Today in 1511 Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon’s son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall, died at just 52 days old. He was the heir that Henry needed, and both parents were devastated when they heard. No one knows what killed Henry – it may have been SIDS. It was tragic for Henry and Katherine – Henry tried to comfort Katherine as best as he could, and they arranged a funeral filled with the honors for a Prince. The King and Queen didn’t go to the funeral in person so as not to attract attention away from the Prince, but he was buried in Westminster Abbey, carried in a small coffin from Richmond Palace to the river where it was brought up the river in a convoy of 3 barges.
180 paupers were paid to pray for the soul of the baby Henry. Henry VIII and Katherine were still young enough to have more children, though of course, they would only have Mary, and it would be 26 years before Henry would have another son.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th-century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested links:
Episode 47: Tudor Times talks about Katherine of Aragon
Episode 69: Supplemental – Chat with James Boulton on Katherine of Aragon
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.