Bastard Prince: Henry VIII's Lost Son by Beverley A Murphy (Sutton, £8.99).

HENRY Fitzroy was born in 1519 after the King's affair with a Shropshire gentlewoman, Elizabeth Blount.

The only illegitimate offspring ever acknowledged by Henry VIII, Fitzroy was created Duke of Richmond and Somerset, was given various high offices such as Lieutenant of the North and Lord Admiral of England plus estates in Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Worcestershire and Yorkshire.

Educated as a Renaissance prince, Fitzroy was married in 1533 to Mary Howard, daughter of the powerful Duke of Norfolk.

He played an active role in the life of the court, and many began to believe that Henry VIII's bastard son would be the next king of England.

Tragically, in 1536, the 17-year-old prince fell ill with what was reported to be "rapid consumption" and died on July 23.

Originally buried in the Howard family vault at Thetford Priory in Norfolk, he was moved with the Howard tombs to St Michael's Parish Church in Framlingham, Suffolk, following the Priory's dissolution in 1540.

This book examines his life in full and Murphy examines just how close he came to be crowned King Henry IX of England.

John Phillpott