The short life of PRINCE HENRY TUDOR Duke of Cornwall | Son of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon

he was the boy who should have been King Henry VI 9th but tragically it wasn't to be Prince Henry chudar dukee of Cornwall firstborn son of Henry VII and Katherine of Aragon lived only 7 and a half weeks in 1511 and yet in that time he made his mark on history in this video from history calling we look at the short life of the New Year's Day Prince starting with a lavish celebration surrounding his birth and baptism which included Fair was around England and a spectacular joisting tournament in which the king himself rode I'll also tell you about the little Prince's household his death how his parents reacted to the loss and the extravagant and somber rituals which took him to his grave in Westminster [Music] Abbey Henry VII and his one-time sister-in-law Katherine of Aragon were weared on the 11th of June 1509 shortly after he ascended to the throne and the new Queen quickly became pregnant sadly this first pregnancy turned into something of a farce after she lost the baby girl on the 31st of January 1510 only to be assured by her doctors that she'd been carrying twins and was still expecting when it was finally realized that she was not it was humiliating for the former Spanish princess fortunately for her she became pregnant again very quickly in fact before she'd even realized that her earlier pregnancy was indeed over and at 1:30 a.m. on New Year's Day at Richmond Palace she seemingly fulfilled her dynastic responsibilities to her husband and to England by giving birth to a healthy baby boy his 19-year-old father was wild with joy the child was named after him and as the air par to the throne was automatically Prince Henry Juke of Cornwall he was not however Prince of Wheels as that title has to be conferred see my video on the princes of Wales who never became king to learn more about that topic there were celebrations across the capital and Beyond at the arrival of an air Henry paid his gentleman of the King's Chapel £6 13 Shillings and 4 quote for praying for the Queen's good deliverance and the chronicler Edward Paul tells us that in the baby's honor fairs were made and divers vessels with wine set for such as would take thereof it certain streets in London and general processions thereupon to Lord God the prince's christening took place in the Church of the observant friers within Richmond Palace on Sunday the 5th of January and it was a grand Affair we have a contemporary account ofit which tells us how the palace and the church were decorated it says from the hall that's the palace's Great Hall to the Friars was meed with barriers and reels away 24 ft wide strewn with rushes after being new graveled all the south side of the way was hanging with cloth of Aris and near the friers both sides were so hung as was the body of the church as protocol dictated neither of the child's parents were there in fact Catherine was still in seclusion after the birth but King Henry did pay the baral of arms 20 pins for their work that day which is an extraordinary sum the Godfathers according to contemporary sources were William warham Archbishop of Canterbury and Louis the 12th of France who would be briefly married to the baby's Aunt Princess Mary chudar in 1514 before dying on what would have been little Henry's fourth birthday New Year's Day 1515 Hall adds that the Earl of sui was also given the honor but he doesn't mention louie though contemporary letters from the French Ambassador in 1511 make it clear that the king definitely was Godfather the foreign godmother was Margaret of Austria Duchess of saboy who a few years later would take a young English girl into her household named anbin again Hall says something different giving the Godmother's name as Princess Catherine of York daughter to Edward IV and not mentioning Margaret at all but I haven't seen any other source mention Catherine and as you'll see in a moment there is in controvertible evidence in the form of a letter from Catherine of Aragon that Margaret was godmother as Louie and Margaret could not be present in person they were represented by two proxies Lord Winchester and the ctis of Sur and I wonder if this is why the Earl of Sir was assumed to be a Godfather while Lou knew what was happening though Margaret didn't discover she was godmother until letter it was only on the 8th of January that Queen Catherine wrote to her this is the letter I just mentioned informing her of the birth and baptism and her new status and it will have been weeks before the letter arrived the baby was immediately confirmed with the Earl of arendel as his sponsor as befitted the child's status the baptismal gifts were magnificent King Lou sent him a salt weighing 51 Oz and a cup of gold which weighed 48 and a half he also gave the child's lady mistress Elizabeth Denton who would oversee his care a chin worth 30 And1 to the Midwife who had delivered him a few days later his Ambassador in England advised the French Chancellor roberte that he had been toldot it would be well to present a chin of 200 crowns to the prince's nurse this is his wet nurse Elizabeth points and tell her the king praise her to nurse well his godson presumably this was done the ambassadors for the pope France Spain and Venice were all present at the ceremony and afterwards went to congratulate Catherine on her delivery not withstanding the fact that she hadn't been churched yet meaning released