Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Question from Tasha - What if Anne Boleyn had had a son

Hi there, such a sucker when it comes to Tudor history. I've always wondered this, if Anne Boleyn gave henry a son would he have stayed with her and not married Jane Seymour? What do you think?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think yes.
If Anne Boleyn had given birth to a son that was healthy - and most of all, lived -, Henry probably would have stayed with her.

Luv said...

I think it depends on when Anne had a son. If she had given birth to a son before Elizabeth, or right after Elizabeth was born,and before he fell for Jane. Yes, Henry would have stayed with her,and all that he had done to obtain her would have been justify. However by the time Henry turn his eyes to Jane he was already looking for ways to rid himself of Anne. By that time Henry VIII already knew that any child he had with Anne would be deem illegitimate as long as Queen Katherine was still alive. So I do not think a son in that late stage of their 3 year marriage would have saved her. Anne was pregnant when queen Katherine had died,she lost the baby. She was sent to the tower 3 months later.

Laura M said...

Henry was already interested in Jane by January 1536 when Katherine died and Anne had her last miscarriage. So, essentially the death of Katherine and the miscarriage sort of coincided to decide Anne's fate. However, it really was the miscarriage more than anything that decided him. Yes, he already knew there would be questions about the legitimacy of the child in question, because of the difficulty with finding someone to betroth to Elizabeth, but if Anne had somehow managed to deliver a healthy boy in 1536, it would have vindicated all the decisions he had made until that point, more importantly, he wouldn't have wanted to risk "hoping" the next wife had a boy.

ready2takeflight.webb said...

I truly don't think so. I believe Anne had too many enemies in the court already working to overthrow her. I believe that regardless of her child birthing situation, evidence still would have "cropped up" to prove that she was unfaithful. She was not a very popular queen.