DBWI: Henry VIII Doesn't Marry the Duchess of Milan

We all know that one of the craziest personal unions in history wound up because of well, who the Hell knows what everyone involved was thinking.

Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, died in 1537 giving birth to his son and heir, Edward VI. Henry sent his ambassadors abroad that December already to sound out princesses. There were limited options available, since Henry wasn't exactly everybody's favourite idea of a son-in-law, what having "poisoned" his first wife, then married a schismatic and had her beheaded and then the doctor's incompetence in wife no. 3's childbirth.

He probably wouldn't have been able to find a new wife abroad had it not been for the king of France and the emperor being at their usual boxing match. The king of France's candidates (his daughter Marguerite or the Dowager Duchesse de Longueville) seemed to be in the lead. That is, until the emperor found out about his own candidate, the dowager duchess of Milan (who had refused Henry) plotting to marry her sweetheart, the Prince of Orange (or at least, so the story goes). He offered the dowager duchess to Henry, again, this time with the duchy of Milan to sweeten the pot for the dowry. The duchy was to devolve on Henry and Kristina's son.

How or why Henry thought that far-off Catholic Milan was a good idea is still debated. The Tudors had no claim to the duchy, and certainly no Milanese ancestry. But land is land, and Henry probably agreed to it, with the intention of trading it for something a little closer to home at some future date.

Either way, as we know, that never happened, and Kristina became Queen Christine of England. And lo and behold, by the time of Henry's death in 1541, she'd popped out three children, a boy and twin daughters. The boy, Henry, was immediately named 'duke of York' although Karl V took his sweet time handing over the duchy of Milan (it led to some long-running conflict between England and the Empire for a while) to it's duke, Enrico I.

Of course, things got even crazier when Karl V's niece/daughter-in-law, Maria Manuela of Portugal died in childbed with a daughter in 1545, his son, Prince Felipe remarried to Henry VIII's daughter by that schismatic, Anne Boleyn in 1548,and Enrico got his duchy in Italy.

Everything seemed fine. Until King Edward VI died without children. And suddenly the Catholic but technically Anglican "half-Danish popish runt" (as some historians have referred to Henry IX on account of his small stature) was heir to a Protestant throne. Enrico was next in line, but he was a) a Catholic (or at least viewed as such) and b) he and his mom (serving as regent in Milan) hadn't set foot in England since he was 4yo (he was now nearly forty); and c) was only heading there now, because the French were occupying his duchy and he hoped to use English soldiers to get it back.

So, what if Henry VIII hadn't been thinking with his little head (because, let's face it, Kristina was a beauty, I'm not sure he gave a damn about her intelligence)? Or Karl V never forces his niece to marry the king of England? Who would Henry marry? Who would get Milan? Would Felipe II and Elizabeth Tudor still marry? Would his sister Mary still end up under house-arrest for much of Edward's reign? And would Edward still die without children?
 
We all know that one of the craziest personal unions in history wound up because of well, who the Hell knows what everyone involved was thinking.

Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, died in 1537 giving birth to his son and heir, Edward VI. Henry sent his ambassadors abroad that December already to sound out princesses. There were limited options available, since Henry wasn't exactly everybody's favourite idea of a son-in-law, what having "poisoned" his first wife, then married a schismatic and had her beheaded and then the doctor's incompetence in wife no. 3's childbirth.

He probably wouldn't have been able to find a new wife abroad had it not been for the king of France and the emperor being at their usual boxing match. The king of France's candidates (his daughter Marguerite or the Dowager Duchesse de Longueville) seemed to be in the lead. That is, until the emperor found out about his own candidate, the dowager duchess of Milan (who had refused Henry) plotting to marry her sweetheart, the Prince of Orange (or at least, so the story goes). He offered the dowager duchess to Henry, again, this time with the duchy of Milan to sweeten the pot for the dowry. The duchy was to devolve on Henry and Kristina's son.

How or why Henry thought that far-off Catholic Milan was a good idea is still debated. The Tudors had no claim to the duchy, and certainly no Milanese ancestry. But land is land, and Henry probably agreed to it, with the intention of trading it for something a little closer to home at some future date.

Either way, as we know, that never happened, and Kristina became Queen Christine of England. And lo and behold, by the time of Henry's death in 1541, she'd popped out three children, a boy and twin daughters. The boy, Henry, was immediately named 'duke of York' although Karl V took his sweet time handing over the duchy of Milan (it led to some long-running conflict between England and the Empire for a while) to it's duke, Enrico I.

