Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > The Lost Kings: Lancaster, York and Tudor > Status Update

'symbols for the eternal shadow in the mind of their contemporaries regarding the power of death. Just as in 1443, and the birth of Edmund, Earl of Rutland, through to the execution of Guildford Dudley in 1554, life was a continual paradox of struggle and opportunity, of celebration and failure, of fighting to improve the lot of the dynasty and of personal struggle against enemies and illness.'

'as much about preventing the threat of a foreign king, as it was about religion and his father's ambition. Clearly, he had been privy to the intentions of Edward's device but his wife had not. Jane does not seem to have realised this until she tried the crown, and her reluctance was to prove a stumbling block. She informed Guildford that if he was to become king, it would be by an Act of Parliament'

'Soon after this, Edward was confined to his bed, suffering terrible agonies which announced that his end was near. In these final weeks, his symptoms escalated considerably, so that on 10 June, his doctors gave him only three days to live. He was unable to eat, racked by fever, flat on his back as his legs swelled. When his ulcers burst or he coughed up sputum, it gave off a terrible stench.'

'in the context of the recent acts of reform, Edward's identity as a religious reformer, as a leading Protestant monarch, was gaining ground. European leaders of the reformed faith had every reason to look to England as a friend in the wake of the Catholic Counter-Reformation that had been launched by Pope Paul III.'

'Crucially, the prince's new servants were to 'advoyde alle infection and daungier of pestilence and contagious diseases' by preventing any members of the household who were in direct contact with Edward from travelling to London or other towns during the summer months or other peak times of contagion... He was not to be served with anything to eat or drink, except that which was fed to everyone'

'No details survive about Fitzroy's symptoms or condition, but by mid-July it was apparent to those around him that his illness would swiftly prove fatal. Later, councillors of Richmond's half-brother Edward VI recalled the duke's death when the young king lay on his death bed, and at least once commented that Edward's illness was 'the same as that which killed the late... Richmond'.'

'After everything that Henry had done in the last seven years to secure himself a legitimate male heir, Fitzroy was still his only son. And yet, he still seemed to be the king's best hope for the succession. To cement his future even further, on 26 November, Henry Fitzroy and Mary Howard were married at Hampton Court.'

'By October, the household had returned to Sheriff Hutton, where Magnus informed Wolsey that 'my Lord of Richmond is in good health and merry.' The boy also wrote to his father that he had 'paste this last sommere withoute any perelle or daunger off the ragious swete that hath reigned in these partis... and myche the better I truste with the help off suche preservatives as your highnes did sende unto me.''

'This ennoblement of an illegitimate son had undeniable dynastic significance. The most recent precedent was the elevation of Henry II's son William Longsword to an earldom, way back at the end of the twelfth century. The conferring of such favour upon Fitzroy seems to suggest that, until the king fathered a surviving male child within a marriage, he was considering Fitzroy his heir.'

'Bessie gave birth to a healthy boy in the summer of 1519, in June or July. It was probably no coincidence that Henry stayed in Essex that summer, just 10 miles to the south-west at Havering atte Bowe, then at Beaulieu, 12 miles to the east, both of which were close enough to enable a discreet visit to his newborn son.'