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One and All[FN1]
An Alternate History of the Past Half Millennium


Prologue

"[W]hoever leads an auspicious life here and governs the commonwealth rightly, as my most noble father did, who promoted all piety and banished all ignorance, has a most certain way to heaven." - OTL Comment by King Edward VI to his stepmother Katherine Parr regarding King Henry VIII, 1547


When the newly-ascended Henry VIII announced he would indeed marry Catherine of Aragon, it was a relief to the princess - ater her mother had died, Ferdinand the Catholic viewed his daughter as a liability, and named her Ambassador to England, alongside the actual ambassador Fuensalida, to keep her away from Castillian-Aragonese politics, and her prior marriage to Henry's brother Arthur meant she couldn't marry Henry without papal dispensation - which neither the frugal Henry VII nor the cold-hearted Ferdinand II were willing to pay for, and so was not received until 1503. A more profitable match for young Henry, with Emperor Maximilian's granddaughter Eleanor [FN2], was discussed. But then the King was dead, and the new King changed his mind and married Catherine anyway.

Not long after the coronation, Catherine conceived, but the child was a stillborn girl. Henry was undaunted, however, and four months later the Queen was again pregnant. On New Year's Day, 1511, a son was born to the couple - Henry, Duke of Cornwall. The Royal Family was overjoyed, and celebrations were held throughout England - a sudden and welcome change for the people from the austerity and frugality of Henry's father. Most noted of all was a jousting tourney in which the King himself participated as 'Sir Loyal Heart', and carried Catherine's favor.

In our world, our timeline, the Duke of Cornwall suddenly died after seven weeks of life. Henry would try again and again to have an heir, but of four more children with Catherine, only two - Henry, Duke of Cornwall TK II and Mary, a future Queen - would live past a week, and only Mary would live past a month, with Henry's and Catherine's once storybook romance shattered. Henry would try again and again and again, and die with five failed marriages and only four acknowledged children living past the age of thirteen, two of whom (King Edward and the Duke of Richmond), dying before they were 20, in the process enacting the most sweeping change to English culture since the Conquest.

In this world, this timeline, however, young Henry lived ...





[FN1] The title is the motto of Cornwall, Onen hag Oll, translated into English. As Cornwall is young Henry's duchy, I felt it was fitting
[FN2] Eleanor of Austria would later become Queen of Portugal, in case you were wondering
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