The Death Of King Henry VIII Was WORSE Than You Think! JJ

By January 1547, King Henry VIII was dying. The man who had once been one of the most athletic and impressive princes in the whole of Europe could barely move without assistance. [snorts] He was 55 years old, some age for a man of the Truda period, but years of illness, obesity, and declining health had left him physically exhausted.

After almost 38 years on the English throne, the reign of one of England’s most famous kings was approaching its end. Henry had not always been unhealthy. When he became king in 1509 at the age of 17, he was tall, energetic, and athletic. He enjoyed hunting, wrestling, dancing, jousting, and tennis.

Foreign visitors all commented on his impressive appearance. He seemed to represent the ideal Renaissance prince. But as Henry grew older, well, we all know what happened, and his health changed dramatically. One important turning point came in January 1536 when Henry suffered a very serious jousting accident.

His heavily armored horse fell on top of him and Henry was reportedly unconscious for some time. He survived but his ability to exercise became very restricted. At the same time he suffered from painful ulcers on his legs. These wounds repeatedly opened, became infected and caused him enormous discomfort.

During the final decade of his life, Henry became extremely overweight. Walking had become difficult and eventually he needed considerable assistance moving around his palaces. Special equipment was apparently used to help transport him. The energetic young prince of 1509 had become an increasingly immobile and sick king. Exactly what killed Henry remains uncertain.

No modern examination of his remains has ever been conducted, so attempts to diagnose him are speculative. His obesity, leg ulcers, and other reported symptoms have produced theories involving diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other illnesses. What can be said with great confidence, though, is that by the end of 1546, well, his health was going downhill.

Henry spent his final days at the Palace of Whiteall. As January 1547 progressed, the people closest to him realized that the king didn’t have long to live. Yet, there was a very big problem. Henry was still the king, and actually discussing the death of the monarch was very dangerous.

Predicting or imagining the king’s death could potentially be interpreted as treason. His servants, therefore, faced the uncomfortable question of who would tell Henry VII that he was dying. The man, the brave man who eventually did it, was Sir Anthony Denny, one of Henry’s trusted gentlemen of the privy chamber. Denny reportedly approached the king and warned him that his condition was becoming extremely serious.

Henry then realized that he needed to prepare himself spiritually for death. For a man who had exercised enormous power over the lives and deaths of others, the moment must have been extraordinary. Henry ordered executions, destroyed political enemies, and transformed the whole religious structure of England. Now there was nothing that royal authority could do to prevent his death.

One thing the king did ask though was that Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was fetched. Cranmer had been one of the most important figures of Henry’s reign. He had helped bring about the anorment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Araggon, his first wife, and had played a very pivotal role in the English Reformation.

Despite the dangerous politics of Henry’s court, Krammer retained the king’s affections. When Krammer reached Henry, the king was so weak he could barely communicate. Cranmerry encouraged him to place his trust in God and asked Henry to give him some sign of his faith. According to the traditional account, Henry VI could at this point no longer speak.

Instead, he just communicated by squeezing Kmer’s hands. It was supposedly one of the last conscious actions of Henry VII, just squeezing the Archbishop’s hand. During the early hours of the 28th of January 1547, King Henry VI died at Whiteall Palace. He was 55 years old, which is not bad for a man of the Tuda period. Yet something remarkable happened next.

England was not immediately told that its king was dead, unlike what happened with Queen Elizabeth II. Everyone knew in seconds. Henry left behind a 9-year-old son, Prince Edward. Although there was little doubt that Edward would succeed his father, the political situation surrounding a child king was very dangerous.

Whoever controlled Edward could exercise enormous influence over the government. The powerful men surrounding the throne therefore needed some time. For several days, Henry’s death was concealed. He’s basically hidden away in his bedroom dead while arrangements were made to secure Edward and establish control over the new government.

The strange result was that Henry VII continued, at least outwardly to other people, to exist as a king, even though he was already dead. According to traditional accounts, even meals continued to be carried towards his private apartments like literally nothing had happened. Officials behaved as though the king was simply ill or just unavailable.

Government business could continue in his name while the political machinery of the new regime was sort of quietly put in place. Edward V 6th was secured and only then could Henry’s death be publicly announced. On the 31st of January 1547, Edward was proclaimed king. The 9-year-old child became King Edward V 6th.

Meanwhile, attention then finally turned to King Henry’s feted body. Royal funerals were very complicated affairs. Henry could not be buried simply immediately. There had to be ceremonies, processions, religious services, and preparations appropriate for the burial of an English monarch. That meant that his corpse needed to be preserved while his funeral was organized.