Of course, things got even crazier when Karl V's niece/daughter-in-law, Maria Manuela of Portugal died in childbed with a daughter in 1545, his son, Prince Felipe remarried to Henry VIII's daughter by that schismatic, Anne Boleyn in 1548,and Enrico got his duchy in Italy.

Everything seemed fine. Until King Edward VI died without children. And suddenly the Catholic but technically Anglican "half-Danish popish runt" (as some historians have referred to Henry IX on account of his small stature) was heir to a Protestant throne. Enrico was next in line, but he was a) a Catholic (or at least viewed as such) and b) he and his mom (serving as regent in Milan) hadn't set foot in England since he was 4yo (he was now nearly forty); and c) was only heading there now, because the French were occupying his duchy and he hoped to use English soldiers to get it back.

So, what if Henry VIII hadn't been thinking with his little head (because, let's face it, Kristina was a beauty, I'm not sure he gave a damn about her intelligence)? Or Karl V never forces his niece to marry the king of England? Who would Henry marry? Who would get Milan? Would Felipe II and Elizabeth Tudor still marry? Would his sister Mary still end up under house-arrest for much of Edward's reign? And would Edward still die without children?

Well, as Christina always said, "'Tis better to die with a crown then live as a poor relation".

Although I wonder if Elizabeth doesn't marry Felipe (if Christina doesn't encourage Henry VIII to relegitimize Elizabeth and Mary, Felipe will never take her) if we don't see a firmer inquisition. It's well known that Queen Isabel was the one to encourage her husband and son to be relatively tolerant to the schematics given she used to be one.

Additionally, if there's no Margaret & Christine of England who marries their OTL husbands James VI (OOC: son of James V and Mary of Bourbon) and Francis III (Francis Hercule)
 
Mary Tudor, Duchess of Palatinate-Neuburg would still likely claim the throne of England after her widowhood and her son John of Palatinate(1541) would be King instead as John II.
 
Mary Tudor, Duchess of Palatinate-Neuburg would still likely claim the throne of England after her widowhood and her son John of Palatinate(1541) would be King instead as John II.
Not James V? I know Henry abhorred the idea of an Anglo-Scottish union (hence why he wanted to marry James VI to Margaret as she was the younger of the twins and thus farther away from the throne), but surely a King in Edinburgh has a better chance of claiming the throne than his Palatinate cousin. Maybe ITTL James VI weds John's little sister Elizabeth of the Palatinate or John weds Mary of Scotland to unite the two claims?
 
Not James V? I know Henry abhorred the idea of an Anglo-Scottish union (hence why he wanted to marry James VI to Margaret as she was the younger of the twins and thus farther away from the throne), but surely a King in Edinburgh has a better chance of claiming the throne than his Palatinate cousin. Maybe ITTL James VI weds John's little sister Elizabeth of the Palatinate or John weds Mary of Scotland to unite the two claims?
Yes, John wanted an alliance to free their mother from prison, they remained under Habsburg custody until they reached their own majority.

Lady Mary was used by the Habsburgs against England which of course made her children suffer, Elizabeth of Palatinate was supposed to marry to France but the match was blocked by England.
 
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We all know that one of the craziest personal unions in history wound up because of well, who the Hell knows what everyone involved was thinking.

Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, died in 1537 giving birth to his son and heir, Edward VI. Henry sent his ambassadors abroad that December already to sound out princesses. There were limited options available, since Henry wasn't exactly everybody's favourite idea of a son-in-law, what having "poisoned" his first wife, then married a schismatic and had her beheaded and then the doctor's incompetence in wife no. 3's childbirth.

He probably wouldn't have been able to find a new wife abroad had it not been for the king of France and the emperor being at their usual boxing match. The king of France's candidates (his daughter Marguerite or the Dowager Duchesse de Longueville) seemed to be in the lead. That is, until the emperor found out about his own candidate, the dowager duchess of Milan (who had refused Henry) plotting to marry her sweetheart, the Prince of Orange (or at least, so the story goes). He offered the dowager duchess to Henry, again, this time with the duchy of Milan to sweeten the pot for the dowry. The duchy was to devolve on Henry and Kristina's son.

How or why Henry thought that far-off Catholic Milan was a good idea is still debated. The Tudors had no claim to the duchy, and certainly no Milanese ancestry. But land is land, and Henry probably agreed to it, with the intention of trading it for something a little closer to home at some future date.

