Dragon King: the Many Wives, Mistresses and Children of King Henry VIII (1491-1577)
- Thread starter Brita
- Start date
Update: by 1544 Henry is 53 with 7 wives, 6 mistresses & 59 children (not all surviving) meaning he has finally crossed the threshold of having more kids then years on Earth.
I for one, never doubted him.
I for one, never doubted him.
Sure he will! But there's another chapter coming before...
The aim of the challenge was to have him be some kind of Charlemagne, as far as his descendants are concerned so yes, by 2023, many people in Europe - and elsewhere - can claim descent from him.
Elena Cominata Arianiti, 1st Marchioness Di Monferrato (c.1518-1558)
Elena Cominata Arianiti, 1st Marchioness Di Monferrato (c.1518-1558)
Henry’s mistress from 1542 to 1558
Charlotte Di Monferrato was cast in the role of her own ancestress Elena Cominata Arianiti, 1st Marchioness Di Monferrato
Charlotte Di Monferrato was cast in the role of her own ancestress Elena Cominata Arianiti, 1st Marchioness Di Monferrato
The sixth and last daughter of Costantino Cominato Arianiti and Francesca Paleologa di Monferrato, Elena had been married to Juan de Luna, a Spanish nobleman and castellan of Milan. When her husband died, her sister Deianira requested permission from Queen Christina to invite her to join them in England. Christina, who had fond memories of her childhood friend and also remembered her as the “ugly duckling” of the Arianiti family, agreed, confident that Elena would not become another rival. Christina had not expected for the plain, awkward youth she remembered to have become an outright beauty.
Although Elena was very discreet upon her arrival from Italy, staying with her sister and not going out very much, she eventually met the King in person when he visited her sister. As soon as he saw her, Henry was struck by her beauty. He may have found Deianira “quite pretty”, but he was swept over by Elena’s near perfect looks and it was not long before he made advances to her.
Contrary to her sister, Elena readily accepted Henry’s courtship. The sincerity of her feelings towards the King has always been the subject of endless debates among historians. She was hated in her lifetime and depicted as a courtesan who had seduced the King away from his wife and plotted to become England’s next Queen, although many courtiers also despised Christina of Denmark for her inability to give her husband a spare. Later, she was portrayed as Henry’s true love. Some say she did not love the King but was delighted to enjoy all the advantages of her position as his chief mistress.
Whatever her true feelings were, Elena quickly gave Henry a son and a few months later was made suo jure Baroness Di Monferrato. Her fiery temper caused her to often clash with Christina privately, and on one or two occasions, she publicly mocked the Queen. In those moments, Henry would desert her for a few weeks and go back to the patient Deianira.
In the summer of 1544, both sisters were taken ill. Elena, then in the early stages of her second pregnancy, miscarried. In her distress, she swore she had been poisoned, prompting Henry to suspect Christina. She also seems to have encouraged Henry’s suspicions regarding Christina’s faithfulness and the legitimacy of her last son.
She retired to Monferrato Manor after her miscarriage and slowly recovered from the effects of her illness or poisoning – the exact nature of this incident never having been determined with certainty. Soon after Christina’s death, it was whispered that Elena would marry Henry, despite her unpopularity. This may have been Henry’s intent, especially as he called her his “beloved Queen” and his “wife in God’s eyes” in several letters written at the time. In June 1545, the Baroness Di Monferrato was created Marchioness Di Monferrato, which was seen as a first step toward a wedding with the King.
A famous half-burnt letter supposedly written by Elena, although its authenticity is still debated, reads thus: “How could a mere Baroness, the daughter of a bastard and a princeling, ever hope to be Queen?” Indeed, Elena’s mother had been an illegitimate child. As for the “princeling” mention, it might be a reference to Elena’s father, self-proclaimed Prince of Macedonia, although he never had any claim to this title. If the letter was indeed written by Elena, it could have inspired Henry to elevate her to the title of Marchioness.
Decades later, Elena’s grandson Henry-Maximilian, Marquess Di Monferrato, claimed that his grandparents had indeed been secretly married in 1546 and that he was the rightful heir to England. The marriage contract he showed as evidence was dismissed as forgery but his only daughter married the heir to the throne, which has been interpreted by some as an unofficial acknowledgment of the veracity of his claims.
