On 8th June 1536, Henry VIII’s sixth Parliament met and passed the second Act of Succession.
This act removed both of the king’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, from the line of succession and declared them illegitimate.
Henry VIII was now left with no legitimate children.
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On the same day that the act was passed, Mary wrote to her father the king n an attempt to be reconciled with him and return to court. She thought that now her stepmother, Anne Boleyn, was dead, all would be well. She was wrong. Click here to read more.
So now Henry had Parliament declare his youngest daughter illegitimate, he had effectively removed her mother from the face of the earth, and now had taken away her inheritance to, he had done the same to his eldest child Mary who had fought bitterly against her demoted status, once the right high and noble princess Mary and heir to his throne, she was bastardised when her parents marriage was declared invalid, she had bitterly resented her baby sister born to the hated Anne Boleyn, now maybe she felt some sympathy for her, and Elizabeth had not just lost her titles but her mother to, this was drawn up on the 8th of June 1536 to prepare the way for his legitimate heir he wished to have with his new queen, his one and only true queen as the others had never been, according to his thinking of course, but he was head of his church now so no more interference from Rome and his word was law, Anne Boleyn had planted the seeds in his mind about how kings were answerable to no one but god but in the end it had proved her downfall, as Elizabeth played in her sumptuous nursery at Hatfield under the care of Lady Bryan blissfully unaware her world had crashed down upon her, her half brother Henry Fitzroy whom she was fated never to meet attended Parliament and by all accounts was in good health, was he hopeful of becoming his fathers heir now his two sisters were bastardised? He may have hoped Jane would give him another useless daughter so he might be given that glorious title, we do not know he was married to the dead queens cousin but had not consummated the marriage, this young lad was seventeen now a good sportsman and described as being a lovely natured boy, all the more shocking when news of his death broke which was sudden and how the king must have grieved, Henry V111 had not been fortunate with his children, the fates had blessed him with great physical beauty and a keen cultured mind, but had not endowed him with the one thing that mattered to a king, that of the ability to sire healthy sons, he could not cope with losing his only son left and informed the boys father in law the Duke of Norfolk to make arrangements for his funeral, his young widow Mary joined him in his beautiful tomb twenty one years later, never having remarried, it is believed Fitzroy died from consumption which plagued so many in Tudor times, the symptoms of coughing combined with blood is typical of the consumptive patient, but he had not lingered unlike some victims for many months or even a year, he had been taken quickly which made his demise all the more shocking, had he had a child with his wife, we may have had Henry’s descendants among us today, albeit through the bastard line, a rather droll thought indeed.