Henry Tudor, Duke of Cornwall

Henry Tudor was born on January 1, 1511 in the Richmond Palace near London and became the first child of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon , born alive - a year earlier, on January 31, 1510, the queen was released from her burden prematurely by her dead daughter ^{[1] [2 ] ] [3]} . For his father, the prince was the grandson of the first king of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII and the princess of the house of York Elizabeth of York ; for the mother, the Catholic kings of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile ^[4] . Henry was baptized on January 5 during a magnificent ceremony; King Charles of France Louis XII represented Bishop of Winchester , Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham and Margaret of Austria , represented by King Henry’s aunt Anna of York, became baptists. In honor of the boy's baptism, festive lights were lit; from his godfather, the French king, the prince received a golden salt of fine work and a 99 ounce cup ^[5] .

At birth, Henry automatically received the title of Duke of Cornwall and, as expected, was later to receive the title of Prince of Wales and become the third king of England from the Tudor dynasty. Alison Ware writes that the little prince at the court was called the Prince of Wales, ^[1] but he did not officially bear this title. Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, whose affection for each other only strengthened with the birth of her son, planned to arrange a magnificent celebration on the occasion of the birth of the heir, who could compete with the celebration on the occasion of the coronation of the couple. In Westminster the tournament was arranged, which became the most expensive during the reign of Henry VIII. The tournament was described in detail in the illuminated scroll of , later discovered in the collection of the Heraldic Chamber ^[5] .

The prince unexpectedly died on February 22, 1511 ^[1] - just seven weeks after being born. He was buried in Westminster Abbey ^{[3] [5]} .

Henry's death grieved his parents. The next pregnancy of the queen came only two years later ^[6] and ended with the birth of a dead boy. Subsequent children of the royal couple were either born dead, or lived only a few hours ^[1] ; Only Princess Mary , born in 1516, reached adulthood and ascended the throne after the crisis of the succession to the throne in 1553 . The inability of Catherine of Aragon to bring into being a viable male offspring led to the divorce of the royal couple, the rupture of England with the Vatican and the accession of the reformation in the country . In the event that Henry survived, all of this could have been avoided ^[3] .

The alternative history of England, in which Henry ascended the throne under the name Henry IX in 1547, is described in the “book within a book” format in the 1976 Kingsley Amis novel ^[7] .

• Loades, David. The Six Wives of Henry VIII . - Amberley Publishing, 2009. - 191 p. - ISBN 1848683359 , 9781848683358.
• Panton, James. Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy . - Scarecrow Press, 2011. - p. 249. - 722 p. - ISBN 0810874970 , 9780810874978.
• Starkey, David. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII . - Chatto & Windus, 2003. - 852 p. - ISBN 0701172983 , 9780701172985.
• Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy . - Random House, 2011 .-- P. 154. - 400 p. - ISBN 1446449114 , 9781446449110.