What if Henry marries Mary Boleyn, considering his marriage to Catherine of Aragon null and void and considering his (secret) promise to marry Mary + consummation thereof as a legitimate marriage, legitimizing Henry and Catherine Carey as his children?
At one point during the King's Great Matter the Pope advised him to get married in secret to Anne and deal with the consequences later, so to speak, because if he asked for permission to marry Anne the Emperor would force a prohibition and then the issue would be illegitimate (if he married her in good faith the children would be legitimate). Say Henry is especially convinced of the illegallity of his marriage to Catherine and is excited by Mary Boleyn's fertility. He promises to marry her, obviously consummates the union over and over, resulting in a legitimate marriage (sponsalia de futuro > sponsalia de praesenti) and thus legitimate issue.
My immediate thoughts:
- No break with Rome.
- Definitive break with Habsburgs; alliance with France tightened during a period (ie, until Catherine dies).
- Mary's legitimacy conserved because he entered marriage with Catherine in good faith, here he doesn't have to divorce her and bastardize Mary like OTL
- When Henry dies in 1547, he leaves the throne secure to an adult male heir, Henry, Prince of Wales, then aged 21.
- He additionally has the Lady Mary, by then 31 (most likely still unmarried), Catherine, by then 27 (possibly married?), and probably a few other children given Mary Boleyn's OTL fertility (another daughter born 1536, a son born 1536).
- We could possibly see Henry VIII remarry or Prince Henry marry, for example, Margaret Douglas, Magdalene de Valois, Christina of Denmark, Maria Manuela of Portugal, Marie of Portugal (Duchess of Viseu OTL), Marie of Guise, Maria of Castille or any one of the Austrian archduchesses.
What do you guys think? Any other thoughts?