Either way, as we know, that never happened, and Kristina became Queen Christine of England. And lo and behold, by the time of Henry's death in 1541, she'd popped out three children, a boy and twin daughters. The boy, Henry, was immediately named 'duke of York' although Karl V took his sweet time handing over the duchy of Milan (it led to some long-running conflict between England and the Empire for a while) to it's duke, Enrico I.

Of course, things got even crazier when Karl V's niece/daughter-in-law, Maria Manuela of Portugal died in childbed with a daughter in 1545, his son, Prince Felipe remarried to Henry VIII's daughter by that schismatic, Anne Boleyn in 1548,and Enrico got his duchy in Italy.

Everything seemed fine. Until King Edward VI died without children. And suddenly the Catholic but technically Anglican "half-Danish popish runt" (as some historians have referred to Henry IX on account of his small stature) was heir to a Protestant throne. Enrico was next in line, but he was a) a Catholic (or at least viewed as such) and b) he and his mom (serving as regent in Milan) hadn't set foot in England since he was 4yo (he was now nearly forty); and c) was only heading there now, because the French were occupying his duchy and he hoped to use English soldiers to get it back.

So, what if Henry VIII hadn't been thinking with his little head (because, let's face it, Kristina was a beauty, I'm not sure he gave a damn about her intelligence)? Or Karl V never forces his niece to marry the king of England? Who would Henry marry? Who would get Milan? Would Felipe II and Elizabeth Tudor still marry? Would his sister Mary still end up under house-arrest for much of Edward's reign? And would Edward still die without children?
Well Edward definetley wouldn’t have made his Brother the Viceroy of Ireland if this happened (since Henry obviously wouldn’t exist if his parents weren’t married) and without that we probobly wouldn’t have seen an independent Ireland or seen one much latter since the only reason for the rebellion by parliament that forced him too flee and lost him the throne was that he alienated the Protestant Nobility due to the fact that he was a suspected Crypto-Catholic (they were obviously latter proven right) and the fact that many of his policies sought too weaken their power to an unnecaptable degree. Although the latter is still entirely possible with a different king, without the fact he was actually a Catholic and only nominally Anglican (and latter not even that once he converted upon realizing there was no chance of retaking England and that he would primarily be ruling Ireland from now on, even if he and his descendants kept styling themselves as Kings of England) they wouldn’t have really had an excuse too rebel, and his Catholicism and lenient treatment of Irish Catholics during and after his time as viceroy was the only reason he was able too successfully win the support of the Irish people (and Norman English) and turn the Kingdom into a independent state that could defend itself against England.
 
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I wonder if in the scenario where Henry doesn't marry Kristina, his niece, Margaret Douglas doesn't wind up married to Alessandro de Medici and start the ruling dynasty of Florence, which later became the Italian (as we now understand it anyway) royal family? I mean, he wed Margaret to Alessandro (half-brother of the French queen) as a counterweight to his own Habsburg-adjacent marriage in Italy
 
I wonder if in the scenario where Henry doesn't marry Kristina, his niece, Margaret Douglas doesn't wind up married to Alessandro de Medici and start the ruling dynasty of Florence, which later became the Italian (as we now understand it anyway) royal family? I mean, he wed Margaret to Alessandro (half-brother of the French queen) as a counterweight to his own Habsburg-adjacent marriage in Italy
Interestingly, Margaret's elder son is the one that married Elizabeth of Palatinate instead of the French King.
 
Interestingly, Margaret's elder son is the one that married Elizabeth of Palatinate instead of the French King.

Most historians aren't even sure about how serious the Florentine-Pfalz offer WAS. And what do you mean her elder son? Everyone knows that the younger boy wasn't REALLY Alessandro's kid. I mean, there were rumours about her and Sandro's cousin, Cardinal Cosimo (but really, ANYONE could've been the baby daddy). Added to that the fact that it was common knowledge Sandro and Mags hadn't shared a palace (much less a bed) for something like a decade at this point (a fact that the French ambassador in Florence commented on, the papal nuncio tried to get the spouses to kiss and make-up. And even the Electress Palatine wrote to her cousin that her carryings-on were known "throughout Europe" to which Mags responded that she would've never chosen to marry a mule (well, her original terms for Sandro were FAR less flattering. But this is a public forum).
 
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