Henry’s body was therefore prepared according to royalery practices. Inbalming could slow down decomposition, but it could not prevent it completely. This was very important because several weeks would pass between Henry’s death and also his burial. It’s here that one of the most gruesome stories surround Henry’s death occurs.

During the journey towards Windsor Castle, Henry’s coffin was taken to Sion Abbey, where it rested overnight. Later, stories claimed that Henry’s decomposing body had swollen so badly that the coffin leaked, allowing bodily fluids to escape onto the floor. That became more dramatic over time. Some versions claimed that his body exploded, then that dogs licked his blood from beneath the coffin.

But there was a powerful reason why that strange story did become famous. Years earlier, a priest or frier, William Pto, had compared Henry with the biblical king Ahab, whose blood was supposedly licked by dogs following his death. For the enemies of Henry VII, the story of dogs licking the king’s remains looked like divine judgment.

The tyrant had received the horrible ending that had been predicted for him. But whether that happened is debatable. There is a little bit of reliable evidence though about Henry VI’s coffin actually exploding. It’s been discovered in the years since when his vault’s been opened that this is off script by the way that the coffin of King Henry VII has actually splintered and has broken open which would indicate there’s been some form of explosion at some point from within which has splined and opened the coffin. But Truda inbalming tried its

best to deal with with Henry’s corpse, but inevit inevitably it began decomposing quickly. Eventually though, Henry’s funeral procession reached Windsor. On the 16th of February 1547, Henry VII was buried in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor. He was placed in a vault beneath the choir alongside his third wife, Jane Seymour.

Of all Henry’s six wives, Jane occupied a very important position in his memory because she had given him what he desperately wanted, a legitimate male heir, his son. Jane had died shortly after giving birth to Edward in 1537. Henry, therefore, chose to spend eternity buried alongside her. But the burial was not supposed to be modest.

Today, it seems quite modest. There’s no tomb. Henry, though, had planned an enormous tomb for himself. It was intended to be one of the most spectacular royal monuments in the whole of England, decorated with expensive materials, statues, and elaborate ornamentation. He had even taken parts of the magnificent tomb originally intended for Cardinal Thomas Walsy.

Yet Henry’s great monument was never completed. His children, who were tasked with finishing it, had other things to worry about, and over the following decades, the unfinished project gradually disappeared. Parts of it were used elsewhere. Four great bronze candlesticks intended for Henry’s monument eventually found their way into St.

Paul’s Cathedral, where they are still found today. The king, who had spent much of his reign demonstrating his wealth and authority, just ended up without a elaborate monument under a slab. His vault, though, didn’t remain exclusively his. Following the execution of King Charles I, the Stewart king, a man who would be considered Henry Ve’s enemy, Charles’s coffin was placed in the same vault, buried literally next to him.

Later also, the small coffin of one of Queen Anne’s children was also placed there. Over time, the precise location of the vault did become less certain. In 1813, it was investigated. Inside was found the coffins of Henry VII, James Seymour, and Charles I. Henry’s coffin had suffered considerably from the passing centuries. The outer coffin was damaged and deteriorated, showing a contrast with the magnificent burial that Henry had planned for himself.

Charles the first coffin was better preserved and it was opened and his remains were examined. Henry’s remains though were allegedly on display and could be seen. People peered into the cracks in the coffin. They could actually see his beard hair on his skeleton. Now, we don’t know for certain what killed King Henry VII. Was it his leg ulcers? Was it diabetes? Or was it a disease? More than 475 years after his death, though, Henry VI still lies beneath St.

George’s Chapel in a very modest grave. Above the vault is a relatively simple black marble slab just saying who’s buried there. It is one of the most modest memorials to one of the most famous kings in English history. Henry imagined something very different. He wanted a magnificent monument that proclaimed his greatness long after his death.

Instead, what he got was relatively boring. Perhaps that’s what makes the story of Henry Ape’s death so fascinating. The king who controlled the fate of queens, ministers, monks, political enemies eventually became powerless before his own failing body. His servants were frightened to tell him that he was dying. His death was kept secret while politicians secured the succession.

His corpse became the gruesome subject of legends, and the enormous tomb he intended for himself was never actually finished. Henry VII had spent his life trying to control his dynasty, his kingdom, and even the religious life of his subjects. Yet in death, he couldn’t control anything. Thanks for watching. To support our channel, please click subscribe.

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