Does anyone else find it ironic that Henry VIII was so determined to ...

Question

have a male heir and then the one he did have only served a couple years before dying? I've always thought this funny ... he betrayed a woman who loved him (and back then this was rare), executed another who couldn't provide a son all in the sake of getting a male heir only for that male heir to die young. I also find it ironic that Catherine of Aragon was so sweet and served such a long time and her daughter served a shorter time and her rule was terrible. Then there is Anne Boelyn who was a total b*tch and served only 6 years before being executed and her daughter was seen as the best queen ever ..

anyone else find this ironic ?? that the daughters reputations are complete opposite of their mothers

Answer 1

no..! there was no-one equal to the King!

HOW!! F^cking dare YOU!!!!

Elizabeth had no children...and didn't things kick off then?

Answer 2

Ironic in that Henry's genes carried the paternal predisposition to tuberculosis in his family, which probably killed his elder brother as well as his only legitimate son. Also the heart-disease at 40 or thereabouts, which killed his maternal grandfather Edward IV, and possibly the daughter who became Queen Mary(the contemporary name for which was"dropsy"- fluid retention.)

Henry's children Elizabeth, who lived to 69, and her cousin who was probably Henry's son, Henry Carey(son of Mary Boleyn) who lived past 70, clearly inherited the healthier genes of the Boleyn family. Barring decapitation, they were longer-lived than the Tudors.

By the way, Katharine of Aragon was no marshmallow. She fought her divorce using every resource she had, in spite of continuing to love Henry - she said - until her death.

And Anne Boleyn is seen as nasty in recent films, but she was honoured by the church reformers in her own time for encouraging religious reform. She passed her religious tolerance to her daughter Elizabeth, who also inherited her intelligence, elegance and sporting aptitude.

Not everything is as Hollywood sees it!

Answer 3

Ummm. yeah, the whole thing about Edward having been sickly and only outliving his father by six months always struck me as prety sad.  Royal politics then were pretty messed up.

I agree, Catalina got TOTALLY screwed!  And Anne Boleyn was executed because she was fooling around, I think, with four or five men, which was considered treason - her execution had nothing to do with the male heir thing...more to do with the certainty that the "heir" be legitimate!

Answer 4

however it has also shown that further kings have not had multiple wives .................lovers yes but not found ways to remove them

some will say that charles will have had two wives but if he could have married camilla when he was younger he may have been a happier man  but then he wouldn't have the two sons he does

as for henry's daughters it could be seen that having seen others rule  elizabeth took the best form them all and discarded the ways not to she seems to have had more ****s than many of her contemporaries  and been an inspiration to others and probably didn't fully trust any male to become a wife ...................

Answer 5

Anne Boleyn was just a woman that thought rather than felt,that is her only "sin",if you may call it such.

And I must say that I can not help but to be thankful that HM Henry VIII did not got his male heir with his first wive,otherwise HM Elizabeth I would have never been born and England would be so different

Answer 6

What I find ironic is that science has discovered that it's the male who determines the s*x of the baby. I hope that wherever Henry VIII ended up after he died, he has been made aware of this.

I've always though Katherine Parr and Anne of Cleves were very lucky women.  

Answer 7

It's amazing that you seem to know them each personally - after all, this happened 500 years ago! You must remember that in England in that time , the king was considered chosen by God to rule, it was called the 'Divine Right of Kings' and he could do whatever he wanted, even starting the Church of England. Of course they may have acted strangely, but they could have been (and were) killed at the whim of the monarch - they were trying to stay alive. Also, you have no proof of any of this, the winners always write history in their favour...

Answer 8

Yes, I've always thought so!

There was Henry, with his relentless pursuit of an heir, not caring whom he hurt in the process.  Along came two daughters to his great disappointment.  Finally, a son, to great rejoicing.  The daughters were cast into the shadow of the family.

And Henry's two rejected daughters made such an impact on history that we call one "Bloody Mary" and the other "Gloriana".  The poor, young, much-heralded son we hardly remember at all!

(Although, of course, he did make an impact...)

Shows we should be careful what we wish for!

Answer 9

I find it ironic that he practically disowned Elizabeth one of greatest leaders our nation has ever had.

Answer 10

I found this ironic too. The only reason King Henry VIII wanted to have a male heir was because he wanted to protect the Tudor name. If Queen Mary I or Queen Elizabeth I were too have married for serious and had a child, the child will be of the fathers last name, not the mothers. I do not blame King Henry VIII but I also don't exactly like him for he sent Queen Catherine of Aragon away and killed her with poison. Queen Catherine is one of my favorite queens of all times. While Queen Catherine was being poisoned Queen Mary was pronounced a b*****d and made a servant to Queen Elizabeth. Queen Anne was executed because she was charged for treason and adultry, not because she couldn't produce a son. Queen Elizabeth was opposite than her mother because she did not want power as much. She might have been more like her father, she just wanted the best for her subjects. Queen Elizabeth did, however, not enough to get married and have a child. There are many websites on this subject! Good luck!

Answer 11

Well, Henry always knew there was a chance that Edward would die, because life was very uncertain at that era, and a lot of people did die when they were children or in their teens, infectious diseases carried people off.  Tuberculosis, which was a particular scourge of young people, is probably what Edward died of, and it continued to be a major killer of young people into the 20th century.

In Henry's will, he left his kingdom first to Edward, then to Mary, then Elizabeth.  Naturally, he would have hiped that this would not happen,b ut he must always have been aware that there was a chance that it would.

He was married to Catherine of Aragon longer than all his other wives put together, and she made a good job of being Regent when he was away fighting the French.  I think she would probably have been quite succesful as a Queen Regnant if she had had to be.  Mary made a lot of mistakes, but if things had been different she too might have made a good Queen.  If she had had a stable upbringing fo rinstance instead of having to witness the disintegration of her parent's marriage, and being humiliated and cast aside by her father.

Elizabeth managed to be mainly succesful in her reign, and she probably inherited at least some of her characteristics from her mother.  Anne was very intelligent and witty, though not wise in her dealings with Henry.  I think Elizabeth was her mother's daughter as well as her father's, though she naturally prefered to emphasise her relationship to her father rather than her mother.

Answer 12

'NOT REALLY'