Elizabeth Blount, maid of honour to Queen Catherine, had, according to the chronicler Edward Hall, "won the King's heart", a "damsel" who "in singing, dancing and in all goodly pastimes exceeded all other". Her first revel with the King took place in the company of Thomas and George Boleyn, when she was aged at most thirteen, her last, four years later in October 1518. Shortly after this festive occasion Wolsey arranged for her to retire to the Priory of St Lawrence where a boy, Henry FitzRoy, was born about June 1519, and proudly acknowledged by the King to be his son; since when she had not returned to Court.

In 1519 she (Bessie Blount) gave birth to the King's bastard son in the house. Henry was delighted to have a boy at last: here was proof indeed that he himself was not responsible for the lack of a male heir, though it must have seemed to him ironical that his only son should be born out of wedlock. He named the child Henry, and bestowed upon him the old Norman-French surname FitzRoy, which means "son of the King". News of the birth soon leaked out at court, and in due course the Queen learned of it, to her sorrow and humiliation.

Henry VIII had no legitimate male heir: the Tudor dynasty was at risk. He and Catherine had a daughter, Princess Mary (born 1516), and he had by Elizabeth Blount an illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, whom he created duke of Richmond in 1525.

When Henry VIII realised that Catherine of Aragon would not produce a son... he considered the possibility of legitimising his legitimate son, Henry FitzRoy Having kept his affair with Elizabeth Blount very quiet, he suddenly publicised it, and made all his subjects aware of the existence of the child of the union.

The problem of the succession had long haunted Henry's mind, for of Catherine's six children, Mary alone survived, and by 1525 it was clear that the queen was past bearing any more. Mary was the sole legitimate heir... Henry now insulted Catherine by grooming his bastard for the succession. This fine boy by Elizabeth Blount was six years old; he was now brought forward as a potential heir.

It came as a brutal shock to Catherine when, in the summer of 1525, she heard that Henry's young bastard, Henry Fitzroy, was to be recognized as the King's son and showered with titles and honours. The boy was installed as Knight of the Garter, created Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Richmond and Somerset (all of them royal titles), and appointed Lord Admiral and Warden-General of the Marches against Scotland. At the same time, his education was put on a formal footing; he was given a great Household, with head officers and a Council, and sent off to Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire to be nominal head of a regional government for the north. Such concentration of peerages and great offices had never before being held by a subject, let alone a six-year-old. It could mean one thing only: Henry VIII had decided that gender was more important than legitimacy. Catherine feared that he would recognize Richmond as his heir, and would exclude Mary from her rightful inheritance.

The terms of the 1536 Succession Act renewed interest in the possibility of Richmond's succeeding his father. In many respects he was an ideal candidate. Widely reported to be as intelligent, articulate, and as athletic as his father, the danger of a minority was fast receding. His relationship with Henry VIII was consistently good. Numerous gifts and letters were indications of a genuine affection between them. However, still confident in his ability to produce a legitimate son, Henry VIII never chose to recognize him as his heir. There is no sign that his premature death was anticipated: his only previous indisposition was a brief illness in January 1532.

The king had spent a lot of time with his son throughout his childhood and was inconsolable on his death. Henry VIII had always been terrified of death and insisted that Richmond's father-in-law, the duke of Norfolk, organise a quick and private funeral. Henry may have wanted his dead son's corpse taken far away from him...

It is thought that he died of consumption, although it could have been another lung condition. A. S. McNalty, the author of Henry VIII: A Difficult Patient (1952), concludes that there was a history of pulmonary tuberculosis in the Tudors. It allegedly killed both of Henry's sons, Richmond and Edward VI, contributed to the deaths of Henry's father and brother, Henry VII and Prince Arthur, and his daughter Elizabeth may have suffered from tuberculous laryngitis.

Richmond is believed to have died of tuberculosis, although the secrecy and speed of his burial might be due to the fact that he died, or was suspected of having died of pneumonic plague. The main symptoms of this are fever, headache, weakness and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain and coughing, all symptoms that Richmond showed before his death. The pneumonia progresses for two to four days with death from respiratory failure and shock. Richmond was only 17... If the illness had been developing for some time, it was probably not plague, but his quick death may have convinced his attendants that it was.

When it came to the treatment of his corpse, the speed of his sickness and death may simply have overwhelmed the King. The death of his beloved son may have devastated his father. He had lost his only son who had died without heirs. Henry's instructions to Norfolk may have been misinterpreted or confused by the chain of instruction, so that the body was roughly coffined and transported by Norfolk's servants.

But why did his father ignore him so completely? This might support the theory that Henry believed that Richmond was part of a planned revolt against the Crown, rising from his powerbase in Lincolnshire. It would not be the first time an heir decided not to wait for his inheritance, and the affair could have been triggered by Jane Seymour's pregnancy.

A living, lawful male child would have put Richmond firmly out of contention for the throne. In fact, there was an uprising in Lincolnshire in September and October 1536, not long after Richmond's death. Would he have supported
this action, had he been alive? Did Henry believe his son had been actively involved in this disturbance? Certainly supporters of the revolt came from South Kyme, Tailboys lands, and the leaders included Bessie Blount's son-in-law, Robert Dymoke, and Richmond's servants, Sir John Russell and Sir William Parr.