Whether they were secretly married or not, Henry and Elena’s relationship became less stormy after Christina’s death and the Marchioness welcomed her sister’s children into her household. In the last years of their relationship, Henry became more and more influenced by his then-wife, a sympathiser of the Reformation. Although Elena, a devout Catholic, did not approve of this change, she wisely abstained from showing her true feelings on the matter and Henry’s love for her never wavered.
She died giving birth to twin daughters in 1558 and was survived by her ten healthy children.
Children
1 Enrico, 2nd Marquess Di Monferrato (1543-1579)
2 miscarriage (1544)
3 Elena Di Monferrato (1546-1631)
4 Francesca Di Monferrato (1548-1617)
5 Bonifacio, 3rd Marquess Di Monferrato (1550-1602)
6 Constantine Di Monferrato (1551-1600)
7 George Di Monferrato (1553-1641)
8 Edward Di Monferrato (1555-1632)
9 Deianira Di Monferrato (1556-1602)
10 Ippolitta Di Monferrato (1558-1634)
11 Polissena Di Monferrato (1558-1641)
2 miscarriage (1544)
3 Elena Di Monferrato (1546-1631)
4 Francesca Di Monferrato (1548-1617)
5 Bonifacio, 3rd Marquess Di Monferrato (1550-1602)
6 Constantine Di Monferrato (1551-1600)
7 George Di Monferrato (1553-1641)
8 Edward Di Monferrato (1555-1632)
9 Deianira Di Monferrato (1556-1602)
10 Ippolitta Di Monferrato (1558-1634)
11 Polissena Di Monferrato (1558-1641)
Last edited:
And even if the young woman might demur at the prospect, her (noble or royal) male relatives will salivate at the opportunities this will give The Family. (I find thinking of Medieval or early Modern politics in terms of mafia clans sometimes useful.)
edited for typo
Last edited:
Update: by 1558 Henry is 67 with 7 wives, 7 mistresses and 70 children (not all surviving)
Katheryn Howard (c.1524-1549)
Katheryn Howard (born c.1524; married 1545; died 1549)
Henry’s wife from 1545 to 1549
Rebecca Manigold’s performance as Katheryn Howard has brought her critical acclaim: she was praised for the ambiguity of her character, oscillating between the “vivacious but ingenuous youth” and the “self-serving, saucy minx”.
Rebecca Manigold’s performance as Katheryn Howard has brought her critical acclaim: she was praised for the ambiguity of her character, oscillating between the “vivacious but ingenuous youth” and the “self-serving, saucy minx”.
Katheryn Howard had been sent to Paleologa Manor by her mother. There, she assisted the Baroness in the upbringing of her children and wards. As a cousin of the late Anne Boleyn, she was quite naturally entrusted with the care of the Queen’s daughters Alice and Amy.
During her stay at Paleologa Manor, she met Edmund FitzRoy, one of Henry’s many illegitimate sons, who had come with his sister to visit their younger half-siblings, and the two soon became very close, often meeting in the gardens when Katheryn went out with her young cousins. They may have intended to marry but Edmund left England for the New World, where he would become the first Duke of Cambria.
Katheryn made her first appearance at court in April 1545, during the revelries that celebrated the birth of the king’s last child Maximilian. It was on this occasion that Henry officially relegitimised Alice and Amy; he also legitimised his eldest daughter Mary, who had officially been a bastard since birth as she had been born after the annulment of her parents’ wedding.
As the Boleyn sisters were presented to the court, Henry immediately noticed their young companion. Three months after Queen Christina’s death, he married Katheryn, to everybody’s great surprise, as many had expected him to choose his mistress Elena as his next wife.
The king was charmed by his young wife’s vivacity and showered her with gifts. Within weeks of their wedding, the new Queen announced her first pregnancy. The child was born on the last day of May 1546 but it was a girl. Katheryn, however, was determined to give her husband at least one son but in the next three years, she had three more children, all of them girls.
