A Fitzroy-Regency Question

If Fitzroy's wife had died by time of Edward's passing, could he marry Lady Jane Grey and rule with her as a legitimate king?
 
Re those who don't think he would be legitimised, he was a DOUBLE duke in an age when there were VERY FEW dukes at all.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Re those who don't think he would be legitimised, he was a DOUBLE duke in an age when there were VERY FEW dukes at all.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

And the titles given him are telling: Richmond and Somerset clearly point to one high in royal connection.
 
And I can't remember who said it, but at the time he was created "duke", it was murmured that the only dukes in England, were the king's uncle (Norfolk), the king's friend (Brandon) and the king's bastard (Fitzroy)
 
And I can't remember who said it, but at the time he was created "duke", it was murmured that the only dukes in England, were the king's uncle (Norfolk), the king's friend (Brandon) and the king's bastard (Fitzroy)

Well, that's a fact - Norfolk was married to Anne of York and Brandon was a royal favourite and confidante before marrying the King's sister.
 
It was said more to disparage the fact that a bastard child (AFAIK he was about six) was to be elevated as high as that, since he was to have precedence over all nobles of the land, save the king's lawful issue.
 
I'm sorry but the notion of Fitzroy being legitimised and being inserted into the line of succession just seems absurd.

Agreed. But the notion of Fitzroy being inserted into the succession despite his illegitimacy is not absurd - that's exactly what Henry did with Mary and Elizabeth. He never legitimized them.
 
Henry's international reputation marriage wise was already a shambles. Both Christina (if I had two heads, one should be at the king of England's disposal) and Marie de Guise (I'm a big (i.e. tall) woman but I have very little neck), were aware of this.

Both of these comments are thought to be inventions made well after the fact.

So, unless Fitzroy surviving gets rid of Anne Boleyn's execution (since him dying was one of things she was accused of at her trial - poisoning the duke of Richmond), Henry's marital career will be in tatters, shopping for a new wife when (if) Jane dies would be the same nightmare as OTL.

Anne was not charged with having poisoned Fitzroy. Fitzroy survived Anne by a year. Henry convinced himself after the fact that Anne was planning to do this, but there's no evidence she thought of it, and it wasn't mentioned at her trial.

Although, on The Tudors, Cromwell says that the French king offers Marie de Bourbon as a new wife for Henry after Jane dies. Maybe she would be an interesting Anne of Cleves-replacement.

She only survived Jane by a few months; I doubt the negotiations would have been finalized soon enough.
 
Both of these comments are thought to be inventions made well after the fact.

True, but the ambassador sent to court Christine for Henry wrote back that "my master should fix his most noble stummick on another place".

Anne was not charged with having poisoned Fitzroy. Fitzroy survived Anne by a year. Henry convinced himself after the fact that Anne was planning to do this, but there's no evidence she thought of it, and it wasn't mentioned at her trial.

Whoops, I misunderstood that then.

She only survived Jane by a few months; I doubt the negotiations would have been finalized soon enough.

Well, it's just a show after all - they tend to play fast and loose with history - don't get me started. Cromwell also mentions another French possibly, and in a later episode, the French ambassador speaks of a Louise and a Renée, but I can't remember who they were or how they slot into the French royal family.
 
Re those who don't think he would be legitimised, he was a DOUBLE duke in an age when there were VERY FEW dukes at all.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

Fitzroy's royal blood was never questioned. hence the duchies, but being made a duke didn't necessarily imply legitimacy. Look at the Beauforts (Exeter) and Edmund Tudor (who wasn't a bastard but was clearly just someone had to be given something for the sake of dignity.)

Also Elizabeth and Mary weren't born bastards, they were declared bastards post facto. That's not the same as being a born bastard. The name Fitzroy it itself a mark of illegitimacy-it was stamped on him from birth. He was never going to inherit.
 
Well was it for them [Mary & Elizabeth] that Henry Fitzroy his natural son ... was dead, otherwise (some suspect) had he survived King Edward the Sixth, we might presently have heard of a King Henry the Ninth, so great was his father's affection and so unlimited his power to prefer him. —Thomas Fuller

Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Britain, III, 232, cited in Murphy, 243.
 
Well if Edward still dies without issue and Henry Fitzroy is still living, I personally think that he would be made King. I also think he would either be Regent or head of the Regency Council for young Edward.
 
If Fitzroy still dies on schedule, but either leaves his wife pregnant with, or a surviving son - and said son is still unwed when Elizabeth ascends the throne, might she marry him - an Englishman, and a Tudor- over a French or Spanish prince.

A lot of ifs, but my ideas.
 
If Fitzroy still dies on schedule, but either leaves his wife pregnant with, or a surviving son - and said son is still unwed when Elizabeth ascends the throne, might she marry him - an Englishman, and a Tudor- over a French or Spanish prince.

A lot of ifs, but my ideas.
No. England doesn't, and didn't, go for aunt-nephew marriages.
 
Elizabeth might agree to marry one of the only dukes in the English peerage (if he keeps the ducal title), if only to piss of the Hapsburgs and the French. However, marriage would get rid of Eliza's scare tactic of use a Hapsburg betrothal to scare France back in line and vice versa.

Although, on the other hand, Elizabeth might decide to marry him to Lady Katherine Grey if she doesn't decide to marry him herself. That way, Fitzroy's grandson would be king, instead of the heirs of Mary's OTL dodgy marriage to Lord Hertford.
 
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