The reign of the five Tudor monarchs relatively closely followed the fatal fates of the famed “Princes in the Tower,” who are suspected of being killed so that their uncle, Richard III, could claim the throne.
Richard III’s downfall was ultimately brought down by the first Tudor ruler, Henry VII, whose eldest son, Arthur, died while still a youth, leaving the throne vacant for Henry’s second son to become Henry VIII.
Henry VIII and his sisters, Margaret and Mary, proceeded to produce some of the most tragic children and grandchildren to inhabit royal nurseries and gain crowns.
Mary I (1516-1558)
Mary was the eldest legitimate child of Henry VIII. She was born to Henry and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, following the couple having lost several other children.
While Mary was still a child, her father’s desperate desire for a male heir and his lust for Anne Boleyn motivated him to begin a long process to discard his marriage to Mary’s mother, who was beloved by the people as their queen.
Seeking to rid himself of Katherine, one of the methods Henry attempted to use in order to break the spirit of his wife was keeping Katherine away from Mary. This separation continued until Katherine’s death. During Henry’s third marriage, Mary was at least reconciled with her father, but following his death, she encountered difficulties during the reign of her younger brother due to his Protestant policies and her Catholic beliefs.
When Mary eventually inherited the throne, she hurried to wed, but having married Philip of Spain, she suffered the misery of a distant husband and a failure to produce children.
Her attempts to return England to the Catholic faith caused her to become ill-remembered by the writers of history and her plans were ultimately thwarted by her early death.
Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
Elizabeth was the second daughter of Henry VIII. She was born to Henry and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
For many reasons, including Anne already being pregnant with Elizabeth at the time of Anne and Henry’s marriage, Elizabeth was born into controversy, and these problems were not eased by Elizabeth failing to be the longed for male heir.
Ultimately, when Elizabeth was not yet three years of age, her mother was executed, and her father soon remarried.
Elizabeth’s father died when she was also still a child, and it is suspected that she was then possibly sexually molested by Thomas Seymour, who married her widowed step-mother, Katherine Parr.
Following Katherine Parr’s death and Thomas Seymour’s execution, Elizabeth recovered her reputation, and lived in some peace for the remainder of her brothers reign, but when her older half-sister, Mary, succeeded to the throne, Elizabeth was in danger due to the sisters’ opposing religious associations.
Although acclaimed for her shrewdness, by the time Elizabeth inherited the crown, she had been so starved of love and security that she could occasionally be motivated by jealousy and pettiness, and sorrowfully for her, she could rightly rarely fully trust any of her advisors.
Although her reign was long, it was not without many difficulties, and due to her outliving most of her contemporaries, many historians suggest that nearing the end of her life, she was greatly saddened.
Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary, Queen of Scots"Tragic Tudor Royal Children After Henry VIII" continues with short biographies of Henry's son and great-nieces.
Sources and Further Reading:
The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, Ballantine Books (1997)
Mary Tudor: A Life by David Loades, Wiley-Blackwell (1992)
Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne by David Starkey, Harper Perennial (2001)
Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser, Delta (1993)
Elizabeth Fredericks - Elizabeth Fredericks is a graduate of Oxford University, and she has worked as a freelance writer since her first paid assignment as a ...
