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Henry VIII: Lecher or Simple Family Man

© Ellen McDaniel-Weissler

In the midst of discussing the marriages and wives of Henry VIII, it is advisable to address the issue of Henry's presumed lustful career among the women of his court. In exploring this issue, it would be well to remember several realities of culture in England of the 16th century, as well as the accepted and expected lifestyles of European monarchs.

While kings were nominally expected to be faithful to their consorts, it is undeniably true that the infidelities of medieval male monarchs were generally winked at, expected, and accepted as part of the "natural" male need for sex. If a queen strayed from the marriage bed it could constitute a treasonable offense, because it might introduce non-royal blood into the line of succession. Specious reasoning notwithstanding, a king might take his pleasures "wheresoever he listed" as the saying was, without censure or loss of face in the sight of his populace - a cosmopolitan perspective which 20th century American politicians might well envy. Francis I of France, Henry's contemporary, was notoriously salacious, and reputedly slept with practically every woman in his court, from the serving wenches to the highest nobility - including, apparently, Anne Boleyn's older sister Mary, who would eventually become one of Henry VIII's few documented mistresses. Such a career between the sheets was not uncommon among the male royalty of medieval Europe.

Henry VIII on the other hand, for all his reputation as a womanizer and rogue, is documented to have had only three known mistresses in his entire reign (although, of course, it is entirely possible that there were others about whom no mention lingers in history). Much of his soiled reputation seems to spring from his multiple marriages - an odd twist of reasoning, considering that he legitimately married and planned to be faithful to each of the six women in question, rather than simply sleeping with them as his fellow monarchs seem to have been wont to do. (It is ironic that Henry gained such a reputation through repeated legitimate marriages while remaining one of the more faithful husbands on the royal scene at the time - while Anne Boleyn managed to gain a similar reputation through refusing to sleep with Henry outside of wedlock for six long years, thereby receiving vicious recriminations from the populace and the nickname of "the great whore", surely one of the most undeserved sobriquets in history.)

During the twenty-four years of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon Henry is only known to have had two documented mistresses. The first, Bessie Blount, bore him a son in 1519, whom he acknowledged fully by giving him the name Henry Fitzroy (literally Henry, son of the king), and whom he eventually raised to the title of Duke of Richmond. For some time, when a legitimate son did not appear, Henry toyed with the idea of having young Henry Fitzroy legitimized and made heir to the throne, but he feared that the sympathies of the English people were with Queen Catherine and their legitimate daughter, the Princess Mary, and so he held off from this decision. Poor young Fitzroy died at the age of 17 in 1536.

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