Henry of England (6 May 1268 – 14 October 1274 in Merton, Surrey) was the fifth child and second son of

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...

by his first wife, Eleanor of Castile.

Alison Weir Alison Weir ( Matthews; born 1951) is a British author and public historian. She primarily writes about the history of English royal women and families, in the form of biographies that explore their historical setting. She has also written nu ...

, ''Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy'' (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 82.

Early years

Henry was born in

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

during the reign of his paternal grandfather,

Henry III of England Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry a ...

. On 3 August 1271, Henry's older brother John died in the custody of their paternal granduncle Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall. His death left Henry the eldest surviving child of Edward and second-in-line to the throne of England. Henry III died on 16 November 1272. Edward became King of England and Henry his

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

. In 1273, Henry was betrothed to

Joan I of Navarre Joan I (14 January 1273 – 31 March/2 April 1305) ( eu, Joana) was Queen of Navarre and Countess of Champagne from 1274 until 1305; she was also Queen of France by marriage to King Philip IV. She founded the College of Navarre in Paris in 130 ...

Death

When Henry lay dying at Guildford in 1274, neither of his parents made the short journey from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to see him. He was tended by his grandmother, Eleanor of Provence, who had raised him during the four years his parents were on Crusade. The queen dowager was thus at that moment more familiar to him than his parents, and the better able to comfort him in his illness. Since Henry was always sickly, the gravity of his illness was perhaps not realised until it was too late for his parents to reach him. He died of natural causes and was buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

Ancestry

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry of England 1268 births 1274 deaths 13th-century English people Heirs to the English throne Heirs apparent who never acceded House of Plantagenet Burials at Westminster Abbey Sons of kings Children of Edward I of England Royalty who died as children