from her Chambers to rejoin the court which was a ceremony which took place about a month after delivery the christening over the baby remained at Richmond but was set up with his own household staff numbering at least 40 a list of his staff who attended his funeral gives around 40 names but it's likely there were more who simply weren't in attendance at that event especially as no women are on that list as well as his wet nurse and Lady mistress he had rockers for his cradle gentleman ushers chaplain a human Usher Grims of the chamber Porters and more had he lived in time there would have been tutors as well to oversee his education as for his father King Henry took himself off on a pilgrimage to the shrine of our lady at Walsingham leaving London on the 12th of January his expans ofs tell us of his activities along the way he made an offering there of13 Shilling 4 and sent two dos back to Catherine at Richmond paying the messenger who took them to her 10 Shillings he was back in London by the end of the month and in good time for the celebratory joists he had had organized to mark his son's birth with Catherine's churching now done she too was free to attend these joists took place on the 12th and 13th of February and they were certainly extravagant the records of their organization and execution still survive and tell us that there were groups of Challengers and Defenders who would compete with each other King Henry himself was one of the Challengers and played the part because the writers took on rules of loyal heart as well as Henry there were three other Challengers sir Edward Neville the Earl of davenshire and Sir Thomas nevit and it men who I take to be the Defenders on the first day with another 13 listed for the second though one of those a Richard Tempest doesn't appear to have taken part in the end the names are for the most part like a roll call of some of the most famous men of the period Charles Brandon leader job suff and the King's brother-in-law was there so too was Henry's future father-in-law Thomas bin and a William par who I think was the uncle of another of the king's wives Katherine par there were also several Howards part of the vast clan that would produce Queen Catherine Howard and which had already produced through her mother Anne bin in fact it's hard to imagine that Anne herself then a child of about 10 and still living in England didn't hear about this tourney from several of her relations not least her father the queen and her ladies including her sister-in-law Princess Mary were to observe the proceedings from a box hung with cloth of gold in front of them according to Hall was the following site which signs to me like the the 16th century equivalent of a movie set and which is depicted in an extraordinary document called the Westminster rule which I'm showing you here a pageant of great quantity made like a forest with rocks Hills and deals with diverse Sury trees flowers Hawthorns Fern and grass with six Foresters standing within the same Forest garnished in coats and hoods of green velvet by whom lay a great number of Spears all the trees herbs and flowers of the same Forest were made of green velvet green damasque and silk of diverse colors satin and saret which is a kind of silk in the midst of this forest was a castle standing made of gold and before the castle gate sat a gentleman freshly apparel making a Garland of roses for the price this forest was drawn as it were by strength of two great beasts a lion and an antelope and I think he means an actual lion and an antelope here not people dressed up as them the lion flourished all over with damasque gold the antelope was rot all over with silver of damasque his beams or horns and tusks of gold the beasts were LED with certain men apparel like wild men or woodh houses their bodies faces hands and legs covered with green silk and I can't make out the next word it looks like fled f l o s s h e d I'm not sure what that's meant to be on either side of the said antelope and lion sat a lady richly apparel the beasts were tied to the pageants with great chains of gold as Horses be in the cart the pageant pulled up in front of the queen then the joers themselves and their attendants rode out in front of her the group was anointed by 15 trumpeters and included Henry himself who was supported by 22 attendants on foot the joers carried Spears their horses were adorned with golden cloths embroidered with the writer names and they had plumes on their helmets they joisted all that day and again the next when the participants were once more richly appareled in cloth of gold damasque tinsel and velvet the king himself wrote out quote under a pavilion of cloth of gold and purple velvet embroidered and pondered with each and K of fine gold the compass of the Pavilion above embroidered richly and valanced with flat gold beaten in wire with an imperial cron in the top of fine gold his horses and Trapper of cloth of gold Fred with damasque gold the Trapper pedant that might mean pinned to the teal the Riders asked the Queen's permission to run in her presence run on Horseback that is which was of course granted and the joists resumed the queen awarded prizes to the winners which were worth 200 crowns each one of which went to her husband at the very end of the day supposedly for Catherine's sake though in reality I would say this was just an excuse for her teenage spouse and his mates to show off Henry quote ran courses with Lord Howard and Charles Brandon