Katheryn’s “useless pregnancies”, as a French ambassador would later maliciously write, displeased the King, who gradually turned his back on her. In December 1548, she attended the Christmas Ball and renewed contact with Thomas Seymour, whose sisters Jane and Elizabeth had married two of the King’s illegitimate sons, “the Two Henrys”, born from his relationships with Lady Muriel Howard and Bessie Blount.
Katheryn had met Seymour once or twice while staying at Paleologa Manor and in the following months, they engaged on an epistolary relationship.
In June 1549, Katheryn gave birth to her fourth daughter and in early July, rumours that she and Seymour were having an affair started to spread. At the King’s request, investigations were made and several witnesses – mostly people who envied the Norfolk family’s position and who saw Katheryn as a scheming girl who had married Henry to bring more power to her family – testified that she had had lovers while living in Paleologa Manor; letters from both Katheryn and Thomas came to light and, in spite of the fact that some are believed to be forgery, one of them, dated January 1549, had indeed been written by Katheryn, although its content shows that she seemed to consider Seymour a friend more than a lover.
Following the discovery of the letters, both Seymour and Katheryn were imprisoned. Seymour confessed under torture that he and Katheryn had been lovers, claiming that the Queen herself had seduced him. Katheryn, for her part, admitted to having had sexual relationships with Henry’s illegitimate son Edmund while living at Paleologa Manor, but insisted that she had had no relationship whatsoever with Seymour at the time. She explained that he had come to her at the 1548 Christmas Ball and become a mere confidant at first, but that he had later raped her.
Years later, Alice Boleyn would record in her memoirs that she, for her part, had never doubted her cousin’s sincerity on the subject, that Seymour had behaved in “the most abhorrent way” with her only weeks before she was brought to court with her sister to be relegitimised, and that she owned her “unsullied honour” to Francesca Paleologa’s intervention only, following which Seymour had not been welcomed at Paleologa Manor any more.
Thomas Seymour was hanged, drawn and quartered on 14 October 1549. The next day, Katheryn was beheaded. As no evidence had been found that she had ever been unfaithful to the King before she met Seymour, her daughters’ legitimacy was not questioned.
Children
1 Katheryn of England (1546-1623)
2 Joyce of England (1547-1631)
3 Margery of England (1548-1615)
4 Isobel of England (1549-1613)
2 Joyce of England (1547-1631)
3 Margery of England (1548-1615)
4 Isobel of England (1549-1613)
In Paleologa Manor, where Thomas and his sisters and brothers-in-law had visited the Paleologa siblings before Katheryn married Henry.
Update: by 1558 Henry is 67 with 8 wives, 7 mistresses and 74 children (not all surviving).
Renata of Navarre (1528-1607)
Renata of Navarre (1528-1607)
Henry’s wife from 1549 to 1560
The producers of the series noticed Mina Le Bras quite by accident after she decided to do an improvised performance of the tragedy “Elena and Deianira, or The Tragic Life of Queen Christina” in front of their hotel in Rennes. Although she had been performing one of Elena’s speeches at the time, she was eventually cast as the determined Renata of Navarre.
The producers of the series noticed Mina Le Bras quite by accident after she decided to do an improvised performance of the tragedy “Elena and Deianira, or The Tragic Life of Queen Christina” in front of their hotel in Rennes. Although she had been performing one of Elena’s speeches at the time, she was eventually cast as the determined Renata of Navarre.
News of the execution of Queen Catherine were soon known in all of Europe. Henry was looking for another wife, for Catherine’s adultery reminded him of the doubts that lingered on the conception of his second son. Although the Prince of Wales thrived, accidents happened and Henry was afraid of being succeeded by a boy who was no son of his.
Few women were willing to marry the King, though. True, he was still hale and hearty, and looked younger than his 58 years of age. But the execution of two of his wives, as well as the circumstances of Christina of Denmark’s accident, disheartened most candidates he considered.
One princess, however, saw the King’s offer of marriage as a challenge she would fain accept. This was Renata of Navarre, the second eldest of the King of Navarre’s many children. Her mother had been Renée of France, Anne of Brittany’s third child, born eight months after her father’s death, and Claude of Brittany’s younger sister. This technically made Renata Henry’s niece but she shrugged the problem away: she had been born in 1528, eight years after Claude’s death and she hoped this would make her marriage to Henry acceptable.
