Henry VIII of England had several children. The best known children are the three legitimate offspring who survived infancy and would succeed 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.[citation needed]

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]

None of Henry's acknowledged children (legitimate or otherwise) had children of their own, leaving him with no direct descendants after the death of Elizabeth in 1603.

Legitimate children

Name Birth Death Notes
By Catherine of Aragon (married Palace of Placentia 11 June 1509; annulled 23 May 1533, upheld by the Catholic Church until her death on 7 January 1536)
Unnamed daughter 31 January 1510 stillborn at 7 months, the first child
Henry, Duke of Cornwall 1 January 1511 22 February 1511 died aged almost two months
Unnamed son 17 September 1513 born prematurely and lived only a few hours
Unnamed son November/December 1514 stillborn at 8 months
Queen Mary I 18 February 1516 17 November 1558 married Philip II of Spain in 1554; no issue
Unnamed daughter 10 November 1518 stillborn in the 8th month of pregnancy[4]
By Anne Boleyn (married Westminster Abbey 25 January 1533; beheaded on 19 May 1536)
Queen Elizabeth I 7 September 1533 24 March 1603 never married; no issue
Unnamed child 25 December 1534[5] stillbirth or false pregnancy[6]
Unnamed son 1535 Miscarried son[7]
Unnamed son 29 January 1536 miscarriage of a child, believed male,[8] in the fourth month of pregnancy[9]
By Jane Seymour (married Palace of Whitehall 30 May 1536) died 24 October 1537
Unnamed child 25 December 1536 miscarriage[10]
King Edward VI 12 October 1537 6 July 1553 died unmarried, age 15; no issue
By Anne of Cleves (married Palace of Placentia 6 January 1540; annulled 12 July 1540)
no issue
By Catherine Howard (married Oatlands Palace 28 July 1540; beheaded on 13 February 1542)
Unnamed child 1541 Miscarriage or false pregnancy[11]
By Catherine Parr (married Hampton Court Palace 12 July 1543; Henry VIII died 28 January 1547)
no issue

Illegitimate children

Henry VIII of England had one acknowledged illegitimate child, as well as several others who are suspected to be his, by his mistresses.

Henry VIII acknowledged Henry FitzRoy (15 June 1519 – 23 July 1536), the son of his mistress Elizabeth Blount, and granted him a dukedom; FitzRoy married Lady Mary Howard, but had no issue.

Others speculated to have been Henry VIII's illegitimate offspring include:

See also

References

  1. ^ Hart, Kelly (2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (First ed.). The History Press. ISBN 978-0752448350.
  2. ^ Whitley, Catrina Banks; Kramer, Kyra (2010). "A New Explanation for the Reproductive Woes and Midlife Decline of Henry Viii". The Historical Journal. 53 (4): 827–848. doi:10.1017/S0018246X10000452. S2CID 159499333.
  3. ^ "Catherine Parr: Children". The Six Wives of Henry VIII. PBS. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
  4. ^ Starkey 2003, p. 160
  5. ^ Williams 1971, p. 138.
  6. ^ Eustace Chapuys wrote to Charles V on 28 January reporting that Anne was pregnant. A letter from George Taylor to Lady Lisle dated the 27 April 1534 says that "The queen hath a goodly belly, praying our Lord to send us a prince". In July, Anne's brother, Lord Rochford, was sent on a diplomatic mission to France to ask for the postponement of a meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I because of Anne's condition: "being so far gone with child she could not cross the sea with the king". Chapuys backs this up in a letter dated 27 July, where he refers to Anne's pregnancy. We do not know what happened with this pregnancy as there is no evidence of the outcome. Dewhurst writes of how the pregnancy could have resulted in a miscarriage or stillbirth, but there is no evidence to support this, he therefore wonders if it was a case of pseudocyesis, a false pregnancy, caused by the stress that Anne was under – the pressure to provide a son. Chapuys wrote on 27 September 1534 "Since the king began to doubt whether his lady was enceinte or not, he has renewed and increased the love he formerly had for a beautiful damsel of the court". Muriel St Clair Byrne, editor of the Lisle Letters, believes that this was a false pregnancy too.
  7. ^ The only evidence for a miscarriage in 1535 is a sentence from a letter from Sir William Kingston to Lord Lisle on 24 June 1535 when Kingston says "Her Grace has as fair a belly as I have ever seen". However, Dewhurst thinks that there is an error in the dating of this letter as the editor of the Lisle Letters states that this letter is actually from 1533 or 1534 because it also refers to Sir Christopher Garneys, a man who died in October 1534.
  8. ^ Chapuys reported to Charles V on 10 February 1536 that Anne Boleyn had miscarried on the day of Catherine of Aragon's funeral: "On the day of the interment [of Catherine of Aragon] the concubine [Anne] had an abortion which seemed to be a male child which she had not borne 3 1/2 months".
  9. ^ Starkey 2003, p. 553
  10. ^ The Manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Rutland: Letters and papers, 1440–1797 (v.3 mainly correspondence of the fourth Duke of Rutland). v.4. Charters, cartularies, &c. Letters and papers, supplementary. Extracts from household accounts. H.M. Stationery Office, 1888, p 310
  11. ^ According to Tudor historian, Sylvia Barbara Soberton, "In September 1540, the Venetian ambassador Francesco Contarini reported that “the new Queen Katherine is said for certain to be pregnant”. Three months later, on 31 December 1540, the French ambassador Charles de Marillac saw Katherine and observed that she was “grosse”, stout. The word “grosse” was used in French to describe a pregnant woman. In April 1541, de Marillac continued to report about Katherine’s pregnancy, writing “that this Queen is thought to be with child, which would be a very great joy to this King, who, it seems, believes it, and intends, if it be found true, to have her crowned at Whitsuntide”. According to this report, Katherine was pregnant and the King made plans to have her crowned on Whitsunday, the seventh Sunday after Easter. De Marillac reported that the preparations for her coronation were in full swing, which seems to prove the court was preparing for the coronation and then the christening of Katherine Howard’s child. Another ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, reported in November 1541 that during the last Lent—during the same period that de Marillac reported about Katherine’s pregnancy—there was “some presumption that she [the Queen] was in the family way [pregnant]”. Unfortunately, nothing further was reported of this pregnancy after Lent of 1541. "
  12. ^ Varlow, Sally (2009). Lady Penelope: The Lost Tale of Love and Politics in the Court of Elizabeth I. Andre Deutsch. ISBN 978-0233002651.
  13. ^ Hart, Kelly (1 June 2009). The Mistresses of Henry VIII (First ed.). The History Press. ISBN 978-0752448350.

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