6. King Henry VIII of England was a germaphobe and would take extreme precautions to avoid the plague and other Middle Ages maladies
Henry VIII was a notorious womanizer. As well as his six wives, he also enjoyed the company of a string of mistresses, often not even bothering to keep his affairs secret. But the King’s philandering wasn’t the reason why he spent one whole summer sleeping in a different bed every night. Rather, Henry’s unusual nocturnal habits were due to his intense fear of diseases. If the scientists of the Tudor ages had known about germs, then they would most probably have diagnosed the English monarchy with an acute case of germ phobia. But even if they didn’t really understand what was going on in his mind, nobody was going to question the King’s hygiene habits.
Refusing to sleep in the same bed two nights in a row wasn’t the only precaution Henry took against falling ill. On several occasions, he locked himself away from the world for weeks at a time. For instance, the history books show that he spent the fall of 1517 in isolation. And then he shunned company for several weeks in the summer of 1528. On both these occasions, the plague was sweeping through England and the king was worried that he might become one of its victims – and understandably so.
Above all, Henry developed an obsession with so-called ‘sweating sickness‘. From the end of the 15th century, a wave of epidemics of this mysterious condition passed through Europe. It came on suddenly and, within hours, victims were covered in cold sweats. It was said that 50% of all people who contracted sweating sickness died from it, usually within 24 hours. Henry lived in mortal fear of the condition. He banished from his Court anyone who looked remotely ill and when a new epidemic broke out in Europe, he would lock himself away until he felt it was safe to come out. Obsessive, maybe even paranoid he might well have been, but perhaps wise too. After all, Henry died in 1547 at the age of 55 – and it was most probably his poor diet and lack of exercise rather than the plague which took him off.