A Brief History
On September 7th, 1533, in what had to ironically have been one of the most disappointing births in history, the future Queen Elizabeth I of England made her grand entrance onto the world and political stage.
Digging Deeper
The first article of this series on the Six Wives of Henry VIII discussed the possibility that Catherine of Aragon might have lied about being a virgin at the time of her marriage to Henry. This article focuses on the consequences of Anne Boleyn denying Henry sex and what might have happened had she not.
By divorcing Catherine of Aragon and breaking from the Church in Rome, Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, had almost literally moved hell and high water for her to be born. At the time of her birth, however, Henry VIII would have believed no one who might have told him that she, Gloriana, would go on to be one of England’s greatest monarchs and have an entire age named after her; that it would be under her reign that the English Age of Exploration would begin and the seeds of the British Empire be sewn. None of this mattered on September 7, 1533. All that mattered was that Henry, once again, had no legitimate son to carry on the Tudor Dynasty.
There have been many essays and articles written on historical “what ifs.” How might the present era look if this or that did not happen? The most popular “what if” involving Tudor England is “What if just one of Catherine of Aragon’s sons had survived infancy and grown into adulthood?” It is universally accepted that Henry VIII would never have divorced her had this been the case. With no divorce, there would have been no break from the Church in Rome, and England would have stayed a Catholic country for a while yet; just how long can only be speculated, as the Protestant wave would probably have reached England at some point in time anyway, but as the papally-declared “Defender of the Faith,” Henry would have fought it off during his lifetime. At any rate, the course of history would have been changed dramatically, the world would undoubtedly be a different place than it is, and all us might not be here.
This article does not elaborate on the conventional Tudor “what if.” Instead it discusses a less common one, but one that could have had just as juicy results. What if Anne Boleyn HAD SLEPT with HENRY VIII? She obviously slept with him at some point in order for Elizabeth to be conceived, but she did initially reject his advances and left him hanging like a love-sick puppy for at least 8 years. It had been her ploy to ensure that he make her not just his official mistress but also his wife. She had learned from her elder sister, Mary Boleyn, that royal mistresses got discarded without so much as a pension or thank you once Henry VIII grew tired of them. In addition, by the time Anne caught Henry’s attention, Henry was already beginning to have doubts about his marriage’s validity, and Anne used that to her advantage. In fact, Henry’s eventual break from Rome may have been partially encouraged by Anne, as she is known to have had Protestant leanings. In other words, the importance of this woman cannot be underestimated, and on the whole, Anne Boleyn had the most lasting historical impact of all of his six wives.
But back to 1525 – Henry courts Anne. It is doubtful that any women could have pulled off what Anne Boleyn did. Keeping a man interested by denying him sex for nearly 8 years is a tough feat. Had Anne been any other woman, she probably would have slept with her king and perhaps even borne him a child before being married off to some country gentleman. This was the common practice, but in Anne’s case this might have eventually meant: 1) no divorce from Catherine of Aragon; 2) no break from the Church in Rome; 3) no Virgin Queen. Anne had been the initial impetus behind the first two. Henry may have already had his doubts, but whether he would actually have gone ahead with divorce without the encouragement and motivation of his sly, cunning and fertile girlfriend can only be speculated. More likely, he would have pursued other avenues to ensure the survival of his dynasty.
The most likely course of events would be to be succeeded by Mary, his daughter with Catherine of Aragon. For Catherine, herself the daughter of Isabella of Castile, a queen in her own right, this was the obvious choice. Of course this possibility might have meant the discontinuation of the dynasty, but Henry might then have considered the option of marrying Mary to her illegitimate half-brother Henry Fitzroy, keeping the monarchy under Tudor control so to say. Today a solution like that might seem repugnant, but amongst royalty inbreeding was common. If Henry truly was worried about the continuation of this dynasty, he might also have considered passing an act of Parliament that ensured that the heirs of his daughter would carry the name of Tudor. Something similar was done in regard to the children of Queen Elizabeth II; although their father’s last name is Mountbatten, they carry the surname of Windsor.
