On the 22nd July* 1536, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, died of some type of pulmonary infection, probably tuberculosis, at St James’s Palace; he was just seventeen years old.
Fitzroy was buried at Thetford Priory and then, when the the priory was dissolved, moved to St Michael’s Church, Framlingham.
You can find out more about him in my article The Death of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset.
*Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, records on the 23rd July that “I have just this moment heard that the duke of Richmond died this morning”, whereas the chronicler Charles Wriothesley writes that Fitzroy’s death was on “the twentith tow daie of Julie” and chronicler Raphael Hollinshed agrees.
Notes and Sources
- LP xi. 148
- Wriothesley’s Chronicle, p58
- Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, Raphael Hollinshed, p798
It does make you wonder if the Tudor men had some kind of hereditary susceptibility to lung complaints.
Henry VII died of tuberculosis, Edward VI of the same disease or of an abcess on the lungs, and Prince Arthur was probably tubercular as well, although it seems to have been the sweating sickness that actually killed him.
I wonder if this could have helped those who so vilified Anne Boleyn as a witch, by claiming that this was her final curse from beyond the grave, that Henry would have NO sons to continue the Tudor line. After all, Edward VI did outlive Henry, but not by long, and he was never able to fully exert himself as King in his own right.
Miladyblue,It could of very well been more mean lies,lets not forget Henry claimed all his sons were born dead or died soon after,because God punished him for the marriage to his brothers wife ,Queen Kate . The living sons were sickly when they were young,and bacame even more so as they got older.I truely there was something in the gene pool. THX Baroness
Just a question please.
My Great Great Grand Father was called Henry Fitzroy and my Grand Father was also called Henry Fitzroy, could there possibly be a link somewhere.
My surname was alleged to have been changed from Gordon Lennox to the present of Lennox-Gordon by my grandfather who found it easier to write, could this be true ?
Any help from your members would be gratefully received.
Barrie