Following his father's accession to the throne of England in 1603, he became automatically Duke of Cornwall, and was invested Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1610, thus uniting the six automatic and two traditional Scottish and English titles held by heirs-apparent to the throne(s) ever since that date.
Later life, early death, consequences
Henry showed great promise. However, he died from typhoid fever at the age of 18. (The diagnosis can be made with reasonable certainty from written records of the post-mortem examination.) Henry was buried in Westminster Abbey. Prince Henry's death was widely regarded as a tragedy for the nation, some may consider prophetic.
All of Henry's automatic titles passed to his younger brother, Charles, who, until then, had lived in Henry's shadow – Charles was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Carrick four years later. Charles was not as well-regarded as Henry had been, and after he assumed the throne following the death of his father in 1625, his reign was marked by controversies, most notably conflicts with the English Parliament. Following several years of the English Civil War, he was tried and convicted of treason and was beheaded in 1649.
The developments in North America were at an important stage as Henry grew up. In the southern portion of the Colony of Virginia, a part which became now the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States after the American Revolutionary War some years later, three important locations were named in his honor: Cape Henry, Henricus, and Henrico:
Sir Thomas Dale was recruited for the Virginia Colony through efforts of Prince Henry, a response to management and discipline problems with the earliest colonists. He became the High Marshall of Virginia, effectively the colony's highest ranking law enforcement officer. Dale was discouraged by unhealthy conditions at Jamestown's location, and sought a better site as a potential improved replacement for Jamestown. His progressive but ill-fated Henricus (named for Prince Henry) was established in 1612. Henricus became the major point of Henrico Cittie (sic) in 1619. It was destroyed during the Indian Massacre of 1622. The long-lost site of Henricus was rediscovered in the late 20th century, and was by then located in Chesterfield County, which itself was established in 1749. Henricus is now part of a historical park.
Present-day Henrico County was established by order of his younger brother, King Charles I, in 1634 as one of the original eight shires of Virginia. It is located adjacent to the state capital city of Richmond, which was Henrico's county seat for several hundred years, and became separate from it as an independent city in 1871. In the 21st century, Henrico remains extant in its original (county) political form and is regarded as one of the best-managed counties in the United States. In 1992 and again in 1993, City and State magazine ranked Henrico County as the second best fiscally managed county in the United States. [2]