Another option might have been to marry Mary to her cousin James V of Scotland, thus uniting the two kingdoms on the island. For the Scots this would have likely been an ideal choice, as Scotland would then have swallowed England, but the English could not warm up to the idea. When just a few years later the tables were turned, however, and it was England who would later have the boy king and Scotland the girl queen, England began its “rough wooing” of Mary, Queen of Scots, which basically entailed the use of force and which is the reason why Mary fled to the safety of France because there she could not be forced to marry the future Edward VI, son of Henry VIII. Had Henry known that just 56 years after his death, a Scottish king would be handed the English throne, he might have swallowed his pride about giving his kingdom to the Scots through matrimony with his daughter Mary.
Henry might even have considered a foreign husband from the continent for his daughter, but foreigners had always been viewed with distrust and suspicion, which might have cost Mary the allegiance of her subjects.
And lastly, Henry could have married his daughter to a powerful English nobleman. This last option might, however, have sparked what Henry VIII feared most – a continuation of the Wars of the Roses in which powerful English families had fought for control of the throne.
As it was, none of these options needed to be considered seriously because as soon as Henry got involved with Anne and saw that she was not caving into his lust, he made up his mind that the only solution regarding the succession and future of the Tudor Dynasty would be to get out of his marriage and to sire a boy. The rest is history as we know it, and we were given William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, the American colonies, the list goes on… Siring a second girl was the best thing Henry VIII ever did.
Stay tuned next month for another article on the 6 Wives of King Henry VIII; this time on his third wife Jane Seymour!
Question for students (and subscribers): What if Anne Boleyn had slept with Henry VIII? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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For another interesting event that happened on September 7, please see the History and Headlines article: “10 Underperforming Weapons.”
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Historical Evidence
For more information on this topic, please see the following resources:
Charles River Editors. Establishing the Elizabethan Age: The Lives and Legacies of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.
King of England Henry VIII. The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="4701 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=4701">53 Comments
What if Michelle had slept with Al Sharpton? Their kid would look like Cheetah in the Tarzan movies.
I think that she was a con-artist. She wanted Henry, yet played all the cards to her advantage (so she thought). I guess her sister failed to tell her what would happen if she would have had a male child for her royal lover. Women are so tedious sometimes, and will cut their noses off to spite their face.
I agree! These days so many women admire Anne Boleyn. I have no idea why. Anne Boleyn was a manipulative homewrecker. She knew what she was doing when she broke up Henry’s marriage with Katherine of Aragon. She was 32 years old when she and Henry got married… clearly she was not a foolish teenager! She was a conniving adult. She may have been innocent of the charges brought against her, but when you live by the sword, you die by the sword. If you play a high stakes game, don’t be surprised if you lose everything as quickly as you won it.
I feel that it was her refusal to sleep with him that made him want her more. As much as he wanted a boy to carry on his and his father’s dynasty, I’m sure her playing hard to get was also a huge factor in deciding to divorce his first wife to be with her. I think they go hand in hand.
It is so fascinating that if you change one little thing in history… the consequences that go along with that change. — DAVID WARDLE
The whole course of England’s history could have been changed if this would have gone differently. Henry’s love hexagon is a strange complex.
I agree with below comments, King Henry didnt just divorce his first wife because he wanted to have a son…although it was one of the reasons it was not the only one.
interesting article! I agree with Daryl. Maybe it was part of her plan to play hard to get so Henry would pay more attention to her.
Butterfly affect. It’s awesome how if one small thing changes it could change everything.
Henry did not divorce his wife for the son. He did it for much more devious reasons.
I knew there must have been another reason he divorced his wife not for the simple fact she didnt have a son. That seemed a little too childish for me to believe
I never had considered the idea of denying a monarch sex in this time period, if I’m being honest. I would have always assumed they kind of got their way, so to speak. It is good to hear this was not the case here though, no matter the consequences.
This confirms that he had another reason for wanting to divorce her. Not a good one either.
