How Did Henry VI Die? | Digging Up Henry VI | Brutal Royal Murders | Where Did Henry VI Die?

From History Calling

Was HENRY VI MURDERED in the Tower of London in May 1471? Was his yet another of the brutal royal murders which occurred during the Wars of the Roses or did he really expire from melancholy after learning of the death of his son by Queen Margaret of Anjou, Prince Edward of Wales? In this Plantagenet history video from History Calling, we’ll look at the original sources which discuss the death of Henry VI, a man who has gone down in history as one of England’s weakest ever Kings after losing his throne not once, but twice, to Edward IV. We’ll ask not just how die Henry VI die, but where did Henry VI die, as the specific spot in the Tower is disputed. His demise also provides a good case study of what happened when royalty died in the 15th century. We’ll look at his lying in state in the old St Paul’s Cathedral, during which the body of Henry VI reportedly leaked blood over the floor which was taken by some as a confirmation of his martyrdom. We’ll then look at his first burial in Chertsey Abbey, his disinterment and reburial in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and at the seemingly shocking corpse mutilation he suffered which was only discovered when the Edwardians decided to start digging up Henry VI in 1910 and which convinced one observer that he must have met a violent end. If the life of Henry VI was cut short by murder, then we must also ask who killed Henry VI and why. Here too we’ll turn to 15th and 16th century sources, for contemporaries had their own ideas about the culprit might have been. Though usually associated with the murder of his nephews, the Princes in the Tower, Richard Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) is also the prime suspect in the death of Henry VI as he was reportedly in the building on the night it occurred. Henry may have been the King who lost the Wars of the Roses (one of several such men in fact), but it is hard not to feel pity for someone who seems to have been a gentle soul in an era when that was perhaps the most dangerous personality type for a medieval monarch to have.