Reportedly, King Henry had suffered from smallpox and malaria, and at 44 had a leg badly injured in a jousting accident, from which he recovered, but later the area reopened and he suffered severe recurring ulcerations. He could no longer exercise regularly and became obese, his weight going up to more than 320 lbs. Reportedly, he suffered an unquenchable thirst, and had night sweats and open ulcers on both his legs and feet, consistent with a diagnosis of insulin deficiency and diabetes. He was an insomniac and suffered from frequent headaches. As he aged, he showed signs of mental decline, severe depression, a short temper, and personality change. It is rumored that while he was king, he enjoyed many affairs and had contracted syphilis, which could explain the mental issues, paranoia, and leg ulcerations as well. He had a series of strokes affect him, indicative of high blood pressure and/or poor circulation. Experts have speculated that he suffered from an endocrine problem called Cushing’s syndrome[1] as well.
“Historians and researchers have argued that Henry may have also had McLeod syndrome, a genetic disorder that occurs in individuals with a Kell-positive antigen blood disorder.[2] This would account for the multiple miscarriages on secondary pregnancies suffered by multiple wives, and account for the mental instability he demonstrated later in his life. The disease also weakens the musculoskeletal system.
Henry spent his last days bedridden. The stench in the room from his ulcerations was foul and rotten. His doctors feared telling him that he was dying because the Treason Act, which Henry made law, forbade anyone from predicting or speaking of the king’s death. It is said that his archbishop, Thomas Crammer, finally admitted to Henry that his death appeared imminent. He died on January 28, 1547, at 56 years of age. He had reigned for 38 years. Life expectancy during this era was 50 years if you survived infancy, though other nobles did live longer. It’s most likely that Henry died of a combination of all of his ills, and had heart failure in the end.
The funeral route was walked from Syon Abbey to Windsor Castle in procession. Legend has it that en route, during the night, his body imploded in the coffin and his blood leaked through to the ground. Henry VIII was buried in Windsor Castle next to his third wife, Jane Seymour.[3]
[1] Cushing syndrome is when the body has abnormally high levels of a hormone called cortisol, which is produced by the adrenal glands. The body may produce high levels of cortisol for a variety of reasons, including, depression and panic disorders. Symptoms include a round-shaped face, upper body weight gain, and skin that bruises easily.
[2] A Kell positive man can cause serious problems for his reproductive partners after the first pregnancy, because a Kell negative mother’s body will develop a Kell alloimmunization—which means that her body would attack a Kell positive fetus as “foreign” and the result is fetal or neonatal death. This could have been what happened when women had multiple pregnancies with the King. At least three of his children who survived infancy were the first children born to their mothers — and would have therefore been completely unaffected by Kell alloimmunization. Even if the first baby had gotten the Kell gene from Henry, the mother’s body wouldn’t attack it. However, any fetus conceived after the first baby which inherited the Kell gene from Henry would have been killed by the mother’s antibodies.
Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/henry-viii-kell-positive-blood-type-and-mcleod-syndrome-guest-post-by-kyra-kramer/#ixzz410CJ6xrh
[3] https://www.themedicalbag.com/story/henry-viii (What Killed ‘Em)