Submitted by Rifkin the Historian on
By Workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger 1497/8 (German)Details of artist on Google Art Project - eAHC0d0WiemXSA at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21878559
We have been speculating about the cause of Henry VIII’s death for nearly 500 years. The truth is, we will never know what finally brought about Henry’s death. Even if permission was given to exhume his body and his DNA could be tested, we still would not know definitively.
There are valid reasons to believe he had a number of diseases. He was certainly morbidly obese. We know of the great wound in his leg and the jousting accidents. Did he have diabetes or sepsis? Gout? Cushing Disease? Did he have a pulmonary embolism or a brain aneurysm? Was it a stroke, a heart attack, or had his body, riddled as it seems by various diseases and ailments, just given out?
The mean life expectancy of kings of Scotland and England, reigning from 1000 A.D. to 1600 A.D., were 51 and 48 years respectively. When Henry died, 28 January 1547, at the age of 55, he had actually outlived his life expectancy.
Henry VIII was larger than life, literally and figuratively. There has never been a king like him. His six wives and the break with Rome are forever etched in the collective consciousness. Henry VIII remains so very alive in our minds, it is hard to fathom that his heart just stopped beating and he died. He was a mere mortal, like the rest of us.
“Death comes equally to us all, and makes us equal when it comes”. John Donne
Lynne Appino - https://www.quora.com/What-did-Henry-VIII-die-of
From the video uploader: Take a journey inside the body of England's most notorious monarch: Henry VIII. A team of medical experts, biographers, and historians investigate what caused the great physical and mental changes in the king. Was it from diseases such as syphilis, diabetes or malaria? Or could his favorite sport, jousting, have sparked his medical problems? Experts study Henry's childhood trauma and delve deeper into his lifestyle and adult injuries to better understand this powerful king's body.