Henry VI of Anglia (The Kalmar Union)

The following page is under construction. Please do not edit or alter this article in any way while this template is active. All unauthorized edits may be reverted on the admin's discretion. Propose any changes to the talk page.

Henry VI
Henry VI
King of Anglia
Reign	7th September, 1715 - 3rd February, 1718
Predecessor	Henry V
Successor	Henry VII
Born	24th June, 1684 Conisborough Castle, West Jorvikshire, Anglia
Died	3rd February, 1718 Lincoln, Anglia
Spouse	Charlotte of Denmark
Issue	Henry VII
House	Battenberg
Father	Henry V
Mother	Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, Countess of Kesteven

Henry VI was King of Anglia briefly in the early 18th century. His reign 'barely registered' on the national consciousness according to various contemporaries. His brother-in-law, James XI of Scotland, called him 'exceedingly dull and exceedingly fat'.

Henry was the third son of Henry V and Elizabeth of Kesteven though the only male child to reach adulthood. Tutors were said to have 'tried their best' but, unlike his quick-witted surviving sister Amöena, he proved a poor student.

Afflicted with gout from an early age by the point of his succession he was almost bedridden and was heavily dependent on a coterie of doctors. His sedentary lifestyle had made him obese and had numerous sores which made him maudlin. He was carried by sedan chair for his coronation. His maiden speech to the Witenage (essentially just a rehash of the final speech his father had given urging the assembly not to back-track on recent reforms) was mumbled and its message lost. The Witenage was soon rolling back taxes and laws and Henry gleefully signed them through. His lack of public appearances was derided in the press and the cheap theatres and in contemporary cultural depictions was usually portrayed as a half-asleep fool to be taken advantage of.

He was betrothed to Princess Charlotte of Denmark at the height of the Kalmar-Wessex War, a union designed to maintain good relations between the allies. The young princess found her new husband repellent however and they lived together infrequently until the death of Henry V. Then, admonished by Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, 'lest Amöena's Scottish child inherited Anglia', Charlotte finally took up permanent residence in Lincoln. She too was regarded poorly by the press, and a stubborn refusal to speak anything but Danish in court kept her at arms length from the Witenage and the nobility.

Henry would die in early 1718 having complained of excruciating headaches for a week and succumbed to a 'malignant fever'. Henry and Charlotte's only child, Henry, would succeed him. The new king was only 3 months old at this point beginning a long regency, first under his mother, then his grandmother. The Regency would prove crucial in forging a country ruled by the authority of the Witenage rather than a monarch.