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The Six Wives of Henry VIII, A New (I Hope) Perspective - Page 3

© Ellen McDaniel-Weissler

The eldest son, Arthur, born in 1486, became Prince of Wales and heir to the throne of England. His sister Margaret, born in 1489, would provide the first of the Tudor attempts at cohesion with the Scottish upstarts to the north, when she was given in marriage to James IV in 1503. The future Henry VIII, born in 1491, provided the security of a second son in case Arthur should not survive, but was intended for a celibate career in the Church. (What an interesting exercise for the imagination is picturing that eventuality!)

The final surviving child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, the Princess Mary (born in 1495), may have lived the happiest life of all. Persuaded against her will by her brother, Henry VIII, into marriage with King Louis XII of France in 1514, she bargained to be allowed to choose her own second husband when the aged Louis should die. This Louis obligingly did on New Year's Day 1515, a mere 3 months after their wedding. Henry, although apparently aware that her chosen love was his friend Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, sent the same Brandon to France to escort his widowed sister back to England. Fearing that Henry would not keep his side of the bargain, Mary persuaded Charles to marry her secretly in France, thus forestalling any plans her brother might have harbored to use her in securing yet another foreign alliance.

The couple returned to England in disgrace and paid a heavy fine for their impudence, but Mary remained Henry's favorite sister (he named one of his ships, the ill-fated Mary Rose, after her.) Charles remained Henry's best friend until his death in 1545, and Mary apparently lived happily with her true love until her tragically early death in 1533.

At the time of Henry VII's victory at Bosworth and ascent to the throne, England was at best a second-rate power in the European world, vastly overshadowed by the wealthy, civilized and much older cultures in Italy, France and Spain. Henry Tudor wished very much to bring England to the fore as a first- class international player and arbiter of world events. To this end he managed, through quite cunning diplomacy, to convince one of the world's wealthiest and pre-eminent nations to ally with his family in marriage. The "Most Christian Princes", King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, joint rulers of Spain, consented to give their daughter to England for a political marriage with Arthur, Prince of Wales - their youngest daughter, true, but a glittering coup for the "usurper" Henry Tudor, nonetheless.

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