Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset

Henry FitzRoy
Born	(1519-06-15)15 June 1519 Blackmore, Essex
Died	23 July 1536(1536-07-23) (aged 17) Thetford, Norfolk
Title	Duke of Richmond and Somerset Earl of Nottingham
Spouse(s)	Lady Mary Howard
Parents	Henry VIII of England Elizabeth Blount

Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset (15 June 1519 – 23 July 1536), was the son of King Henry VIII of England and his teenage mistress, Elizabeth Blount, the only illegitimate offspring whom Henry acknowledged. He was the younger half-brother of Mary I, future Queen of England (daughter of Catherine of Aragon), as well as the older half-brother of the future Elizabeth I (daughter of [Ann Boleyn) and Edward VI (son of Jane Seymour). Through his mother he was the elder brother of Elizabeth Tailboys, 4th Baroness Tailboys of Kyme, George Tailboys, 2nd Baron Tailboys of Kyme and Robert Tailboys, 3rd Baron Tailboys of Kyme.

Birth

Lord Henry FitzRoy was born in June 1519. His mother was Lady Elizabeth Blount a Maid of Honour to Queen Catherine of Aragon, the wife of King Henry VIII. The newborn baby’s father was the twenty eight-year-old King himself. FitzRoy was conceived when Queen Catherine of Aragon was approaching her last confinement with her and the King’s own child which would result in a stillborn daughter in November 1518. The Queen’s pregnancies frequently triggered in the King a bout of promiscuity. To avoid scandal the Queen’s former Maid of Honour was brought away from the royal court and taken to the Augustinian priory of St Lawrence, at Blackmore, near Ingatestone, in the county of Essex.

The exact date of birth of FitzRoy had not been recorded as his birth was a secret. It seems though that Henry FitzRoy entered the world earlier than originally planned. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was out of London from 9 June until the 18 June when he reappeared back at court at Windsor. The following day he was expected at Hampton Court, yet it is not until the 29 June does he reappear at a council meeting at Westminster. Since 18 June was chosen for FitzRoy’s elevation to the peerage in 1525, it is tempting to conclude that the minister was unexpectedly waylaid by the child’s birth. The policy of discretion worked, as the baby boy’s arrival caused no great stir, and the various diplomatic dispatches record nothing of Henry VIII illegitimate son.

Christening

The christening of the newborn Henry FitzRoy is not recorded. However it is known that Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was godfather to the King’s son. Wolsey was even present at the Christening and was not represented proxy which puts the date of the Christening possibly before the 29 June when he reappeared at court. The identity of the other Godfather is unknown, and although Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk would take a great interest in Henry FitzRoy when he was older, in 1519 he was still the heir to the duchy of Norfolk, and was still called the earl of Surrey. If Henry chose the House of Howard, he would have chosen the elder Thomas Howard, who at the time was the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. This Thomas Howard had fought and defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. Another suggestion for the second godfather could be Henry VIII himself. Henry had taken the role of godfather at the Christening of his own nephew Lord Henry Brandon in March 1516, and his daughter Princess Mary stood godfather to her half brother Prince Edward in 1537. The godmother is also unknown, it would have been indecent to ask a lady of court as they would have had ties to the Queen. The godmother of little Henry FitzRoy was possibly a relation of his mother Elizabeth Blount.

Acknowledgement

The infant boy was given the name FitzRoy to make sure that all knew that the boy was son of the King, he was even given the name Henry after his royal father. Henry VIII who perhaps felt that his lack of male heir was a slur upon his manhood, abandoned all discretion and openly acknowledged the boy. At one point Henry VIII proudly exhibited to the court his newborn son, his wife Catherine of Aragon attended at the manor house. This could have taken place when the Queen of England threw a sumptuous banquet at her manor of Havering-atte-Bower, in honour of the French hostages in August of that year. Indeed Henry’s rivalry with Francis I, King of France may have required his pride to so, as in that year he had stood godfather to Francis's second son Prince Henry of France, who was named for Henry by Francis and he may have enjoyed that after ten years on the throne he finally had a son to show off. Alternatively the wires might be crossed and Henry might have showed his son off at a banquet in the recently refurbished manor of Newhall; this would accommodate the myth that Henry had been revamping it for the use of one of his mistresses.

