The Troubled Childhoods of the Heirs of King Henry VIII
Four children raised without their mothers because of a King’s obsession with producing a male heir to the throne
History paints King Henry VIII as a tyrant and understandably so, because that’s what he became in his later years. But he didn’t start that way.
Young Henry was a tall, slender, and happy young prince when he stepped into the role fate handed him at age 18. By all accounts, he was enchanted by the woman who was his first queen. Catherine was a tiny, gentle woman with a ready smile and long red hair that flowed to her hips.
They wed in June 1509 and by November of the same year, Henry happily wrote to her parents to proudly announce that she was ripe with his child. The young couple eagerly awaited the spring birth of their firstborn.
Sadly, on January 31, Catherine delivered a premature and stillborn daughter. Henry wrote to her parents again, a grieving and sorrowful letter to inform them of the loss of their child. The couple was devastated, but they were young and in love and didn’t wait to try again.
