Tudor Variations

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

More to the point, what if Catherine of Aragon had given him a healthy male heir or so early in their marriage?

It's quite possible that Henry would have remained nominally Catholic and that Protestantism would have been eliminated, or greatly set back, in England.

It's also possible that one of those sons married Mary Queen of Scots, resulting in unification of Scotland and England 50 years before it historically happened.

Another possibility is what would have happened if Henry VIII had better health? There is some speculation that his behavior in later life was caused by either syphilis or cumulative traumatic brain injuries from jousting. He was certainly crippled in old age by jousting injuries, which helped contribute to his obesity.

Had Henry lived longer, his son Edward might have had more time to develop and learn before he assumed the throne, and might have been a longer-lived and more successful king. In that case, his illegitimate half sister, Elizabeth, would have been married off to some minor English noble or foreign lord and would have been more or less lost to history.

Or that Henry VIII's instructions in his will had been followed as he intended? Henry VIII left a rather elaborate will, setting up a council to govern a regency until his son was of age, with elaborate instructions on how it was all supposed to work, instructions that were largely ignored. I sometimes wonder what would have been the result if they had been followed.