Nursery

The boy’s upbringing until the moment when he entered Bridewell Palace in June 1525, six years following his birth remains shrouded in confusion. Although the boy was illegitimate, this did not mean that young Henry lived remotely from and had no contact with his father. On the contrary it has been suggested by his biographer Beverly Murphy that a letter from a royal nurse implies that FitzRoy had also been part of the royal nursery, and he was often at court after 1530. The boy was born in the sixteenth century, and at that time households were in a state of constant movement and transition, so it is unlikely that FitzRoy grew up in any one house. He was most likely transferred to household to household around London like his royal siblings: Mary, Elizabeth and Edward. In 1519 the only surviving legitimate child of the King was the three-year-old Princess Mary. In that year her household was reorganised suggesting that Henry made some provisions for his only son. Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury replaced Lady Margaret Bryan as lady Mistress of Mary’s household. At the same time at least two of Mary’s carers appear to have left her service. In a letter written after the fall of Anne Boleyn in 1536, Bryan seems to confirm that she was responsible for all of Henry’s children during their infancy: When my lady Mary was born it pleased the King’s grace [to make] me lady mistress, and made me a baroness,and so I have been a m [other to the] children his grace have had since. Unless her grammar is at fault this indicates another child between Mary and Elizabeth who was her charge in 1536. Since Edward was not yet born, that child must have been Henry FitzRoy.

In addition, the correspondence of the child’s first known tutor makes it clear that FitzRoy also received some rudimentary education, prior to his elevation to the peerage in 1525. John Palsgrave grumbled loudly that Henry had been taught to recite his prayers in a barbarous Latin accent and dismissed the man who had instructed him as no clerk. It is not impossible that Princess Mary’s household could have been reorganised some time before her former servants found posts with Henry FitzRoy. Although he was more well known from 1525 and onwards, there is some evidence that he was already in receipt of royal favour even before his ennoblement, this comes from surviving list of Wardrobe stuff appointed for my lord Henry. The Lord Henry in question is not identified but given that the subject was not considered to require a title and that the list has survived with further documents relating to the household established for Henry FitzRoy after his ennoblement, it would seem reasonable to assume that it is Henry FitzRoy. The familiar way in which he is described as My Lord Henry is also interesting and suggests that, amongst the officers close to the King, at least, his existence was hardly a secret. Alternatively he may have been raised in the north with his mother and her husband Gilbert Tailboys, 1st Baron Tailboys of Kyme, and their children.

Elevation

By the year of 1525, the Tudor dynasty had been on the throne for forty years. What the dynasty had to show for itself was strong government, an end to the Wars of the Roses, and a beloved King on the throne. However cracks were beginning to appear. By the sixteenth year of Henry VIII's reign, he was a thirty-four-year-old man still in his prime, however he lacked a male heir with his forty-year old wife Catherine of Aragon. Their only surviving child and heiress was Princess Mary who at the time was a girl of nine. To make matters worse Henry VIII had no younger brother nor any close male relations from his father's family. Henry VIII of course had another child, an illegitimate one, and even better the child was a sturdy six-year-old son. This child enjoyed a certain level of importance in Henry VIII's life due to the lack of male members of the family. Unlike Henry I who had a whole host of illegitimate issue to support, Henry FitzRoy was the only acknowledged bastard. Also, he was never overshadowed by legitimate siblings, as after ten years of marriage, Henry VIII could only boast about a single living daughter. Equally significant, he was also the only surviving son of the only surviving son of Henry VII. He was not overshadowed by any other male relations who could be called up to share the burden of government in the King’s name. As Henry and Catherine’s marriage remained childless, the king’s only living son became more attractive for onlookers to observe. The King’s chief minister at the time was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and since Henry FitzRoy’s birth he had taken an interest in his monarch’s only son. In a correspondence from June 1525 the Cardinal makes sure to ask for the King’s son: Your entirely beloved sonne, the Lord Henry FitzRoy. In 1525, before he was to turn six, FitzRoy was given his own residence in London, which he was granted by his father Durham House on the Strand. The boy had been brought up in remarkable style and comfort, almost as if he were a prince of the blood and not an acknowledged royal bastard.

