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Sweating sickness years disrupt More’s household and court attendance

In the later 1520s sweating sickness waves disrupted London households and court routines intersecting More’s career and Chelsea life. In the causal graph this event strengthens Infectious-Disease Transmission, a driver that weakens Life expectancy at birth — a worsening welfare path.

Sweating sickness years disrupt More’s household and court attendance

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

In the later 1520s sweating sickness waves disrupted London households and court routines intersecting More’s career and Chelsea life. The instrument is that epidemic disruption, not a claim he caused infection.

Context

Tudor epidemic years are public. Britannica and BHO calendars independently place sweating sickness in Henry’s reign. Unique household death lists are not invented without names in sources.

Thomas More’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below.

Conventional years are 1478–1535. Surviving public files are later parliamentary biographies, HRP pages, Yale Essential More, and encyclopedias. More did not typeset those later pages. Posthumous canonisation is reception, not a lifetime act.

Why it matters

Infectious-disease path. Medium-high confidence on career disruption pattern.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Thomas More

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.4 · verified

    Epidemic waves hit London and court. Household members share risk.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Britannica — Thomas MoreEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.British History Online — calendars of Henry VIII papersInstitute of Historical Research / BHO · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Britannica and British History Online independently note sweating sickness crises in the late 1520s court world.

Established: sweating sickness struck Tudor London/court in these years. Not established: a pathogen genome from More’s house.

Thomas More did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. Sweat is not heresy enforcement. Keep infection off the Chancellor raids row.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorThomas More
  2. contributed toFactSweating sickness years disrupt More’s household and court attendance
  3. strengthensDriverInfectious-Disease Transmission
  4. weakensIndicatorLife expectancy at birth

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Sweating sickness years disrupt More’s household and court attendance. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/tm-infect-sweating-sickness

https://factrail.ai/facts/tm-infect-sweating-sickness

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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