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Edward IV paid the ultimate price of all that playing around….?

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Edward IV NPG portrait – Public Domain

So, now Edward IV died of a sexually transmitted disease, to wit – syphilis. And before you get up on your hind legs to shout that syphilis didn’t come to Europe until the time of Columbus, it has now apparently been proved that its parent infection (treponematosis) had been here since ancient times. Read here https://tinyurl.com/35czp8z9.

The conclusion is reached in the book Medieval Syphilis and Treponemal Disease by Marylynn Salmon, which you can purchase at Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/ycxrs22y. Also available in Kindle. The book was originally published 31 August 2022, so perhaps this theory isn’t new to you. But I do rather struggle with the claim that the “damp chill to his very marrow” Edward suffered during a fishing trip was a euphemism for having sex. 

However, my ignorance or not, this book has been examined previously on this blog, see https://murreyandblue.co.uk/2023/12/11/a-strange-new-theory-on-the-death-of-edward-iv/.

by viscountessw

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7 responses to “Edward IV paid the ultimate price of all that playing around….?”

  1. gracefullydream8082aa7f2c Avatar
    gracefullydream8082aa7f2c

    This is the first I have heard of Edward IV dying of a sexually transmitted disease. I always thought he caught neumonia. Mind you, given his reputation with the ladies (and sometimes gentlemen) I shouldn’t be surprised if it was syphalis. Poor guy, and at only 40 years old.

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  2. mry4441 Avatar
    mry4441

    In Richard Collins book about the Death of Edward IV he consulted consultant colleagues and they specifically ruled out syphyllis. They said it was probably arsenic!!! Marylyn Salmon haven’t I heard that name before?

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    1. jay Avatar
      jay

      ii think this is the same author who came up with a rather bizarre theory that edward and his brother edmund were illegitimate. she seems to have misunderstood a line in a letter that they wrote to their father where they call themselves his ‘natural sons’. she took this to mean they were yorks bastards – instead of them saying they shared his ‘nature’ – supporting him and expressing their respect (the opposite of the more common expression ‘an unnatural child; – one who rebels or rejects their family) sounds like there is no end to her creativity.

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  3. Avatar
    Anonymous

    i think this is the same author who, a few years ago, built a bizarre theory that edward and his brother edmund were the duke of yorks illegitimate sons. she based this on a phrase from a letter they wrote to their father where they called themselves his’natural sons’ -assuming that this meant they were bastards. apparently it never occoured that ‘natural’ might also be used by them to show that they shared their fathers’nature’ – that they identified with him and supported him – (the opposite of the more common phrase – an unnatural child – one who rebels or rejects their family). i think her work is best approached with caution!

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  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    All I can add to this (aside from my own suspicion that it was poison) comes from the French verbs ‘pecher’ (to fish, circumflex over the e) and ‘pecher’ (to sin, accent aigu over the e) – both pronounced the same way – when I had read that Edward had ‘caught ill’ while out fishing (in March???) I immediately smiled to myself, ah yes, ‘out fishing’ as in out on his barge with whatever lady he was interested in at the time, and as Seurat would much much much later use the same sexual parallel with his Saturday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (c 1886) – which is a feast of double entendres. Edward may well have caught a March cold (really Ned, boating in the damp?) or his female assassin simply chose that opportunity to poison him – if anyone was a too easy target for poisoning it had to be Edward.

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  5. Avatar
    Anonymous

    If in doubt suspect its syphilis. They said this about most medeival kings including Henry VIII. Pneumonia for me as thevrivervswimming was no euphamism.

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  6. Avatar
    Anonymous

    And the bones of King Richard were thrown in to River Soar. Ancient history— pre-17th C.—is primarily conjecture. But it is an interesting to use a euphemism like a “fishing. Trip” ; that has always ( for at least 2 months,) has seemed a bit “fishy “.
    Bill in Michigan

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