In December 1546 King Henry VIII was beset by a string of ailments which would shortly kill him.

Mentally unstable he was also grossly overweight, had suffered a near fatal seizure a few years earlier, and repeatedly fell victim to fevers linked with his chronic leg ulcers.

Exactly 466 years ago yesterday, his last trip ever away from Whitehall ended at Wimbledon.

The King had fallen ill with fever at Oatlands, near Weybridge, on 10 December. Returning to London he stopped first at the late Cardinal Wolsey’s old palace by the Mole at Esher, then at his own new palace at Nonsuch, Ewell.

He was obliged to rest there for a week before struggling back to London. Nonsuch to Whitehall was a step too far for him so he stopped half way at what was then the royal manor of Wimbledon.

It was no more than a hamlet and the only possible place for him to stay was the two-storey brick house to the north of St Mary’s Church known then as the Parsonage House, now the Old Rectory. As this was a royal manor, Henry could technically call it “home”.

The building would have looked different from the ten-bedroom one today which went on sale recently for £26 million as Merton’s most expensive house. However, the chapel would have been there.

His arrival on 20 December 1546 was clearly far more significant for Wimbledon’s own history than anyone noted at the time. The only reference in the State Papers was a list of materials applied by Royal Apothecary Thomas Alsop to relieve Henry’s suffering. These included perfumes to make his sick room bearable. The next day he was given something described as “Manus Christi powder”.

There is no record that the house or Wimbledon’s beautiful scenery cheered him up. But it was the last place in his kingdom that he ever slept outside his palace in the capital. He finally made it back to Whitehall on 23 December and never left again.

Having earlier executed two of his six wives and many others who had crossed him, he remained paranoid to the last. The very next day he was amending a draft of articles against Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and his father Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, who had both been languishing in the Tower for the previous 12 days, accused of treason.

The Howards had made the mistake of including the royal arms within their own family heraldry. But much worse was the Earl’s apparent eagerness to see Henry finally meet his maker. He is alleged to have said: “If the King die, who shall have the rule of the prince but my father or I?” He paid for it with his head on 13 January. He was Henry’s last victim.

On 26 December, the King summoned a group of courtiers he still trusted and had his will read out. Typically, even at this stage, he decided that one of the executors, the loyal Bishop of Winchester, had to be dropped before the royal signature could be stamped on the will.

A few days later his condition deteriorated once more, although he still managed to receive foreign ambassadors for the last time on 16 January. On 28 January 1547 he finally breathed his last. Neither his sixth wife, Queen Catherine Parr, nor any of his children were with him.

There was official mourning, of course, but the relief must have been widespread.

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