Since his birth FitzRoy had remained in the background; such discretion over his son may not have been to the King’s taste and he may have felt his manhood and virility should be publicly vindicated, but he fully made up for his son’s quiet birth and equally quiet Christening when on 18 June 1525, the six-year-old boy was brought to Bridewell Palace on the western edge of the city of London where honours were showered upon him. That morning of the 18th, the six-year-old Lord Henry FitzRoy travelled by barge from Wolsey’s mansion of Durham Place, near Charing Cross, down the River Thames. He came in the company of a host of knights, squires and other gentlemen. At 9am his barge pulled up at the Watergate and his party made their way through the palace to the king's lodgings on the south side of the second floor. The rooms were richly decorated with various members of court and the nobility coming to see FitzRoy's elevation. Among them were numerous bishops, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The first ceremony when he was being created Earl of Nottingham, FitzRoy was attended by Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, who carried the sword of state, along with John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford, and William FitzAlan, 18th Earl of Arundel. Six-year old Henry knelt before his father as Sir Thomas More read out the patents of nobility. It had been the first time since the 12th Century when an illegitimate son had been raised to the peerage, when Henry II, King of England created his son William as Earl of Salisbury. However the ceremony was not complete, the onlookers watched as the young Lord Nottingham re-emerged into the chamber. The Earl of Northumberland carried the robes; behind him came Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset, carrying the sword; the earl of Arundel, carrying the cap of estate with a circlet; and the Earl of Oxford with a rod of gold. Once again young Henry FitzRoy knelt before his father and as the patent was read he was invested with the trappings of a duke. This time, when he rose to his feet, he was Duke of Richmond and Somerset.

To be a duke was a significant honour. It was the highest rank of the peerage and the office, originally devised by Edward III, King of England for his son Edward, Prince of Wales as the Duke of Cornwall retained its Royal aura. The former Henry FitzRoy was subsequently referred to in all formal correspondence as the “right high and noble prince Henry, Duke of Richmond and Somerset”. As if to compound this sense of royal dignity and endow the child with as much respectability as possible, Henry VIII had granted his son the unprecedented honour of a double dukedom. While he is mostly known as Richmond, some pains were taken to see that he bore both titles in equal weight. The bulk of Lord Richmond’s new lands came from Margaret Beaufort’s estate. These were lands which were the rightful inheritance of King Henry VII when he was Earl of Richmond and the lands which had belonged to John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, the father of Margaret Beaufort. The use of the Duchy of Somerset must have struck a chord among the courtiers as it was well known that the Beaufort’s eldest child was John Somerset, a royal bastard who had been legitimised following his parent’s adultery and then marriage. A part of the Beaufort connection to the Somerset duchy, the Duke of Richmond was important as the earldom of Richmond had been held by his grandfather King Henry VII and by his great-grandfather Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. The earldom of Nottingham had been held by Richmond’s great uncle Prince Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the second son of Edward IV. Seeing Henry’s obvious pride and affection for his sturdy little son, many of those who witnessed Richmond’s elevation must have wondered if this was what the King had in mind. To support his new status, Henry granted his young son an annum of £4,845. Following the ceremony, what took place was a “great feasts and disguising”. Henry wished to celebrate his six-year-old’s son with customary extravagance. It is unknown if Elizabeth Blount had been present but it is certain that the new duke’s stepfather Gilbert Tailbois was present and must have given her an eye-witnessing account.

It was a proud day for Henry, and for his former mistress Elizabeth, however the ceremony did nothing to spare the Queen’s feelings. She knew she failed in giving England a Prince, and was anxious about her own daughter’s prospects. In a private letter the Venetian ambassador wrote: It seems that the Queen resents the earldom and dukedom conferred on the King’s natural son and remains dissatisfied. At the instigation it is said of her three Spanish ladies her chief counsellors, so that the King has dismissed them from court, a strong measure but the Queen was obliged to submit and have patience.

