WI: Henry VIII and Catherine have a male child

[GauchoBadger]

What if Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon had managed to produce a legitimate son together?
Would Henry still fall in love with Anne Boleyn?
Does this butterfly away the anglican church, allowing England to keep itself as an officially catholic country?
What are the effects on european diplomacy, geopolitics, and wars? And what about the protestant reformation, does it, as an institution, remain confined to Scandinavia and far-northern Germany?

 

[desmirelle]

Since no one has ever addressed this topic......I'm going to use the points raised before.

They actually had a legitimate son, but he only lived like 52 days, so I'm going to go with the kid survives childhood. This would butterfly his argument for annulment. And Anne Boleyn's allure would be lessened, because, if she were serious about being a chaste maiden, he'd lose interest when she kept returning his wooing gifts.

Can't say it would butterfly away the Anglican church, because I married Anne Boleyn off to Henry Percy in a TL and Henry VIII is now exploring "Obedience of a Christian Man" and thinking it is good, so it would likely depend upon Henry and how he's approached.

The protestant reformation is going to happen, perhaps not on the scale or with the speed that it happened OTL, but the evolution of human thought cannot be held back. Don't forget, Scotland embraced Calvinism.

 

[Urbanus VII]

 

[Jan Olbracht]

Reformaton was so succesfull IOTL mostly because of England, which turned Protestant and then colonized half of world. If England remained Catholic (It's not guaranteed but very likely that son of Catherine of Aragon would be devout Catholic, like mother and OTL sister) then ATL reformation is like a bit more successful Hussitism rather than OTL earthquake.
16th century is time for switching confession, no major country converted to Protestantism during 17th century, when Counter-reformation showed effects-rise of Protestantism was stopped and reversed-Protestantism in France, Poland, Southern Germany and Bohemia, once strong, faded away.