WI: Henry VIII has a son with Catherine Howard

What if Queen Catherine Howard becomes pregnant with King Henry VIII's child and delivers a healthy baby boy, early in the year 1541? Because I have very little imagination, let's also call the child Henry, Duke of York.

I'm asking about Catherine Howard specifically because I'm thinking about what will happen when her adultery with Thomas Culpeper and possible pre-existing marriage precontract with Francis Dereham is exposed. As a wife who's given Henry VIII a second son, does he still have her executed? Does he still declare their marriage invalid? Can he afford to declare a son and possible heir to be illegitimate?
 
Any courtier who tries to tell Henry bad news about the mother of his heir will probably end up in the Tower!

The Howard affinity rises in power as long as Catherine can continue to produce heirs, or at least as long as the heir she has produced is healthy

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
What if Queen Catherine Howard becomes pregnant with King Henry VIII's child and delivers a healthy baby boy, early in the year 1541? Because I have very little imagination, let's also call the child Henry, Duke of York.

I'm asking about Catherine Howard specifically because I'm thinking about what will happen when her adultery with Thomas Culpeper and possible pre-existing marriage precontract with Francis Dereham is exposed. As a wife who's given Henry VIII a second son, does he still have her executed? Does he still declare their marriage invalid? Can he afford to declare a son and possible heir to be illegitimate?

Catherine would have been untouchable once she produced a living son.
Henry was capable of convincing himself of anything, even though he was almost certainly impotent by this point.
 
Catherine would have been untouchable once she produced a living son.
Henry was capable of convincing himself of anything, even though he was almost certainly impotent by this point.

Especially when it involved his erm, means of production...

On a serious note, this would not have too much effect until the latter part of Edward's reign. There would be no Lady Jane Grey because nobody is paranoid that Mary is going to take the throne and have them all killed. On the other hand, if either of Edward's sisters get a hint that their half-brother is illegitimate and can convince enough of the country he is... well, a War of the Three Tudors wouldn't be very pleasant.

teg
 
Especially when it involved his erm, means of production...

On a serious note, this would not have too much effect until the latter part of Edward's reign. There would be no Lady Jane Grey because nobody is paranoid that Mary is going to take the throne and have them all killed. On the other hand, if either of Edward's sisters get a hint that their half-brother is illegitimate and can convince enough of the country he is... well, a War of the Three Tudors wouldn't be very pleasant.

teg

The battle for control of Catherine's son would be intense, Edward would not want his younger brother and heir to be raised in a Catholic sympathizing environment.

It would be interesting to see who Catherine married after Henry's death. She is obviously going to seek out a strong figure who can support her against Edward.

I doubt either Mary or Elizabeth are going to get very far by disputing their youngest brother's legitimacy, they were after all declared bastards themselves and Elizabeth's mother was executed for adultery.
 
I hate to state the obvious but there's also the fact that EVI would grow up to be nowhere near the same sort of prig he was - thanks to, you guessed it, no Lady Latimer, who'll become Lady Seymour at a much earlier point here.

Also, no reconciliation between Hal and his kids - OTL courtesy of Lady Latimer. Mary didn't like Kitty Howard, and Elizabeth is very young, although she is Kitty's cousin through her mother. Kitty's barely out of her teens, and if the Howards are pulling the strings, they're gonna see to it that Henry focuses more on the half-Howard kids than the two bastard daughters.

Though the survival of Thomas Culpeper will be another knock-on effect. Unless Henry has his block knocked off because for whatever. Lady Rochford would still be alive, too.
 
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