Interesting to see that there was another reason for the divorce beside her not being able to give him a son
an interesting choice on her part.
I find it quite interesting that out of one man’s lust, an entire era was created. While Henry the VIII may have done a number of horrible things in his lifetime, without some of these actions we never would have had a number of great discoveries, advancements, and pieces of writing that still influence the world today.
Very interesting article!
I find it really interesting that small decisions such as this can have such a profound effect on the rest of history.
If Anne Boleyn had just slept with Henry VIII without a marriage than he would have gotten bored early on and history would be forever changed.
This article is very interesting. It makes me think he was very lustful and simply got bored with his wives.
The power of nobility and royalty throughout most of history is pretty ridiculous when you think about it. This isn’t the first and won’t be the last time that we discuss how people who were in power abused it in ways that were horrific (although somehow, some of these awful abuses of power end up resulting in some sort of scientific or religious advancement?)
If Anne would have just slept with Henry it might have saved her the trouble of having to marry Henry.
This was a great article. If she would just have slept with Henry then she would have lived and Henry would have just moved on.
It’s kind of comical that the birth of Queen Elizabeth was considered to be a disappointment.
Back then, giving birth to a girl was a huge disappointment, especially in King Henry’s case. However, it is funny to think that Queen Elizabeth would go on to be one of the most influential rulers England has ever had.
Giving Birth to a girl back then was not cool and you were seen as a bad wife kind of crazy to think about.
Weird how royalty inbreeding was a thing or even thought of, gross
I’m not usually a fan of what if historical essays but I found this one to be extremely interesting. It very well could have changed the course of history
I don’t understand how inbreeding was considered a normal thing at this time in history!!
As the article stated, with the Protestant religion on the move it seemed only a matter of time that the religious state in England would shift.
Fun with chaos theory.
This girl really had strong will to lead her king on for 8 years! Also, it makes no sense on how they were okay with incest!
The inbreeding thing is for sure weird. But I can’t believe this is actually a theory and this lady could have possibly lied about being a virgin. That’s a pretty big thing to lie about today. I couldn’t imagine back then.
This is a fun theory about the possibility of sleeping around. It’d be really ting to find out what really happened but we’ll never know.
It is interesting to think how history could have gone differently if Henry had not divorced his first wife and kept England Catholic. It is such a small thing that would have had far reaching effects.
i find it sick that they were ok with doing inscet bur back then i suppose royal blood was more important to them so that why they did it and didnt care about the lasting effects it could have on the children and later generations.
It’s crazy to think events like no break from the catholic church could have happened and then what? History could have changed course and gone a lot differently.
Royalty inbreeding is VERY WEIRD
The domino effects of what seem like such non-important parts of history are so interesting to imagine. Little things along the course of history can have such huge implications, it is kind of incredible.
The power from royalty seems to always be abused. Not everyone is fit for the roll
I think if she had, he may of gotten sick of her prior to their marriage and instead found a different women to find reason to divorce Catherine of Aragon with.
Henry definitely would have gotten sick of her if she had sex with him right away! They always say men want what they cannot have.
I feel like this whole situation has come down to a lot of “What ifs” like what if she would have had sex with him right away? Or what if the church did not have as much power? I find myself doing this a lot when learning about history I often wonder the “What ifs” more than I actually analyze the facts.
this proves that something so small can turn into something bigger than we thought
So interesting that one small decision could have altered history so much.
With so many different options, its crazy to think about how many different outcomes could have resulted from one change early on.
I would agree with the comments that discuss the power of the nobility and how they abused it. Kind of like those Celebs today lol.
I dont understand the interbreeding
Yay, lets marry family members! What a time to be alive.
Literally laughed out loud at Max Bechara’s comment.
I could see why she wouldn’t crave into his lust.
its crazy to think that if catherine would of had a boy religious and englands even the worlds history would have been so different today! too bad it was all henry’s faultanyways because it is a males sperm that determines the gender of a baby
Very butterfly affect indeed,