Renata accordingly agreed to Henry’s proposal and the two were married in December 1549. Their union proved fruitful and on 29 September 1550, the young Queen delivered two healthy sons, named Henry and Francis, after their father and uncle. They were the first of three sets of twins born to Henry and Renata, the other ones being Louise and Louis in 1553 and René and Frances in 1557.
With four more unquestionably legitimate sons, Henry was the happiest of men and in 1558, he sent 13-year-old Maximilian to the Church. Whether the boy was his or René de Chalon’s, it would not matter any more, as the boy forfeited his rights to the succession upon entering the Church.
Henry and Renata’s marriage was the longest of all: it lasted for nearly eleven years. But Renata, although she had never officially converted, was a supporter of the Reformation, like most of her relatives. As time passed, Henry’s religious policy became more and more influenced by his wife’s opinion on the subject.
This would not sit well with the Church, especially when in 1559, Renata gave birth to a son whom she named after Gaspard II de Coligny, Admiral of France and Ambassador to England. Gaspard was suspected of having converted to Calvinism and when he agreed to stand as the prince’s godfather, many saw it as a confession.
Soon after, Coligny was recalled to France and replaced by a staunch Catholic as Ambassador. He later took part to the Amboise Conspiracy and was executed. Meanwhile in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury had used the kinship between the long-deceased Claude of Brittany and Renata to challenge the validity of the wedding, as no dispensation had been granted. In truth, the ecclesiastical authorities had not deemed it necessary to grant one at the time, just as Renata had surmised. But now, the lack of a dispensation could work in Rome’s favour, and the Pope proclaimed that Henry and Renata’s marriage was illegal and their children illegitimate.
In March 1560, the Pope ordered Henry to repudiate his wife, which the King refused to do. Tragedy then struck again: the Prince of Wales was preparing to meet his fiancée, Archduchess Barbara of Austria, whose arrival in London was impending, but as he was stepping onto the barge that would take him to Whitehall, he slipped and fell, crushing his head against the pavement.
Upon hearing the news of the Prince’s death, the Pope immediately placed the Kingdom of England under interdict. The whole situation was getting out of control. If the Pope persisted in declaring Renata’s children illegitimate, Henry would have to repudiate her and find another wife and who knew if he would sire any sons? He had many daughters, most of whom had been married abroad or to powerful English noblemen, and the ghost of another war of succession was looming on the horizon.
Renata eventually came up with a bittersweet solution: she suggested that Henry write to the Pope that he would repudiate her on condition that their children would be declared legitimate. The Pope agreed, adding another condition: that the children be raised by Catholic tutors. Henry and Renata accepted and the wedding was dissolved on 10 August 1560.
Renata remained in England, retiring to Eltham Palace, and officially converted soon after. She kept advising her former husband toward a pro-Protestant policy, to the point that Henry himself converted in October, although he kept his word regarding his children’s tutors. She advised him in the choice of his next wife and later became a renowned patroness of artists and scientists.
Children
1 Henry, Duke of York (1550-1562)
2 Francis, Duke of Richmond (1550-1609)
3 Renée of England (1552-1581)
4 Louise of England (1553-1623)
5 Louis, Duke of Bedford (1553-1631)
6 Anne of England (1555-1647)
7 Valentina of England (1556-1591)
8 René, Duke of Clarence (1557-1598)
9 Frances of England (1557-1609)
10 Gaspard, Duke of Monmouth (1559-1600)
11 Blanche of England (1560-1638)
2 Francis, Duke of Richmond (1550-1609)
3 Renée of England (1552-1581)
4 Louise of England (1553-1623)
5 Louis, Duke of Bedford (1553-1631)
6 Anne of England (1555-1647)
7 Valentina of England (1556-1591)
8 René, Duke of Clarence (1557-1598)
9 Frances of England (1557-1609)
10 Gaspard, Duke of Monmouth (1559-1600)
11 Blanche of England (1560-1638)
Last edited:
He will, but for now I simply give him the title he got after his birth.