The Fall of the Leaf: Mary Tudor’s Seasonal Depression
Mary Tudor, daughter of King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon was not a happy person. When Mary Tudor's health is discussed, it is usually her phantom pregnancies that are so often highlighted. However, primary source material makes it abundantly clear that she suffered from depression throughout most of her adult life. Mary suffered from a disease that occurred "at the fall of the leaf", during autumn. Historians usually suggest this was a seasonal allergic reaction, but careful analyses of an overlooked letter written by Mary herself, shows this is not the case.
Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, parents of Mary Tudor – depicted at Katherine’s trial (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Although mental health was not as deeply understood in the past centuries as it is today, depression and anxiety were not foreign concepts in previous centuries. During the medieval and early modern period, the words “melancholia” or “ennui” were used to describe what would today be described as depression. The term “depression” came into use in the 19th century, originally as “mental depression,” describing lowering of spirits, and came to replace ‘melancholia’ as a diagnosis.
