The Virgin's son
Part One:
12 October 1561
"The Queen is delivered of a fair son,".
Words that had not been heard in England for almost quarter of a century were regarded as something of a miracle in London.
Within days the news was spread the length and breadth of the realm and was dispatched to royal court's across Europe.
The news was perhaps most urgently sent to the Scots court of Mary Stuart.
Mary, newly returned to the land of her birth, when informed of the birth is said to have wept "bitter tears" at the end of her hopes of the English crown but equally the young Queen took great delight in the gossip that Lord Robert Dudley, the Queen's favorite, was far more likely to be thought the father of the infant. Though she sent her "dear sister and nearest kinswoman" her "heartfelt joy" at the news and happily agreed to act as godmother to the infant Prince.
The Prince's name was also the source of much gossip with Henry widely predicted in honour of the Queen's father and grandfather, however it was finally confirmed on 14 October that his name would be Edward.
As he shared a birth date with his uncle Edward VI.
On the 17th October the Prince was christened in the chapel at St James, being declared Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall and Earl of Chester by the Garter King of Arms.
By tradition the Queen, who was described by her ladies as in perfect health, did not attend the lavish christening which was conducted by Archbishop Parker of Canterbury.
The first portrait of the Queen and her infant son was painted in the style of previous incarnations of the Mary with the Christ Child - but the Queen's husband is notably absent from the picture copies of which were widely distributed in the next few years.