A TL charting the fortunes of an extended Tudor dynasty, with a lot more motivation and effort than some of my other ones. I have a plan for at least the first hundred years with this, so hopefully it has some mileage.
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PART ONE: “My kingdom for a son”
On the first day of the new year [1509], Henry’s prayers were answered with the birth of a healthy son. Christened Henry, and given the title Duke of Cornwall, the child was honoured with a huge tournament which lasted for almost a month. Henry VIII rode under the banner of ‘Sir Loyal Heart’ as an acknowledgement of his love for his wife - Catherine of Aragon - and the young prince was given the nickname ‘Little Prince Hal’ by the Royal courtiers. The size and splendour of the celebration rivalled that of Henry’s coronation five years previously, with the King taking part in, and winning, a number of jousts. Huge feasts were laid out every evening, with hundreds of dishes prepared by a legion of cooks. However, shortly after the tournament and celebrations had abated, Prince Henry became ill. Vigils were held across the country, and King Henry himself spent much of the night of the 11th February in solitary prayer at the Palace of Placentia [1] - the official residence of the Duke of Cornwall. Prince Henry was diagnosed with sweating sickness, and several of his servants succumbed to the disease through the course of February. However, in what was to later be seen as God’s blessing, the young prince began to recover from the illness [2]. By early March 1509 the threat to his life was over, and King Henry ordered that the feast of St Thomas Aquinas [3] should be celebrated with special vigour to honour the recovery.
Later in the year, in what marked the beginning of the long-standing English alliance with the Habsburgs, Henry VIII signed the Treaty of Westminster with Ferdinand II of Aragon [4]. The treaty pledged English support in the Spanish fight against France and made them a member of the so-called ‘Catholic League’. After an English attempt to attack France in 1513, Scottish soldiers under King James IV invaded northern England. On 9th September, at Branxton in Northumberland, the Scots were brought to battle by the English commander Thomas Howard - the Earl of Surrey. The battle was, until that point, the largest ever fought between England and Scotland, with more than 50,000 troops involved in total. The battle began with an artillery duel, with the English swiftly gaining the upper hand. The Scottish then advanced, and managed to break the English line in isolated areas - however they were checked by the intervention of cavalry under Thomas, Lord Dacre, and King James of Scotland himself was cut down in the confusion [5]. The English army forced the remnants of the Scottish army back over the border, but were checked before they could advance into Scotland itself.
Henry was distracted from the conflict by news of the birth of his second son [6]. The child was named Arthur, after King Henry’s deceased elder brother, and granted the title Duke of Devonshire. Despite the English victories at Branxton and at the Battle of the Spurs [7], the French were eventually successful and the war ground to a halt in 1516 - with the Treaty of Brussels bringing the War of the League of Cambrai to an end.
[1] In Greenwich
[2] The POD, in OTL the Duke of Cornwall died of unknown causes
[3] March 7th
[4] Half of the Ferdinand-Isabella union, Henry VIII’s father-in-law
[5] Exactly the same as OTL Battle of Flodden Field, but known here for its actual location as the Battle of Branxton.
[6] Born on 13th November 1513
[7] English victory over the French, fought August 16th 1513