Henry Fitzroy
Today marks the anniversary of
the death, in 1536 of Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of King Henry VIII
and Elizabeth Blount. Notwithstanding
his illegitimacy, Henry may have considered Fitzroy a possible male heir. As a child he had been raised to the
nobility, being both an Earl and a double Duke.
While passing on the throne to an illegitimate heir would have been
extraordinary (it had never been done since the Conquest), Howard, the Duke of
Norfolk and an astute (although not always effective) student of Tudor
politics, must have thought it possible in that he arranged for the marriage of
his daughter to Fitzroy. This is the
same Howard who promoted Henry’s marriages to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard,
both his nieces.
Likely Fitzroy died of
tuberculosis (and not the sweating sickness that was suggested in the HBO show
“The Tudors”), the same malady that would likely claim his half-brother, the
future Edward VI.
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