Pregnancies in Royal England?

Question

Katherine, the first wife of Henry VIII, had 7 or more pregnancies that ended with either still born children, children that died within days or months, or children that were still born 'monsters'.

Mary I had 'phantom pregnancies'. Aside from the fact that Katherine and Mary were mother and daughter, what do you think were the factors that caused these horiffic pregnancies? Biological or enviornmental issues, or something else? Please elaborate-

Answer 1

they just had Hemophilia disease..

Answer 2

I have heard no reports of "monsters" born to the queens of Henry VIII, except in the case of Anne Boleyn who was accused of witchcraft anyway.

Here is an extract from a medical site cited below:

"[Katherine of Aragon] had already been married to Prince Arthur [Henry's older brother] and doubts have been cast as to whether she actually lived with him, although she herself asserted that the marriage had been consummated, and it is not without the bounds of propriety to imagine that a young man, and an active young man of 16, in those days might reasonably have co-habited with his wife. It has been suggested that Queen Katherine's dreadful obstetric history could reasonably be attributed to syphilis. Sir Arthur MacNalty, however, in his medical history of Henry VIII, does not regard Henry as being a sufferer from this disease and certainly not in the early years of his life... He attributes Katherine's bad obstetric history to be due possibly to toxaemia of pregnancy and in this he has gained support from... eminent physicians... If Queen Katherine was Rh negative and either of her husbands Rh positive, antibodies might have been set up at a stage which prejudiced her future deliveries. Even if cohabitation did not occur with Prince Arthur it is quite on the cards that Henry VIII might have been Rh positive and produced a similar series of disasters. If we admit such a possibility, and it is not very far-fetched, then of course this would explain the neonatal deaths which followed. It would also allow of the live birth of Mary who may well have been the product of a negative gene in a heterozygus male parent. How easy it would be today to determine the cause of Queen Katherine's failure to produce a live child and, by the aid of a simple replacement transfusion, one or two of the male children might have been saved, in which case the country would still have been a Roman Catholic one; there would have been no Church of England; Queen Elizabeth would never have come to the throne, and the whole history of our country would have been altered."

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pageren...

The above is from "A Gynaecologist Looks at the Tudors", and quite fascinating. (Can be printed from PDF file.)

It's possible also that the Rh factor might have been the cause of Anne Boleyn producing a daughter successfully after her first pregnancy, but then suffering miscarriage and stillbirth.

Mary Tudor's health had always been poor, and she suffered from troublesome periods and other ailments.  It's thought much of her ill health was due to the emotional distress she went through with her father's treatment of both herself and her mother.  She had, I believe, at least one phantom pregnancy, which was most likely the great wish to have a child; her last "pregnancy" was a tumour (ovaries is speculated) which killed her.  She was already in her late thirties at the time of her marriage, almost having given up hope of a husband and children.  Please look at pp 69,70 on the site I gave you for more information.

Answer 3

I belive that during the time of henry the 8th the genetics of the england know then were weakening.  they were forced to seek power within their dynasty.  thus katherine the great was made queen of england.  there is nothing perfect in this world.  there are no perfect people in this world.  she had her husband slaughtered in a battle.  and so goes the actual story.  look it up online.