The New Murrey and Blue blog

Edward IV was not quite 41 when he died, quickly and unexpectedly. Many theories have been put about over the years from flu to diabetes, to deliberate poisoning.

A new theory by Marylynn Salmon, author of the controversial and almost impossible to obtain ‘SECRETS OF THE HOUSE OF YORK has now emerged, and as you might expect from the title of her previous work, it is a wild one.

Ms Salmon believes that Edward died of syphilis. She gives her reasons as

1. It is now known that this sexually transmitted disease was in Europe before the Renaissance
2. There were mentions of symptoms in documents of the time which indicate syphilis (she does not name these except for one document saying he ‘gave up his spirit.’
3. During Edward’s reign, courtiers described Edward suffering “a damp chill to his very marrow” while on a fishing trip. Ms Salmon thinks this was a medieval term for ‘having sex’. 
4. Edward would have had a weak immune system because he didn’t hang out with many others, being king.

Okay, I am going to take these on, one by one.

1 It is true that some early cases of syphilis have been found in skeletons from medieval England but they are rare as hen’s teeth.

2 There is a possibility that Edward had been unwell during Richard’s Scottish campaign, however, there are no mentions of what ailed him. Saying ‘he gave up his spirit’ is a common enough phrase to do with dying people; I have no idea how it relates to a possible disease.

3 In all my reading on medieval lives, I have never heard ‘a chill to the marrow’ used in relation to ‘having sex.’ It merely means cold to the core of your body, which would particularly noticeable if one was coming down with a viral illness and had cold shivers.

4 This is just bonkers. Edward was a soldier and a very hands-on king (in many ways!) Kings were not kept away from people in his era and that aside, you do not ‘strengthen your immune system’ by exposure to dangerous pathogens…Royals and nobles often survived diseases like the Plague and the Sweat by shutting themselves in their castles and only allowing a few trusted servants in and out–essentially, they locked down until the threat had passed.

In case you were wondering, these are the symptoms of late stage syphilis–blindness, paralysis, aortic aneurysms, dementia, deafness. It can also eat your nose away and make you lose your hair. None of these signs were noted in regards to Edward IV.

Edward’s last child was also born in 1480. Syphilis takes many years to claim its victims. If Edward had the disease, Elizabeth Woodville would have almost certainly had it too and there was a high chance it would also be passed on to at least some of their children.

Here is a link to the article: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/king-edward-ivs-cause-death-30618527