Children of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England had several children. The best-known are the three legitimate children who survived Henry and succeeded him as monarchs of England successively, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
His first two wives, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, had several pregnancies that ended in stillbirth, miscarriage, or death in infancy. Henry acknowledged one illegitimate child, Henry FitzRoy, as his own, but is suspected to have fathered several illegitimate children by different mistresses.[1] The number and identity of these is a matter of historical debate.
There are many theories about whether Henry VIII had fertility difficulties.[2] His last three wives, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr are not known to have conceived by him, although Parr conceived in her next marriage.[3]
Legitimate children
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| By Catherine of Aragon (married Greenwich Palace 11 June 1509; annulled 23 May 1533) | |||
| Unnamed daughter | 31 January 1510 | 31 January 1510 | stillborn |
| Henry, Duke of Cornwall | 1 January 1511 | 22 February 1511 | died aged almost two months[4] |
| Unnamed son | November 1513 | stillborn or died shortly after birth | |
| Henry, Duke of Cornwall | December 1514 | lived for a few hours | |
| Queen Mary I | 18 February 1516 | 17 November 1558 | married Philip II of Spain in 1554; no issue |
| Unnamed daughter | 10 November 1518 | 17 November 1518 | lived for a week |
| By Anne Boleyn (married Westminster Abbey 25 January 1533; annulled 17 May 1536) beheaded on 19 May 1536 | |||
| Queen Elizabeth I | 7 September 1533 | 24 March 1603 | never married; no issue |
| miscarriage | 1534 | ||
| Unnamed son | 29 January 1536 | stillborn | |
| By Jane Seymour (married York Place 30 May 1536; Jane Seymour died 24 October 1537) | |||
| King Edward VI | 12 October 1537 | 6 July 1553 | unmarried; no issue |
Illegitimate children
Henry VIII of England had one acknowledged bastard and several suspected bastards by his mistresses.
He acknowledged Henry Fitzroy (15 June 1519 – 23 July 1536), the son of his mistress Elizabeth Blount, and gave him a dukedom.
Others suspected of being his include:
- Catherine Carey, daughter of his mistress Mary Boleyn, the sister of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and wife of William Carey. Ancestress of Diana, Princess of Wales (Princess Diana).
- Henry Carey (4 March 1526 – 23 July 1596), brother of Catherine
- John Perrot (November 1528 – 3 November 1592), his mother being Mary Berkeley the wife of Sir Thomas Perrot
- Thomas Stucley (c. 1520 – 4 August 1578), his mother being Jane Pollard the wife of Sir Hugh Stukeley
- Richard Edwardes (1523? - 1566), born to Mrs. Agnes Edwardes
- Ethelreda Malte (born c. 1527), born to Joan Dingley, alias Dobson. Paternity was claimed by John Malte.[5]
Fictional portrayals
- The Secret Daughter of Henry VIII by F. W. Kenyon, a novel which depicts Lady Jane Grey as the King's daughter by Jane Seymour and Edward VI as really his bastard child
- In the Shadow of the Throne by David Tudor about the life of Richard Edwardes
See also
References
- ↑ Hart, Kelly (June 1, 2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (First ed.). The History Press. ISBN 0-7524-4835-8.
- ↑ http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7918883
- ↑ "Catherine Parr: Children". The Six Wives of Henry VIII. PBS. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
- ↑ Loades, David, "The six wives of Henry VIII," Amberly, 2009. Pages 25-26. ISBN 978-1-84868-335-8. Retrieved November 30, 2011
- ↑ Hart, Kelly (June 1, 2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (First ed.). The History Press. ISBN 0-7524-4835-8.
Further reading
- The Children of Henry VIII by John Guy (Oxford UP, 2013 ISBN 978-0-19-284090-5)
- Children Of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII 1547-1558 by Alison Weir (Jonathan Cape, 1996; Vintage, 2008 ISBN 9780099532675)
- Hart, Kelly (June 1, 2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (First ed.). The History Press. ISBN 0-7524-4835-8.
- Starkey, David (2003). Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0-7011-7298-5.
- Whitley, Catrina Banks; Kramer, Kyra (2010). "A new explanation for the reproductive woes and midlife decline of Henry VIII". The Historical Journal 53 (04): 827–848. doi:10.1017/S0018246X10000452. ISSN 0018-246X.
- Hart, Kelly (June 1, 2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (First ed.). The History Press. ISBN 0-7524-4835-8.
- Jones, Philippa (2009). The Other Tudors: Henry VIII's Mistresses and Bastards. London: New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84773-429-7.