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How the death of a promising heir changed the course of world history, and lead to the disastrous end of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
It was 1486 in England. The king was yet another Henry, the seventh of this name to rule the kingdom. Many of the people, noble and peasants alike, didn’t agree that this Henry had the right to rule. His claim to the throne was weak, based on descent, in the female line, from the fourth son of King Edward III, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. That king Edward had many sons and many descendants and those descendants squabbled over their right to the throne for centuries, resulting in years of turmoil for the kingdom. Some supported the Duke of Lancaster, some supported the Duke of York. This Henry was the heir to neither. His royal lineage came from his mother, who descended from the bastard born, later legitimized son of John of Gaunt. Even worse, his father’s father was a lowborn Welshman who had seduced a widowed queen, Catherine of Valois.
Yet, despite this tenuous genealogy, Henry’s true claim to the throne was through war, which was won on Bosworth Field, when he defeated the maligned King Richard III. Richard was accused of murdering the rightful heirs to the throne, the sons of his brother, and usurping the throne. Many wanted him dead, and were all too happy to let Henry rule in his…
