Duarte II and Alfred I, the Kings that nobody expected

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On January the 25th 1540 an unwanted Pregnancy ended with a stillborn child and a dead Mother.
Catherine Dereham, a Niece of the Duke of Norfolk that had brought great disgrace to her noble Family by eloping with a ordinary courtier at the Court of the Dowager Duchess, died by bleeding out at the birth of her first (and last) child.
Young Catherine, already pregnant, when the affair was found out, was begrudgingly married to her lover by her Family.
So with this death one less member of the huge Family of Howard was alive.
She was not missed by her Family after her so young but scandalous life.




On the 6th of June 1540 Queen Anne of England told her Husband that she missed her Courses for two months now.
Henry, who was doing the best his already enormous body could manage, by visiting his wife in bed once every week, was overjoyed and hoped for a boy. Of Course.



In the early days of August 1540 Isabel de Guimarares kissed her Husband, got out of their bed and told him she missed her Courses for two months now. She just wanted to be certain.
Her husband smiled, pulled her gently back to bed and said that to be sure they should start again to bring pleasure to each other.

 

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1541
Kingdom of England

King Henry the VIII had a fantastic start into the new year.
His wonderful wife, the most loved Queen Anne, gave a quite easy and quick birth to a healthy and strong Son in the early hours of the second Day of the new year.
He knew it.
God loved him.
He decided that the boy will be named after himself.
Because, of course, he is loved by God and so will be his boy, too.
King Henry gifted his most honored wife a wonderful Ruby necklace as a sign of his eternal love and after returning to his own rooms send a message to his newest Mistress.
Harry was in a good mood and the poor young Lady of the Court had the doubious honor to entertain her gigantous, stinking from his never healing leg sores, but still lustful King.
Poor Girl.


EARLY MARCH 1541
KINGDOM OF PORTUGAL

The Duchess of Guimarares gave birth to her third child.
It was a healthy, strong and handsome boy.
To remember her beloved husband she named her son Duarte, after his father.
She felt so alone.

 

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For King Henry VIII the year 1543 ended fantastic.
His dear wife had enough of his massive weight atop of her after her successful pregnancy and the joyous birth and begged and pleaded him to lose some weight.

She admonished him to think of his son, his heir that needed a strong father, to learn from him as only he, the King could teach his son everything he would need to know about ruling a mighty Country like England.

Good Queen Anne might still not have a perfect knowledge of the English language but she knows how to sound sincere in her concern for her husband, when in reality she was just tired of having to bear with his massive, smelling body atop of her own.
So she send her brother a message, that she needed a good Doctor that was not afraid of difficult Patients and had solid knowledge of how to make sluggish people loose weight.
She wrote him that she needed a Doctor from outside of England, because all the English ones were deeply afraid of their King.
So, in early 1542, a German Doctor arrived at the Court of King Henry, with best regards from his Brother-in-Law, William Duke of Julich-Cleves-Berg and the most humble request, that his Majesty make use of this earnest and talented man, so that his Majesty will rule healthy for many more years.
Henry tried his best, really he did.
He sometimes even followed the orders of the Doctors to eat way less.
And from March 1542 to March 1543 he managed to loose so much weight, that he needed tighter clothes and the Doctor even managed to get his awfully stinking leg wounds to stop leaking puss all the time and to stink no more.
Queen Anne was relieved and Henry's Mistress was it too.
And so, ending April 1543, Queen Anne found herself once again missing her Courses.
The Duke of York was born as a Christmas child.
Henry really felt that God was trying to tell him something.
He named his second living son Alfred Henry.
We all know Henry, it is just how he feels.
His sons were born to do great things in the future.

 

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After a mourning time of half a year the widowed King of Portugal was sending out his Diplomats to look for a new wife.
Joao needed an Heir.
He had two surviving Brothers, one was a Cardinal, which meant he was useless as heir.
The other one, Luis had never married but had a healthy son, now twelve years old by his lover, a former Jew and now New Christian woman.
Luis made it clear, that he was not interested in a marriage to save the House Avis.
Hopeless, both of his brothers.
Oh, yeah his Brother Duarte fathered a boy, a healthy one even. But only one.
He himself had so many children and look what he had now.

But no, to save the Rulership of the House Avis, the King himself would need to marry again!


But whom?