Monday, April 27, 2009

Question from Jessica - Descendants of Henry VIII alive today

I tried the search option and didn't come up with the answer to my question, so I apologize if this has been asked/answered previously.

Are there any direct descendants of Henry VIII alive today?

Thank you for your time.

11 comments:

Kathy said...

There aren't any that anybody knows of. He only acknowledged being the father of Mary I (by Katherine of Aragon), Elizabeth (by Anne Boleyn), Edward VI (by Jane Seymour) and Henry, Duke of Richmond(illegitimate by Elizabeth Blount). None of these had any descendants, legitimate or otherwise.

If you read the threads further down, there are a lot of questions as to whether any of Mary Boleyn Carey's children are Henry VIII's or not. Any descendants would come through that line, but he didn't claim any of them as his children, so it's all speculation.

Unless and until any DNA analysis is available, the only answer can be no, that there are no living descendants of Henry VIII. There are, however, well documented descendants of both of his sisters, Margaret and Mary.

Monica said...

None that are recognised as such. There is a lot of speculation about the paternity of Henry and Catherine Carey, and if they were Henry's then his descendants would include Elizabeth II. There are also many others who have been claimed as Henry's illegitimate offspring and one of these went on to have descendants. However, there is no historical evidence whatsoever to link Henry to this man or his mother.

Unknown said...

If this makes any difference, my name is Kaiden Tudor and was just curious of my family history so I searched in history books and eventually got on the Internet and this is the website I found.

Anonymous said...

I have just seen Kaiden Tudor's submission today. As she appears to be in the USA she may not be aware that the Tudor name is alive and well in Wales today as a first name as well as a family name. Also the are many variations in spelling. No doubt Kaiden will be aware that the royal line of Tudor originated in Wales as is evidenced in the appearance of the red dragon of Wales in the royal emblems which can be seen in the Tower of London.
Pedr Twdr Lewis, Wales.

Anonymous said...

My mom's side of my family's name is Tudor. My grandmother's cousins and all of her family have the last name of Tudor.

Unknown said...

This is bull crap as I have had my DNA tested and a Tudor in Texas showed up as being in the lines. I am a Howard. The real deal and somewhere the Howards bred with the Tudors.

L34NN said...

I had once had to do a project in my social studies class in middle school, and following my ancestry from my grandmother's father (going straight up from father to father and such) i had gotten to a name (that i currently can't remember because i had lost the official document) with a veeeery familiar name in the father's place. That being Henry VIII. Looking in the place of the sibings` names, i swear i lost a bolt from how bad i was flipping out, was Mary Tudor, aka Mary Stuart. Of which i should have expected considering all of my ancestor's last name was Stewart.Now being an illegitimate child, i could do nothing to ascertain anything of Henry's family name, or fame. But it was pretty awesome anyways.

I do remember though that the mother of my ancestor was name Mary (and my first thought, looking at his wives and daughters was that he liked the name mary)

Terry Booth said...

I am a descendant of Jane Seymour's brother, and have records of this, but my long dead Aunt Jane, Queen of England's son by Henry VIII, who was later King Edward VI, died without issue. Of course Queen Elizabeth I nor Mary I had any either. As far as is known there are no direct descendants of King Henry VIII living.

taylorremy said...

I am a direct decendent of Richard Edwards who is said to be Henry's bastard child. Henry paid for his college at Oxford, granted him a castle with land, and allowed him and his mother to use his royal seal for their family. Royals don't just allow people to use their seals unless they are related to them. His last name was Edwards (my mothers maiden name) because Richards mother Agnas was married to a man by the last name of Edwards. Although Richard took his mothers husbands last name, he did not claim Richard as his son because he knew that he was King Henry's son.

Lightcast International said...

We have a line to Henry VIII, in short my grandmother from Nashville Tennessee was a Plummer, later back married Carey (one female crossover in the line) -- Henry Carey --is (Son or Mary Boleyn aka Mary Carey Aka Mary Stafford and Mary mistress to Henry and sister to Anne Tudor. I just finished my tree on that side. Also from Henry on male side keeps going back to King Beli around 80 BC. Beli Mawr ("Beli the Great")

Anonymous said...

Descendants of Henry’s bastards are everywhere. I myself descend from the Mary Boleyn line of them.