Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset

Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset (c. June 1519 in Blackmore, Essex, † July 23, 1536 at St. James 's Palace in London), was the illegitimate son of Henry VIII and his mistress Elizabeth Blount. It was the only extramarital offspring, the Henry VIII officially recognized. Much loved by his father and showered with royal honors, it was during his lifetime, the thought that he might one day be the next king of England, before overtook him an early death at the age of only 17 years.

Life

Significance of his birth

When Henry Fitzroy was born, his father, King Henry VIII married his queen Catherine of Aragon for ten years. Despite at least six pregnancies the Queen but only one child, Princess Mary, the first few weeks of life had survived, and the king was waiting so desperate for a male heir to the throne but would still be born. Henry Fitzroy's birth confirmed to him that he was at least able to witness healthy sons. Overjoyed, he is said to have celebrated a lavish party to celebrate the birth of his son and gave him the surname Fitzroy - son of the king.

Henry Fitzroy's godfather was the Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, confidant and at the same time the most important minister of the English king. In his budget, the boy initially also grew. The affair between his mother and the English king seems to have failed a long time about the birth of Henry Fitzroy addition. She was married in 1522 with Wolsey's help with Tailboys Gilbert, who received a number of awards by the King of England and was later elevated to Baron. The king had at that time already a new mistress, Mary Boleyn.

Elevation to Duke and succession question

After his father had taken him in April as a knight in the Order of the Garter, Fitzroy, was charged shortly after his sixth birthday on June 18, 1525 in a ceremony created Earl of Nottingham and then to the Duke of Richmond and Somerset. These titles were all linked with the royal family ( Richmond was the title which Henry VII - Fitzroy's grandfather - was before his coronation ) and he received priority over all other subjects, except for a legitimate son born.

In addition, the boy the offices of Lord Admiral of England, the Lieutenant - General north of the Trent and the Warden - General of the Marches against Scotland were given, inter alia. Such accumulation of titles and offices had never previously given an English subjects, and certainly not a child. In addition, a separate budget has been set up with a council and all major household officers in Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire for Fitzroy, where he should be nominal head of a regional government for the North. This gave Fitzroy same symbolic meaning as a legitimate prince, for royal children were often sent as nominal regional ruler to the borders of the empire.

The implication of this remarkable collection of his son was clear. The King had even after 16 years of marriage no legitimate son and this would remain so, because now 40 -year-old queen was no longer of childbearing age. The Queen, whose mother had even been legitimate ruler of Castile, saw no problem in a female succession to the throne, and prepared her daughter Mary as heir to the throne before. But England had never had a queen and the king feared, as many of his subjects, that Queen Mary England would inevitably make a vassal state of her husband when she married.

With Fitzroys survey it seemed so when the King would prepare his bastard son as future king and queen made ​​their displeasure clear. The following month, Princess Mary was also equipped with its own large household and sent as nominal regent to Ludlow Castle in Wales, as it has traditionally been the custom for the heir to the throne.

The king could not decide between his illegitimate son and his legitimate daughter apparently.

Marriage

Already in his childhood possible marriages had been considered for Henry Fitzroy into account, inter alia, with a Spanish princess again and again. Although illegitimate, he as the son of the King of England and possible heir to the throne is a valuable piece on the marriage politics of Europe field, which also foreign observers recognized. Finally, he was " already so equipped, to keep state as a great prince, and could easily be levied by the king to even higher things." In the short term hit the papal legate Campeggio before even issue a dispensation that allowed him and his sister Maria to marry in order to solve the English throne problem and distract the king from his divorce intentions.

The marriage of the 15 -year-old Fitzroy finally came in, was therefore surprising, because his bride was not a foreign princess, but Lady Mary Howard, the eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. The marriage was one of an ambitious marriage projects with which the Duke of Norfolk wanted to increase the influence of Howard's and was of Queen Anne Boleyn, Norfolk's niece, and was Mary's cousin, so successfully applied to the king that this amazingly, not even a dowry demanded.

Apparently the marriage was not consummated, however, because after Fitzroy's death, two years later, Mary had big problems to make the claim on her widow's pension claim.

Death

The promising career of Henry Fitzroy came to an end when he died on July 23, 1536, just weeks after his 17th birthday. For some time past had been known that he was ill and the doctors had diagnosed him as " consumptive and incurable ." However, it may have also traded to another serious lung disease.

Modern biographers, such as Catherine Howard biographer Joanna Denny, keep a poison attack on the king's son for not excluded. The reason Joanna Denny assumes that Henry Fitzroy was planning a military uprising against his father.

Fictional representation

The Canadian fantasy author Tanya Huff built a Henry Fitzroy in their "Blood ... " series of books: Henry Fitzroy is left of their own free will of his lover, a vampire, transform. The plot of the book series is the presence, references to historical events or persons shall nevertheless be given occasionally. Based on this series, Henry Fitzroy also comes as a character before in the Canadian series Blood Ties. In the television series The Tudors Henry Fitzroy appears also died there but already the age of three at the weld disease.