A mother to a prince

A male heir was crucial to continuing the royal line and securing the kingdom. It was probably the queen’s most fundamental responsibility.

Henry was only the second Tudor monarch, and it was a dynasty founded primarily on conquest rather than heritage. A female heir was not good enough – in England there’d never been a ruling queen and a daughter’s accession could be challenged.

Catherine of Aragon, his first wife, became pregnant six times. Only one pregnancy produced a child that survived to adulthood – a daughter, Mary.

This became intolerable to Henry. In his crusade for a male heir he divorced her, creating the Church of England to do so.

Unfortunately, Anne Boleyn, the woman he married instead, also only provided him with a daughter – Elizabeth.

To make matters worse for Anne, one of the children she miscarried was believed to have had a deformity. This was associated with unfaithful or abnormal sexual practices and signalled the beginning of the end for her. She was executed in 1536.

When Henry finally did father a healthy son, Edward, the celebration was followed by sorrow. Jane Seymour, his third wife, died of postnatal complications 12 days later.