What did Henry VIII die of?
In the last seven years of his life, from 1539 through to 1547, Henry is an unfamiliar figure to the man of Hans Holbein the Younger’s famous portrait.
Now a geriatric monarch, his life is a living nightmare of pain and disease.
He is depressed, vulnerable and frightened.
Time is rapidly running out for the ageing king…..
The chronic pain in Henry’s legs, forced him to walk with a staff from 1540.
By 1542, his leg pain required him to be hoisted to his first floor Whitehall apartments, by a primitive stair lift.
This was a chair precariously swung up the first floor by sweating Yeomens of the Guard.
By 1545, he was carried around in a kind of sedan chair called the King’s Tram, lugged by six sweating attendants.
The 1542 inventory of royal possessions includes three walking staffs, all fitted with whistles in the top.
It also contained two leather trunks or ‘loudhailers’, used for shouting.
The king was rarely alone, but he needed to be able to summon help in an emergency, by frantic blasts on his whistles or bellowing through his shouting trunk.
By 1545, Henry’s eyesight was failing.
He was purchasing wire-framed spectacles from Germany, 10 pairs at a time, and was forced to give up signing state papers.
Instead, a wooden block with the royal signature carved in raised letters was impressed on documents.
In the 1540s Henry’s mental condition deteriorated further.
He was frequently depressed, suffered violent mood swings, and became increasingly psychotic and paranoid.
This, coupled with his obesity, his moon-like face and slow healing wounds indicates, that he could have been suffering from Cushing’s syndrome, a rare endocrine abnormality triggered by excessive levels of the hormone cortisol.
Where did this disease come from?
Research suggests that traumatic brain injuries, like the one he suffered in the Greenwich Joust in 1536, caused such neuroendocrine effects.
On 27th January 1547, Sir Anthony Denny, groom of the stool, entered the king’s bedchamber.
Henry asked to see Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, but first, he said,
“I would take a little sleep.”
These were to be Henry’s last words; shortly after uttering them, he sank into a coma.
Henry VIII died shortly afterwards, probably around 2am on Friday 28th January 1547, most likely from kidney failure.
Henry died at the age of 55 years and seven months. He had ruled England and Wales for 37 years and 281 days.
The Tudor dynasty would continue, but not through his longed for male heir.
It would be his daughter Elizabeth, who would reign for 45 years
Elizabeth’s reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history.
This content is excerpted from a lecture given by the author at BBC History Magazine event in 2019:
Robert Hutchinson is the author of Henry VIII: The Decline and Fall of a Tyrant (Weidenfeld and Nicholson).