Also at Richmond’s elevation was Sir Henry Courtenay, his father’s cousin through Catherine of York, the younger sister of Elizabeth of York. He was raised from being merely the Earl of Devon to be the Marquess of Exeter. Sir Thomas Manners, a great nephew of Edward IV through his sister Anne of York was made the earl of Rutland. Henry Clifford was made the new Earl of Cumberland and would cement his ties to the Tudor dynasty by marrying his son and heir, Lord Henry Clifford, to Richmond’s cousin lady Eleanor Brandon, the King’s niece. Even Sir Thomas Boleyn, who was created Viscount Rochford, was family in a way as he was the father of the King’s latest mistress, Mary Boleyn. Richmond’s ceremony was by far most spectacular but it was also a public relations display as the last militant spring of the Yorkist faction Richard de la Pole was dead since the Battle of Pavia. The young Henry Brandon became the new Earl of Lincoln, which had once belonged to the de la Pole family.

Crown Offices

In that same year, Richmond, as he came to be known, was granted several other appointments, including Lord High Admiral of England, Lord President of the Council of the North, and Warden of the Marches towards Scotland, the effect of which was to place the government of the north of England in his hands. The young Duke was raised like a Prince at Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire. His father had a particular fondness for him and took great interest in his upbringing. In February 1527, Thomas Magnus told the young Duke that James V of Scotland had asked for hunting dogs. Fitzroy sent the Scottish king 20 hunting hounds and a huntsman.

Kingdom of Ireland

Richmond was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and there was a plan to crown him king of that country, though the King's counsellors feared that making a separate Kingdom of Ireland whose ruler was not that of England would create another threat similar to the Kingdom of Scotland. After Richmond's death, the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 established a personal union between the English and Irish crowns, providing that whoever was King of England was to be King of Ireland as well. King Henry VIII of England was proclaimed this first holder.

Marriage

When Henry VIII began the process of having his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, it was suggested that FitzRoy marry his own half-sister Mary in order to prevent the annulment and strengthen FitzRoy's claim to the throne. Anxious to prevent the annulment and Henry's eventual break with the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope was even prepared to grant a special dispensation for their marriage.

At age 14, on 28 November 1533 the Duke married Mary, the only daughter of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. He was on excellent terms with his brother-in-law, the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. The marriage was never consummated but Fitzroy left two illegitimate daughters.

Possible heir to the throne

At the time of Fitzroy's death an Act was going through Parliament which disinherited Henry's daughter Elizabeth as his heir and permitted the King to designate his successor, whether legitimate or not. There is no evidence that Henry intended to proclaim Richmond his heir, but in theory the Act would have permitted him to do so if he wished. The Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote to Charles V on 8 July 1536 that Henry VIII had made a statute allowing him to nominate a successor, but thought the Duke of Richmond would not succeed to the throne by it, as he was consumptive and now diagnosed incurable.

Death

The Duke's promising career came to an abrupt end in July 1536. According to the chronicler Charles Wriothesley, Richmond became sickly some time before he died, although Richmond's biographer Beverley A. Murphy cites his documented public appearances and activities in April and May of that year, without exciting comment on his health, as evidence to the contrary. He was reported ill with "consumption" (usually identified as tuberculosis, but possibly another serious lung complaint) in early July, and died at St. James's Palace on 23 July 1536.

Norfolk gave orders that the body be wrapped in lead and taken in a closed cart for secret interment, but his servants put the body in a straw-filled wagon. The only mourners were two attendants who followed at a distance. The Duke's ornate tomb is in Framlingham Church, Suffolk. One of the houses at the local high school is named after him.

His father outlived him by just over a decade, and was succeeded by his legitimate son Edward, born shortly after Fitzroy's death. Most historians maintain that Edward, like Henry Fitzroy, died of tuberculosis. It is said that Henry Fitzroy might have been made king had Henry VIII died without a legitimate son:

Well was it for them that Henry Fitzroy his natural son ... was dead, otherwise (some suspect) had he survived King Edward the Sixth, we might presently have heard of a King Henry the Ninth, so great was his father's affection and so unlimited his power to prefer him.

—Thomas Fuller

External links

• About Henry Fitzroy

Political offices
Preceded by The Duke of Norfolk	Lord High Admiral 1525–1536	Succeeded by The Earl of Southampton
Preceded by The Earl of Ossory (Lord Deputy)	Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1529–1534	Succeeded by William Skeffington (Lord Deputy)
Preceded by Viscount Rochford	Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1535	Succeeded by Sir Thomas Cheney