NetGalley ARC | Henry VIII's Children: Legitimate and Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Tudor King

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating | ⭐⭐⭐

I struggled a bit figuring out to even rate this one. There was definitely some author-bias and she was very pro-Cromwell and all of that came through clearly. Even so, this was a good read.

I think the children of Henry and his many wives are often overlooked, so I always appreciate books that focus on them specifically. Of all, Mary's childhood and teenage years show the most tumult. In the prime of their marriage, Henry was fully committed to the future Mary could have. He worked out deals regarding potential marriages, and the pageantry surrounding her birth indicated that all would be well and more children would come.

They would, of course, but no others would survive born of Catherine and Henry. Others too, with mistresses or wives, but the celebrations since Mary would not be duplicated until Edward came along and Jane had the good fortune to pass before Henry grew tired of her.

The main focus here are the four children officially recognized as Henry's heirs - Mary I, Henry Fitzroy, Elizabeth I and Edward VI. I appreciated Fitzroy's inclusion, and the depth with which the author discussed his life, as she did the lives of his siblings. I feel like so often, Fitzroy is kind of shuffled aside because he was not legitimate, and sometimes people do not realize how close he came to the throne. It's likely that Henry would have changed the rules of succession to see Fitzroy succeed him. But he died young at 17, though older than the others who died young as well - even Edward VI, who only made it to 15. Imagine a whole different Tudor world, potentially without ever seeing the other three take the throne. 

I honestly can not imagine growing up with the constant threat that your life could change on a whim, given Henry's paranoia and cruelty. Mary experienced the trauma most accutely, having been ripped from her mother's arms and never allowed to see each other again, even as Catherine was dying. It does not excuse the executions that took place under Mary's reign, but it certainly explains why she turned out the way she did, trying so hard to grasp onto a world that no longer existed.

The author discusses at length the childhoods of Henry's children. She details the make-up of their households, their teachers and nurses, the locations they lived or traveled to, and amounts of money spent for upkeep. These amounts are especially staggering in some cases when looked at in today's numbers.

Henry knew firsthand the dangers of not having enough sons. He was the spare, not considered for kingship, yet upon Arthur's death Henry's life changed immediately and drastically. Given how much time he suddenly spent with his own father, it is easy to see how he became paranoid over the succession. Henry would have also known of the Pretenders and others' claims to the crown of England. He knew he must have sons to continue the family line, yet over and over stillbirths and miscarriages stole heir after heir.

Despite the main focus being on the four acknowledged children, the author also explores the possible children that Henry never claimed. I have read many books about the Tudors over the years and there are so many varying opinions, yet just enough evidence to tell us exactly...nothing concrete.

It's likely that at least one of Mary Boleyn's children was fathered by Henry, but no record exists to tell us for sure. As for many of the others, I have a hard time believing that Henry really had that many illigitimate children. During the course of his marriage to Catherine, he had an affair with Bessie Blount, Fitzroy's mother. Then likely Mary, and the last few years of his first marriage were spent obsessed with Mary's sister Anne.

Henry was so obsessed, in fact, it is quite possible he would do nothing to risk finally being able to marry her and had no other affairs in that time. That is a rather large chunk of time, but Henry was always childlike in pursuit of something he really wanted when told he could not have it.

It is also curious that, if Henry did have other children with women who were unmarried at the time, why he did not acknowledge and raise them as he did Fitzroy. It's understandable why he did not do this with Mary's second child (if the boy was actually his), because Mary was married at the time and the children, Catherine and Henry, were raised belonging to her husband William. But Fitzroy's mother gave birth to their son, and a few years later was married off. This is also the affair that lasted the longest, something like seven or eight years.

Considering all of this, it is hard to see when Henry would have had time for numerous other affairs and children. I'm not saying there could not be others, I just think the varying claims by different authors make it all seem unlikely because no one can even agree on a number or what constitutes actual evidence. I've seen some authors suggest Henry fathered as many children as four or five others besides those most likely to be his (again, Mary's children). There's simply not enough evidence for this.

All things considered, I still found this a worthwhile read. The attention to detail of their childhoods was fantastic. I also appreciated seeing their stories overlap and how the siblings might have bonded, or not, as they grew under the watchful eye of their larger-than-life father. Mary knew him best, and suffered the most for it. Elizabeth and Edward were close as could be, given living arrangements. I wonder what they all thought of Fitzroy - Mary as having known of him, and the younger two being told of him later, perhaps? Elizabeth was only three when Fitzroy died, and Edward was born after.

Recommended.