Henry VIII's fertility

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John Parsons

Henry VIII's fertility

Legg inn av John Parsons » 28 sep 2005 03:59:01

You're entirely welcome, Tony. I have never accepted the low-fertility
theory for the simple fact that the math won't support it at all.

First, it is likely that we can credit Henry VIII with a bastard daughter
known as Etheldreda or Audrey Malte, the child of Joan Dingley or Dyngley,
said to have been a royal laundress. Joan Dingley later m. a man named
Dobson. Henry's tailor John Malte acknowledged Audrey as his illegitimate
daughter, or was persuaded to do so, but such a filiation hardly explains
the generous lands Henry granted Audrey. Audrey m. shortly after Henry's
death, probably in 1547, John Harrington or Harington (d. 1582); she was
living in 1555 (Cal. Patent 1555-57, pp. 95-96), & d.s.p. by 1559, probably
some little time before that as her husband's son by his second wife was
almost certainly b. 1560. Harington obtained much of Audrey's property
after her death, but clearly did not hold it by the courtesy so the marriage
cannot have produced living issue.

See: Sir John Harington [the younger], *A New Discourse of a Stale Subject
called the Metamorphosis of Ajax*, ed. Elizabeth Donno (New York-London,
1962, intro. pp. 1-2; N.E. McClure, ed, *Letters and Epigrams of Sir John
Harington (Philadelphia, 1930), p. 64; Misc. Genealogica et Heraldica, N.S.
3, p. 18, and iv, p. 191. The younger John Harington, who was a godson of
Elizabeth I, is credited with introducing the flush toilet mechanism into
England; hence the awful pun in the title of his book ("Ajax" = "a jakes").

Consequently we can summarize as follows.

Between 1509 and 1536 Henry VIII was responsible for at least 6 pregnancies
with Katharine of Aragon; 3 with Anne Boleyn; 1 with Jane Seymour; 1 with
Elizabeth Blount (Henry FitzRoy); 2 with Mary Boleyn; 1 with Joan Dingley;
and presumably 1 with Mary Berkeley, afterwards Perrott. In other words, 15
pregnancies in 27 years, not indicative of low fertility on Henry's part.

It is true that these pregnancies were not evenly distributed over time, but
it is clear that their sporadic occurrence was the result of Henry's
matrimonial history. Those with Katharine of Aragon were obviously
clustered between 1509 and 1518, and Henry FitzRoy was born in 1519. John
Perrott, Audrey Malte and Mary Boleyn's children were born in the mid- to
late 1520s, when Henry's conjugal relationship with Katharine had clearly
come to an end, but Anne Boleyn had not yet admitted him to her bed,
apparently preferring to leave that to her sister and other women in whom
Henry might find himself temporarily interested. Anne's pregnancies were
again obviously clustered during the years of her marriage to Henry, between
1533 and 1536, while Jane Seymour's pregnancy likewise has to be dated to
the period of her marriage to Henry in 1536-37.

As far as Ives' contention that Henry was "unable" to make Anne Boleyn
pregnant for more than a year after her failed pregnancy in 1534, it seems
to me equally correct to say that Anne failed to conceive for more than a
year after the miscarriage. We might note in this regard the fairly regular
succession of Katharine of Aragon's pregnancies between 1509 and 1518, and
the fact that Jane Seymour conceived Edward VI ca. Feb. 1537, not more than
9 months after her wedding. By 1534-35 Anne was in her mid-thirties and
just possibly her fertility was already declining.

Whatever anxieties Henry VIII might have had about his ability to father
children are far more likely to have been related to dynastic concerns that
were doubtless drummed into him from the time he became heir to the throne.

Regards

John P.

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