of communities and households, it’s [00:11:00] really easy to see how smallpox would spread with alarming speed compounding. The problem, of course, was the lack of understanding about the true nature of the contagion. People didn’t know about viruses or how diseases spread, and the concept of quarantine was still in its infancy.
The societal impact of smallpox and Tudor and Elizabeth in England was profound. The fear of disfigurement was genuine, particularly in a society where physical appearance, especially women, couldn’t really affect one’s marriage prospects and social standing, and was seen as, again, like whether God smiled on you or not, if people saw physical disfigurement.
We talked about this in the video that I just did on whether or not Abiline had six fingers, right? People saw it. If you had some kind of disfigurement, as you know, being God was angry with you, you had displeased God. And so that was something people were genuinely afraid of. And also, you know, [00:12:00] it, it was very deadly.
Queen Elizabeth’s survival and minimal scarring were exceptions. Many who survived found themselves facing stigmatization due to their pockmarked faces beyond the frequent. And, you know, it’s so silly ’cause you would think that people. You would think that people all understood like, oh, you had smallpox and you lived.
That’s a sign of like, divine providence. Yay for you. God smiled on you. But now it was like, oh look, you have a pockmark face. God must be mad at you. Humans find the most interesting ways to twist things around, don’t you think? Don’t you think? Guys, I’ve really like, I don’t know what my issue is today.
It’s just It’s all coming out. It’s all coming out all right. Beyond the physical effects. The frequent outbreaks disrupted daily, daily life trade could come to a halt. Court functions would be postponed. Public gatherings would be sparse during severe outbreaks. We kind of all know about this. This had implications on the economy, political and social activities of the [00:13:00] time.
Don’t we know it? We have just all lived through that. Moreover, the unpredictability of smallpox, which could claim the lives of both the robust and the frail, the rich, the poor, the young, the old fostered a climate of uncertainty. It was a grim reminder of life’s fragility, prompting, introspection, sometimes fatalistic attitudes.
Treatment during the Tud in Period was a mix of genuine attempts at medical intervention and superstition infused remedies. The disease with its ghastly presentation and devastating effects drove physicians and laypeople alike to seek relief or a cure through various means. Many remedies grounded more in tradition than actual science were popular.
People applied herbs like Rose or Lily, while others were more bizarre, like tying a red cloth around the afflicted person or placing the patient’s bed linens in rose bushes hoping to transfer the disease to the roses. Of [00:14:00] course there was bloodletting as always, um, to try to balance the humors. Of course, there was no inoculation yet that wouldn’t really start full on until the 18th century.
The lasting impact, of course, was multifaceted. Physically, survivors had scars which could alter their life trajectory. Elizabeth, the first vow led to a temporary crisis as the line of succession was unsecured. And lastly, it began to sow the seeds of public health awareness. The recognition of the disease’s contagious nature led to early quarantine measures.
And in the longer term, these experiences would lay the groundwork for more systemic approaches to combating infectious diseases. So there we have it a little bit on smallpox, plus some philosophical discussions on why Heather loves the Renaissance. Uh, and pens always pens. So thank you so much for watching.
If you have made it to the end of this [00:15:00] video and enjoyed it, I hope I earned your subscription to my channel where I put out videos like this almost every day. Who doesn’t want their YouTube algorithm tutor fied? Am I right? So, hey, seriously, thank you for watching. I want you to know that you are deeply loved, you are deeply appreciated, and I am so glad you’re here on this planet and you join me today.
Of all the places you could be, you came here and I don’t take that for granted. And I appreciate you and I appreciate you, not just because you watch the video. I mean, you says you’re here, we know each other because you watch the video, but you, I’m sure you’re an awesome human being and I’m glad you’re in the planet and I’m glad that I share the planet with you.
So thank you for being here. Alright. Don’t forget to drink your water and I will see you in the next video. Bye.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop. She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.