On the 22nd July* 1536, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, died of some type of pulmonary infection, probably tuberculosis, at St James’s Palace; he was just seventeen years old.
Fitzroy was buried at Thetford Priory and then, when the the priory was dissolved, moved to St Michael’s Church, Framlingham.
You can find out more about him in my article The Death of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset.
*Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, records on the 23rd July that “I have just this moment heard that the duke of Richmond died this morning”, whereas the chronicler Charles Wriothesley writes that Fitzroy’s death was on “the twentith tow daie of Julie” and chronicler Raphael Hollinshed agrees.
Notes and Sources
- LP xi. 148
- Wriothesley’s Chronicle, p58
- Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, Raphael Hollinshed, p798
