King Henry VI suffered from a ‘sleeping sickness’ that remains mysterious to this day…
The sweating illness was one of the most horrifying diseases of the 15th and 16th centuries and even more mysterious than the Black Death. It's not clear who first contracted sweating sickness, but there's a theory held by some historians that the disease came to England via a group of French soldiers King Henry VII's father had hired to secure the throne for him and his son in 1487 and end the Wars of the Roses. King Henry VI suffered from a ‘sleeping sickness’ that remains mysterious to this day. After a sudden fright, the King fell into a catatonic state for a year and a half. When he woke up, Henry VI was reportedly childlike and agreeable, but sometimes couldn’t recognize people. The king continued to slip into catatonia periodically for the rest of his life.