one gets the impression that a good time was had by all and the joists were a great success the mood of Celebration wasn't to last though on the 22nd of February when he was 7 and a half weeks old the unthinkable happened Prince Henry died at Richmond we don't know what the cause of death was but infant mortality was depressingly high in this era and it could have been a number of different things ranging from infection to A congenital issue bear in mind that Henry VII himself had several siblings who also died as babies or small infants so this wasn't unusual the king and queen were devastated Edward Hall L wrote that the king like a wise Prince took this dolorous chance wondrous wisely and the more to comfort the queen he dissim I think this means dissimulated the matter and made no great mourning outwardly but the queen like a natural woman made much Lamentations how be it by the king's good persuasion and behavior her sorrow was mitigated but not shortly so what Hall is saying is that while her grief did subside it took a long time Lou the 12th sent his condolences on the loss of his godson but on the 8th of April the French ambassador sent a letter whom saying that King Henry's counselors had advised him not to present this missive quote or say a word about it at present as it would only revive their King's grief suggesting that Henry was just as devastated as Catherine even if he made an effort to hide it at least Louie could be told about the disaster relatively quickly though such was the state of travel and Communications in 1511 that it took far longer for other courts to be brought up to space on the 5th of March the venetians were still arranging to have their letters of congratulations sent marking Prince Henry's birth unaware that the baby was now dead the prince was interred in Westminster Abbey seemingly on the 27th of February because that's the date on the accounts which list the payments made to cover the costs of the very Grand funeral he was given 379 14 Shillings was spent on black cloth for the event and 50 PS given to the Abbot of Westminster quote for 12 polls and a canopy reading between the lines of the expenditure accounts there were three barges covered in Royal liveries which were presumably used to bring the little body from Richmond to Westminster and the highest ranking Nobles in the land who were in London or close by attended as MERS these included The Marquis of Dorset the Earl of Essex and Four Knights Who Bore the corpse one of whom was Sir Tom Thomas bin there were more Knights to carry banners and the canopy which presumably went over the tiny coffin and the preacher on this occasion was Doctor Rollins 10 Children of the chapel were also present who I assume were there to sing but this is just supposition on my part a huge number of the king's household staff also attended either at Richmond or at Westminster including human servers aloners and kitchen staff from the Royal be house buttery and spicery among others plus the 40 or so meal members of the prince's household I've already mentioned he was certainly given quite the sandoff as with his christening however protocol dictated that his parents not be there the exact location of his grave is now lost to us but Westminster aby's website does provide some intriguing albeit unreferenced details saying that the baby was buried quote on the North side of the sanctuary area near the entrance to the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor the website adds when the new high altar was being constructed by Sir Gilbert Scott in the 1860s a small lead coffin of a child was found to the northern part of the step in front of it this may have been the young Henry's coffin but it was not Disturbed there is no marker in time little Henry would be followed into the Abbey by at least three of his siblings Edward the 6 Mary the first and Elizabeth the First and I say at least because I don't know where Catherine of Aragon and Anne belin's other babies were buried though I can't tell you more about Prince Henry's tomb I do have a video revealing all the secrets of Mary and Elizabeth which I'll leave linked on screen and below for you had the prince lived long enough to grow up marry and produce children of his own history would be so different Henry VI e would almost certainly never have left Catherine of Aragon for analin Elizabeth I and Edward I 6th wouldn't have existed and when King Henry died in 1547 he wouldn't have left behind a 9-year-old who would be governed by his maternal uncles as Edward was but rather a grown man of 36 Prince Henry might well have been the key to securing the chudar dynasty but we'll never know I hope you find that interesting if you'd like to learn more about the struggle Henry VI e and his wives faced in trying to produce children try one of these videos next whatever you choose please enjoy and until next time keep learning

Channel: History Calling

Views: 573,771

Keywords: Prince Henry Tudor, Catherine of Aragon, Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII, History Calling, HENRY TUDOR Duke of Cornwall, the BOY WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN KING, the BOY WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN KING Henry IX, New Year’s Day Prince, royals buried in Westminster Abbey, Tudor history documentary, best Tudor history documentary, shortest-lived Tudors

Id: 7F6WYqzGURk

Length: 17min 37sec (1057 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2023