Francis I and the Bastard Prince of England

Flags of France (12-13th century), Duchy of Brittany and Francis I at Château Royal d'Amboise

The Francis I and Henry VIII brothers-in-arms show was exactly that, a show.

Francis needed Henry on his side against his hated enemy Charles V but in 1532 it was Henry who needed Francis on his side.

The king of England, reviled for ditching Catherine of Aragon, his loyal, loving wife of twenty years, was an outcast at home and abroad. In August, he and Anne Boleyn set out with the Court to tour England with the intention of bringing his subjects around to the idea of having a new Queen. They were having none of it. When they started hurling insults (some sources say stones) at Anne, the tour ended abruptly.

It was the same in Europe. A furious Pope Clement VII castigated Henry in public and in private. Catherine’s nephew, Charles V, The Holy Roman Emperor, as head of The House of Hapsburg, was outraged by the public humiliation of a member of his family.

A desperate Henry, forty-one, asked Francis, thirty-eight, to meet him in Calais as a PR exercise ostensibly to affirm their mutual support against Charles V.

That was a front. Machiavellian Henry had three asks. Big asks.

The first was to ask the king of France to bring the French Court to Calais to receive Henry and Anne as a couple as a public seal of approval.

Next, having dispensed with his own Red Hat (Cardinal Wolsey) Henry asked Francis to use his Cardinals in the Vatican to plead his case with the Pope for the annulment of his marriage.

In a letter Charles V wrote at the time he said ...(as) the king of England has scandalously brought the said Anne with him to Calais, treating her like a wife, in contempt of ecclesiastical authority ...His Holiness may be the more disposed to do speedy justice.

The subject of which royal lady would receive Anne was discussed.

Queen Eleanor, Catherine of Aragon’s niece, refused saying Henry and Anne were shameful.

Anne’ Boleyn’s close friend, Marguerite, sister of Francis, refused saying as Queen of Navarre she could not associate herself with the ‘Scandal of Christendom’.

When no Lady of the French Court agreed to meet Anne, to Henry’s horror, Francis suggested his mistress could greet Henry’s mistress when she arrived in Calais.

In the end Anne was met by the mayor and stayed in Calais while Henry went to meet Francis. Henry spent four days with ‘his beloved brother’ at the French court in Boulogne after which they left together for the English court in Calais.

When Anne made a dramatic entrance at the banquet held in honour of the king of France, she was formally received by Francis. Francis knew her well. The last time he had seen her was as maid of honour to his first wife, Queen Claude.

Henry had a third ask. He introduced Francis to his thirteen year old illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy* and asked Francis to let him join the French Court. Francis agreed. He embraced him saying ‘I now have four sons’ and admitted him to his Privy Chamber.

Henry being Henry, there is a possible reason he wanted his son at the French Court. Fitzroy would live with the King's sons Francis, fourteen, Henry, thirteen and Charles, ten, all boys together, forming close friendships. Fitzroy could provide Henry with inside information about France. He would hear gossip at the French Court. He could observe the King and his advisers at close quarters.

Fitzroy and his boyhood friend, Henry Howard, the duke of Surrey, spent the best part of 1533 with the dauphin Francis and his brothers Henry, duke of Orleans and Charles duke of Angoulème. Henry Fitzroy and Prince Henry (named after Henry VIII) were the same age. The five boys did everything together. Ate, studied, trained, travelled with the itinerant Court and got up to pranks. As Château Amboise was the king’s favourite, they must have spent time there.

The keep at Windsor Castle, UK

Was Henry Fitzroy in awe of the French Court? Probably not. He lived in Windsor Castle. He was treated like a prince, granted every thing that Henry VIII himself had got as a prince. Courtiers referred to him as Prince Henry.

Fitzroy’s mother, Elizabeth Blount, was a maid-of-honour to Catherine of Aragon. In 1514 when Henry made her his mistress, she was fourteen, Henry was twenty-four. In 1519 when she gave birth to a healthy boy, Henry was delighted. Proud. He publicly acknowledged his son and said it was Catherine’s fault he didn’t have an heir.

Sixteen years into his reign, thirty-four year-old Henry still lacked a male heir with his forty year old wife. Their only child was Princess Mary, a girl of nine.

When he was six, Henry Fitzroy travelled down the Thames with a huge retinue. His barge pulled up at the Watergate of Bridewell Palace. The party made its way through the palace to the king's apartments. Waiting for him were senior members of the court including nobles and bishops. During a ceremony, he was created Earl of Nottingham, the first time since the 12th century that an illegitimate son had been raised to the peerage. The Court watched as the young Lord Nottingham re-emerged. The Earl of Northumberland carried the robes, the Marquess of Dorset the sword, the Earl of Arundel the cap of estate and the Earl of Oxford the gold rod.

The six year old knelt before his father who created him Duke of Richmond and Somerset. To be a duke was a significant honour. It was the highest rank of the peerage. Fitzroy was now ‘the right high and noble Prince Henry, Duke of Richmond and Somerset’. Henry's pride and affection for his son made the Court wonder what the King had in mind for him.

Fitzroy had his own household with hundreds of servants, grooms, ushers, cooks, bakers, stablemen, yeomen and chaplains. He was dressed in lavish clothing and given a classical education, including learning Latin, Greek, French and music, although, like his father he preferred outdoor sports.

Age ten, young Fitzroy, the spitting image of his father at that age, was summoned to parliament, which he attended regularly.

After his eventful year in France Henry Fitzroy returned to England to marry Lady Mary Howard, his best friend’s sister.

Just four years after the meeting with Francis in Calais, in 1536 Henry asked his son to attend the execution of Anne Boleyn at the Tower of London and report back to him.

Later that same year Henry Fitzroy was suddenly taken ill and died. He was seventeen. There was no autopsy. Henry did not give his beloved son a funeral. As news of his death was kept under wraps it may be he died of plague.

Henry Fitzroy, as the son-in-law of the duke of Norfolk, is buried in St Mary’s, Framlingham, Surrey, the family mausoleum of the dukes of Norfolk. Henry Howard, the duke’s son, Fitzroy’s boyhood companion at the Court of Francis I was buried near him. His wife Mary, duke of Norfolk 's daughter, was buried with him when she died in 1557.

* Fitzroy denoted an acknowledged Bastard of the king.

Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.