Living Descendants of King Henry the Eighth
I subscribe to a service called “SiteMeter” which allows me to see a limited amount of information about my visitors. One thing that I can see is if someone finds my site via a Google search. Recently, I’ve had a number of hits from people looking to find out about living descendants of King Henry VIII. My site isn’t really about that, but I thought I’d provide an answer anyway, as a public service.
There are no living descendants of King Henry VIII.
Henry’s father, King Henry VII, had four offspring who lived past childhood: Arthur, Margaret, Henry, and Mary. Arthur was always expected to be the next king, but he died in 1502. When Henry VII died in 1509, the kingdom was passed to his younger son, crowned Henry VIII.
Henry VIII had four known living offspring from four different women. His first wife, Catherine of Arragon, gave him a daughter, Mary (born 1516). He had an illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy (born 1519), with his mistress Elizabeth Blount. His second wife, Ann Boleyn, had a daughter Elizabeth (born 1533). His third wife, Jane Seymour, had a son, Edward (born 1537). Henry VIII would have three more wives, but no more children to carry on his line. And as we shall see, none of his four branches would bear fruit.
Henry FitzRoy died in 1536, while his father was still alive.
When Henry VIII died in 1547, young Edward became King Edward VI, but died in 1553 with no heir. He was 15 years old. That was the end of Henry’s Y chromosome. But what about the daughters?
There was a brief reign by Lady Jane Grey (not a descendant of Henry VIII, but a granddaughter of his sister Mary) and then Henry VIII’s daughter Mary took the throne as Queen Mary I of England. You may know her as Bloody Mary.
(Don’t confuse either Mary with Mary Queen of Scots, who was yet a third Mary. She is a descendant of Henry VIII’s sister Margaret. We’ll come back to her in a bit.)
Mary I of England died in 1558 with no offspring, leaving the country in the capable hands of her sister Elizabeth. During the 45-year-long reign of Queen Elizabeth I, we saw a new Golden Age which included the rise of Shakespeare and Sir Francis Bacon. But alas, we saw no heir. Elizabeth died in 1603, ending her father’s biological legacy forever.
The crown then passed to the son of Mary Queen of Scots, who was James VI of Scotland at the time. He became King James I of England. And Shakespeare quickly began work on Macbeth. Note that the British monarchy even today can be traced back to King Henry VII, the father of King Henry VIII.
But King Henry VIII himself has no known living descendants.
I hope this was helpful for at least some of you. For the rest of you, expect a new Conundrum tomorrow.
UPDATE: An anagram version of the answer!
November 9th, 2007 at 2:39 am
I don’t know much about it ,but there are other known children he had. Mary Boleyn had 2 children by Henry the 8th. Henry and Catherine. So theres still a possible chance their are some descendents of his. Supposedly he has 29 living descendents. From his own bloodline. Not his whole families.
November 9th, 2007 at 4:24 am
Welcome Sam!
There isn’t any evidence that Mary Boleyn’s children were fathered by Henry. There was some speculation at the time that one of them might have been, because Mary was one of Henry’s mistresses. But modern historians believe that he was born too late to have been a product of their affair.
Look, Henry certainly got around. It’s no doubt possible that he has living descendants today from his own bloodline. But none of them are known to us today.
And that’s lucky for me. Otherwise, I would have to change the anagram.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:38 am
There is evidence to suggest that Henry and Catherine Carey could have been the offspring of Henry VIII. He took a keen interest in both children’s up bringing despite the Boleyn disgrace, and under his daughter both children did well and were seemly favoured by her. It is said that the descendents of Henry and Catherine Carey bore a strong resemblence to their cousin and that Catherine particularly bore a stricking resemblence to Elizabeth, even down to the trade mark fiery red hair. To further support this you only have to look at the treatment of William Carey, Mary’s jilted husband. Through the years Mary shared Henry’s bed William Carey was bestowed with numerous, albeit minor, gifts of land, money and titles. These gifts particularly intensfied around the birth of both children, a very intriguing fact don’t you think? Despite the claims of some historians that the children were born outside of the affair it is not really known when either child were born, so it is possible they were born during the affair. The question is why, for a man so desperate for sons did Henry VIII not announce the child was his? There appears to be several reasons; firstly there was not the remotest chance that Henry Fitzroy, his son by Elizabeth Blount, could not have been his as she was not married- Mary Boleyn was. So even though it is quite possible that Henry Carey was his son, Henry VIII did not have undeniable proof and the last thing Henry wanted to do was divide the country by giving them a dubious claimiant as their next sovereign. Another reason was his devotion and desperation to marry Mary’s sister Anne Boleyn, in his papal plea Henry argued that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was void because she had been married and supposedly bedded by his older brother Arthur, the deceased Prince of Wales. So here you can see the irony, how could he then have a legal marriage ( he did intially seek a legal marriage) to the sister of a former conquest when he claimed his previous marriage was void for the very same fact- it is important to remember that in the beginning Henry was very keen to keep his divorce and remarriage all legal and properly done. Then you must consider the position of Anne Boleyn, if Henry Carey was indeed the son of Henry VIII he would be a thorn in the side of any son of her own, so perhaps she used her own considerable influence to ensure the boy was never recognised. Despite this Henry Carey was later given over into the care of Anne, why would a child of relative unimportance be given in to the Queen of England’s ward?In some quarters it is believed that Anne Boleyn took the child to strengthen her own position, particularly in later days when she failed to produce her own son.
It is possible that Henry Carey was the son of Henry VIII and particularly relevant when you consider Mary was widowed not long after the end of their affair. Perhaps in different circumstances this and the death of Catherine of Aragon could have resulted in their marriage and the legitimisation of Henry Carey into the heir apparent. Some may claim that this is a far fetched suggestion, however it is important to remember that Henry VIII’s own ancestor John of Gaunt had his illegimate children, the Beauforts, legitimised post birth when he eventually married their mother, these legitimised children later joined forces with the Tudors and culminated in the King Henry VII.
Even though Henry was reknowned for his overriding obsession to produce a healthy male heir he was also a statesmen and madly in love, perhaps he realised, at this time, during the turmoil he had already caused that pronouncing another illegitimate son would jeapodize his position further and also jeapodize his marriage and love for Anne Boleyn. He may have also genuiniely believed that his beloved Anne would produce him a hoard of sons and therefore felt there was not point in trying to legitamize a son whos paternity to the outside world was some what dubious. Perhaps in another time and place Henry Carey could have been recognized.
In the end it is the Carey children who have had the last laugh and gained their rightful recognition, for if Catherine and Heny are the children of this famous King our present day Queen is a direct descendent of both them and Henry VIII.
February 17th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Welcome, Jet! Thanks for your insights and information. I didn’t know QE2 was descended from the Carey children.
With the attention surrounding The Other Boleyn Girl, we can expect this topic to heat up. I don’t have much more to add than I wrote above, but I’ll throw this back in the Active category and invite others to join the discussion.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
thanks, ive had too much time on my hands evidently. The Tudors were a scandolous,hot blooded and blood thirsty lol, forget todays WAGS!
March 7th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I am a direct descendent of Catherine Carey. We are out here.
March 14th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Beth - would love to see your lineage.
what do you know about Henry Carey’s lineage ?
I am really interested in the modern ancestry of Henry VIII
illegitamate children .
Have found details of Henry Fitzroy but would love some background on Mary Boleyn’s children and their descendents