Henry Frederick Stuart
1594 – 1612 · Generation XXVI · House of Stuart
Henry Frederick Stuart (1594–1612). The promising heir who died of typhoid at eighteen, leaving the throne to his brother Charles. The eldest son of James VI and Anne of Denmark, born at Stirling Castle, he was brought up there by the Earl of Mar’s family, kept from his mother’s care, until his father inherited England in 1603. Athletic, he hunted, jousted and fenced, played golf and tennis, and studied naval and military affairs, often at odds with the king’s views; he disliked the royal favourite Robert Carr and hoped to see Walter Raleigh freed from the Tower. His popularity came to seem a threat to his father. Invested as Prince of Wales in 1610, he backed overseas ventures — Henricus in Virginia and Cape Henry were named for him — while Florentine and French brides were considered. He fell ill amid the festivities before his sister Elizabeth’s wedding, and a post-mortem was ordered to silence rumours of poison. More than a thousand mourners walked behind his coffin to Westminster Abbey.
Place in the family
- Henry Frederick Stuart was a great-great-great-nephew of King Henry VIII.
- Henry Frederick Stuart was the eldest of 3 children of King James I and Anne of Denmark recorded in this archive.
One of 17 people of House of Stuart (from 1371) in this archive. Scotland’s royal house for three centuries before James VI inherited England and wore both crowns.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Henry Frederick Stuart.
Parents
- King James I (1566 – 1625)
- Anne of Denmark (1574 – 1619)
Siblings
- Elizabeth Stuart (1596 – 1662)
- King Charles I (1600 – 1649)