Episode 151: Sick to Death
The History of English Podcast
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Henry's Leg Problems
The medical sense of the word first appeared in English around this time in the early 1500s. The description of the queen's symptoms as lax suggests that she was suffering from something other than postpartum bleeding. Some scholars have even suggested accidental food poisoning, which was quite common at the time. After Jane's death, Henry's physicians barely got any rest because a short time later Henry himself became sick with ulcers on his legs.
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