HENRY FITZROY

 (D. Richmond)

Born: 15 Jun 1519, Blackmore, Essex, England

Acceded: 18 Jun 1525, Bridewell Palace

Died: 22 Jul 1536, St. James Palace, London, Middlesex, England

Buried: Thetford Abbey

Notes: Knight of the Garter. D. Somerset, E. Nottingham. The Complete Peerage vol.XIIpI,p.59.

Father: HENRY VIII TUDOR (King of England)

Mother: Elizabeth BLOUNT (B. Talboys of Kyme/B. Clinton of Marstoke)

Married: Mary HOWARD (D. Richmond) 28 Nov 1533

Image of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, 

bastard son of King Henry the eight

Mary Howard, Duchess of Richmond Sketch by Holbein The Royal Library, Windsor Castle ©Her Majesty the Queen

Natural son of Henry VIII by the Elizabeth Blount, daughter of Sir John Blount of Kinlet, of the family of the Lords Mountjoy. He was the only bastard that Henry VIII acknowledged. When Henry became the father of a royal bastard, he was delighted; his ability to father male progeny was no longer in doubt. Fitzroy was brought up with Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey at Windsor, who was to become Richmond's closest friend and brother-in-law, as he was to marry his sister Mary Howard. Henry had a particular fondness for this child, and created him Knight of the Garter at the age of six, on 24 Apr 1525. He was then advanced to Earl of Nottingham, and the same day, 16 Jun of 1525, made Duke of Richmond (a title associated wtih Henry VII before he came to the throne), then a month later Admiral of England, Ireland and Normandy. He was also made Warden of the Cinque Ports; Lieutenant of Ireland and given other titles and an income which made him the richest person in the kingdom after the King.

Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond from a miniature picture in the collection of the Earl of Orford

Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, died of consumption at St. James Palace, soon after Anne Boleyn's execution and just as an act was going through Parliament to enable the King to nominate him as the heir to the throne. Henry entrusted the funeral arrangements to the Duke of Norfolk, Fitzroy's father-in-law, and gave orders that the body be wrapped in lead and taken in a closed cart for secret interment. Through the carelessness of Norfolk's servants, the corpse was borne in a wagon covered in straw, and the only mourners were two attendants who followed at a distance. The Earl of Surrey, on Henry's instruction, received Richmond's favourite horse, a black jennet, complete with the black velvet saddle and harness made for the funeral.   

Later, Henry complained that his son had not been honourably buried and Norfolk heard a rumour that he was destined for the Tower.

In Lincolnshire, where the Duke of Richmond and his mother had much influence, opposition to the King was becoming organised. The greatest part of the wealth of Lincolnshire was in the hands of the Church, the great abbeys were the chief landowners and employers. Now church possessions and finances once sacrosanct were exposed to the scrutiny of the King's commissioners sent to audit their affairs.

On Saturday 30 Sep, some local people, feeling threatened by the imminent arrival of the commissioners, collected the keys of the church and handed them to a shoemaker, Nicholas Melton to keep safe. He thus became "Captain Cobbler" the leader of a rebellion against the King. By Monday 2 Oct, men from Horncastle and East Rasen arrived in Louth. By then a large crowd, they marched to Caistor where the King's Commissioners were at present taking inventories of church property. Here they were joined by Sir Robert Dymoke and his sons and friends who "just happened to be staying with them at that time". From Goltho, home of Richmond's step-grandmother, Lady Talboys' chaplain arrived with a large group of armed men. More than 500 armed retainers from South Kyme joined the rebels, under the leadership of Sir Thomas Percy, a relative of the Talboys family, (who "just happened to be there for the hunting") and a similar number headed by Edward Dymoke.

The same Monday, 2nd Oct, Edward, Lord Clinton left home on horseback, with just one servant. He headed first for Sleaford, and Lord Hussey. Hussey had been Princess Mary's Chamberlain, and his wife had been imprisoned for continuing to refer to her as "Princess Mary" not "The Lady Mary". Hussey had been assured of the support of the Emperor (Mary's cousin) and seemed a natural leader of the rebellion against the King. But he was not their leader. Clinton galloped on to Nottingham, then on to Lord Huntington at Ashby. By Friday, he reached the Earl of Shrewsbury at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. He carried letters from Cromwell. Meanwhile the rebels were joined by other groups of armed men, alerted by beacons, and had spread across the Humber to Yorkshire. The Member of Parliament for Lincoln, Thomas Moigne met Robert Aske, who led the rebellion in Yorkshire (where it was called the Pilgrimage of Grace).

Henry VIII's answer to the grievances that had been put to them was read out in the Chapter House of Lincoln Cathedral by Moigne. The King had never yet heard that a prince's counsellors and bishops should be appointed by ignorant common people, and least of all by the "rude commons of one of the most brute and beastly shires in the realm". The rebellion was put down with punishing retribution and many executions. 

The rebellion failed because there was no one uniting leadership and cause. Had the Duke of Richmond still been alive, then he might have been there, at his palace of Collyweston, by Stamford, with an army at least as large as the 5,000 men the Duke of Suffolk brought with him. As the King's son and the heir to the throne, he would have provided an alternative to his now very unpopular father. Had this been the original motivation for the rebellion, which started in the part of England in which he had the most influence, in which he had stayed most often in recent years, and in which he had the greatest number of contacts and relatives including his mother.

Richmond's arms

Richmond's tomb; St. Michael's Church, Framlingham, Suffolk.

Richmond's seal

For more information visit this website:

Tudor Bastard
King Henry VIII's Son: Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset and his mother, Elizabeth Blount
by Heather Hobden
ISBN 1 871443 30 X
price £7 [includes postage and packing]
A4 card and comb covers, illustrated

You can email Heather Hobden at:
post@cosmicelk.co.uk

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  Text ©2001 onwards - Heather Hobden

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