Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset

Edmund Tudor

I alluded to this earlier, but there's a theory that Henry VIII had a rare Kell Positive Blood Type (90% don't have it) which makes it hard to get living children from Kell negative wives (especially after the first pregnancy- Elizabeth, Edward and Fitzroy all being the result of the woman's first pregnancy with Henry). As far as I can make out, if they experience multiple pregnancies with Kell Positive foetuses, a Kell negative mother will develop antigens that attack the foetus' Kell positive red blood cells as 'foreign' and result in miscarriage.

If that hypothesis is correct (and I'm not into genetics so I can't offer much insight here) then Henry and Katherine were doomed to have childbearing issues and potentially only have a single child (whether that child is Mary or from one of their other pregnancies is mostly dumb luck about whether the foetus inherits Kell Positive from Henry).
I heard that this came from his great-grandmother, Jaquetta Rivers. It seems odd that she never had any grandsons, despites having numerous sons ( as far as I know).
 
Edmund Tudor

Most royal brothers caused problems. Look at John, the brother of Richard I and George, the brother of Edward IV. I'm sure that there are other examples, but I can't recall them now.
 
Most royal brothers caused problems. Look at John, the brother of Richard I and George, the brother of Edward IV. I'm sure that there are other examples, but I can't recall them now.

Indeed, and there were those who were loyal: Edmund Crouchback to Edward I, John of Eltham to Edward III, the Lancaster brothers to Henry V
 
Most royal brothers caused problems. Look at John, the brother of Richard I and George, the brother of Edward IV. I'm sure that there are other examples, but I can't recall them now.

And if they didn't their offspring might, for instance the relationship of Valois-Burgundy with the main Valois line.
 
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