House Of La Marck- Tudor

What if Henry VIII didn't divorce Anne of Cleves and they had a son?

So far OK, but nothing really interesting has happened, of course.

**As his marriage to Catherine Howard is butterflied away...
It's not a butterfly, it's a predictable consequence and therefore a knock-on.

A butterfly would be if the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk stubbed her toe in December 1539, and one of her maidservants giggled, and the Duchess turned her out, and the replacement was a carrier of influenza, and Catherine Howard (who lived with the Duchess) came down with flu in January, and couldn't be one of Anne's attendants at her wedding with Henry on 6 January, and thus was not seen by Henry to distract him from Anne.

Since Henry married Catherine only 16 days after the annulment of his marriage to Anne, it seems likely that his seeing her precipitated the annulment.


The immediate consequences of the PoD are considerable. Not only does Henry have a second heir, but he isn't going to have Thomas Cromwell chopped for marrying him to Anne. The Duke of Norfolk and the rest of the Howards won't get another moment in the sun - nor a semi-disastrous fall.

If Anne remains Queen, this is going to affect Henry's religious feelings. OTL, when he repudiated Catherine and the Catholic Howards, he then authorized the destruction of shrines and the dissolution of the last monasteries. It seems likely that the break with the Howards caused or enabled this swing.

Anne was a Lutheran Protestant, who willingly became Anglican. This means Henry's Reforming urges will be continuous but perhaps less violent.

This will have considerable effect on the intrigues among Henry's ministers. Cromwell may last to the end. Norfolk survived the OTL rise and fall of his niece as Queen, but can he survive Cromwell's enmity? How much power will the Seymours have, when their nephew is not the only son? Does that make a difference? In the last year of Henry's OTL life, Henry sought a renewed alliance with Charles V, and to enable this some of his ministers ran a brutal campaign against overt Protestants. If Henry's marriage to Anne commits him to the Protestant German cause, that doesn't happen.

All these details have to be considered before plunging into the succession to Henry, and to Edward (assuming that as OTL, he is a sickly boy who dies without children). However, if Edward died of a lung infection as some now think, a true butterfly effect could avert that.
 
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Agreed on most points.

A lot of things need to be considered in this timeline:

If Henry VIII remains married to Anne of Cleves, it is likely that Cromwell will avoid his fall from favour (barring any court conspiracy). This is going to have major butterflies that need to be considered. For one, there was marked conservative shift in Henry's later years vis–à–vis the Church of England, as Cromwell's fall allowed men such as Gardiner to gain more influence in religious matters (more or less). I think that it is a mistake to assume that Henry VIII was always 'a Catholic at heart' as is often said. While no Lutheran, he was highly influenced by the reforming theology of Erasmus and this was instrumental in allowing Cromwell a carte blanche in certain matters after his break from Rome, such as the dissolution of the monasteries and the chantries (although there were also more cynical reasons for this).

Also, contemporary political historians of the Tudor era have now mostly discredited the magnitude of the so-called 'Cromwellian Revolution' in English government, and the dominant theory now seems to be that much of the administrative reforms enacted in Henry's later years were more of a reaction to the absence of a single premier minister of state (i.e. Wolsey and Cromwell), such as the total restructuring of the Council. Make no mistake, Cromwell enacted quite a few administrative reforms during his tenure, but a lot of what occurred in the 1540's may not happen ITTL. While this may seem minuscule, it means that without a strong collegial body like the English Privy Council in the late sixteenth century (which by Edward VI's reign in OTL was using its own seal and issuing warrants in its own name), the realm may go through periods of strong kings and powerful favourites à la the Habsburg Valido, since the opportunity remains open for, or perhaps may even require, another Wolsey or Cromwell in the near future (depending on the personality of the king).

Speaking of political reforms and a continued Cromwellian era in government, does the Statute of Proclamations still remain in effect ITTL? It was largely masterminded by Cromwell and if it remains in effect with much of his other policies (rather than being repealed in 1547 as in OTL), it may have a lot of effect on the strength of the Crown down the road in this scenario.

Also, I think it's important to mention that Anne of Cleves was not herself a Lutheran. Her father, Johann III, was an Erasmian through and through, who avoided involvement in the early conflicts of the Reformation by attempting to pilot a via media of reform, while remaining both in communion with Rome and neutral (no small feat in the Imperial climate of the 1530's). Her mother, Maria von Jülich-Berg, was a very devout and pious Catholic. Her brother, Wilhelm der Reiche, did embrace Lutheranism and ally himself closely with the Protestant princes (hence his sister's attractiveness to Cromwell), although I'm not exactly sure how sincere he was, as undermining Emperor Charles V in the Empire was within his interests, given the conflict between the two over the Duchy of Guelders.

Point being, there is nothing to suggest that Anne was anything but a sincere Roman Catholic at that time that she arrived in England to marry Henry VIII. In OTL, she then proceeded to conform to the Anglican church until the accession of Mary I, when she returned to Roman Catholicism. Make of that what you will. As far as her personality goes, she seemed to be rather naïve at times and surprisingly shrewd at others.

By all accounts she was mostly uneducated (though she could read and write in German) and regarded as gentle and docile in manner, so it's very possible that her obedience is often mistaken for genuine pragmatism on her part. In any case, Anne of Cleves remaining queen means that she likely will have little interest in overseeing the education of her son and entrust it to others. It also means that, with Henry VIII never being married to Catherine Parr in this scenario, the education of both Elizabeth and Edward VI will be directed by others, as she was very involved with the selection of their tutors in OTL. This could result in a variety of outcomes and possibly alter Edward VI's own character (although possibly not, as Cromwell remaining in power means that Cramner may also have influence over the prince's spiritual formation as in OTL).

And, one further question: what is the exact POD for Henry VIII deciding to go through with the match? In OTL, there are a variety of theories about his rejection of Anne of Cleves. There is Catherine Howard, of course, and the ambitions of her family and the king's apparent infatuation with her (so you could remove her from the scene somehow, as previously suggested). However, I have also read theories that, at least in part, Henry VIII's pride was hurt when Anne snubbed him at their first meeting: he met her in disguise with companions according to the then courtly custom and went so far as to kiss her without revealing his identity (it was recorded by Charles Wriothesley that Anne 'regarded him little'). This, combined with other features of her character, such as the lack of culture and education, probably put him off rather early on (with Catherine Howard coming along being just one more push in the direction of an annulment). So, you could always take that route, if you want to continue TTL.

Apologies for the length of this post. You have a very interesting and original idea, Pericles, but to be perfectly frank, I would say that it needs a bit of re-working.
 
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