The ultimate irony…

Henry was a very healthy young man,
and as was his royal prerogative,
he bedded and wenched many young ladies..
his boots as they say, were large and he did indeed fill then heartily..

and therein lies a clue to what may have been the ultimate irony in his life

contraception was available to a degree, in middle England,
there were ways and means of preventing unwanted pregnancy’s,
pebbles douche cloth etc etc ….

and yet according to “history”
Henry only sired one child with anyone other than a wife,

Bessie Blount, a good time girl, who frequented the tavern’s of London
became pregnant to Henry and gave birth to a son..Henry Fitzroy,

but was King Hal’ the only fella to bed Miss Blount,
it’s unlikely, being that her profession/career was….a good time girl…

so there must be a possibility that the child sired by Henry
was perhaps not his but taken as such to benefit Ms Blount,

given that Hal’ was bedding everything in sight from an early age
it’s remarkable that he did not have hoards of offspring running around London town,

medical science of today would, given his activities, suggest that Henry was
suffering from a very low sperm count and given his future history with regard to male sires
it would also be a fair assumption that he was a carrier of a male chromosome fault,

today IVF could have provided him with a male heir,
and surely Hal’ would have ignored the moral dilemma of choosing a baby’s sex,

he (and Katherine) had many mis -carriages
and could only sire a female child…

which brings us to Anne Boleyn,
once Anne “gave in” they were, as they probably said in those days
“at it like rabbits” yet it still took a while for Anne to become with child…

and then she gave birth to a female child…

try again next year and unfortunately for Anne (and Henry)
she mis-carried and then a few months later again she mis-carried
and history records that it was male deformed foetus..

the genetic fault more than likely coming from Henry
(his past medical history with Katherine would suggest this etc )

and then to Jane Seymour, the most tragic of his Queens,

how soon Henry was bedding Jane is just a guess
but she certainly wasn’t as chaste, for as long as Anne had practised,

and finally after all the years of bedding every wench he desired
(and there were many), finally, Jane gave birth to healthy male child from the seed of King Hal’

after perhaps 25 years of wenching …
Henry finally managed to produce a sperm that wasn’t defective

or did he,

medical science would today, be more than surprised to hear of a patient
with the history of Henry managing to eventually sire a male child…

In the world of today’s’ statisticians, it’s said that
1 in 10 children born are not actually the progeny of the actual father/husband
they are the result of an adulterous liaison…
and that, given the nature of stats, is probably slightly lower than the actual number…

Henry the Eighth, King of England signed the death warrant of his Queen, Anne Boleyn
because according to historical records, he believed that his Queen had been unfaithful
and had indulged in sexual relations with other men..

an offense of treason that still exists today (as does the death penalty for said crime)

Is it credible however to suggest that a woman (Anne) known for her haughty arrogance
would really cuckold the one guy who could remove her arrogance with a single stroke of a pen

she may not have been the cleverest woman in Britain
but she certainly was womanly wise, (she caught the biggest fish in the pond..!!)
and would be fully aware of the repercussions of cheating on her husband,
she may well have cheated, but for a few stolen moments of illicit pleasure
would she really have risked her status her throne and her life ?

and so to Jane….
behind Jane was the Seymour family,
perhaps no better nor no worse than those that had gone,
but for them, they had the good fortune to have seen what went before
and they, and Jane , were fully aware of the Kings’ need…..

a son, a male child , an heir to the Tudor throne,

if Jane could not provide Henry with what he wanted, needed and demanded,
then perhaps she to would go the way of Anne, and the Seymour family also,
would fall from the grace of the King…

given Henry’s’ previous medical history,
it’s somewhat of a miracle that he finally managed,
after all the women he’d bedded,
to produce a male heir….

nowadays many a husband would be demanding a DNA test…

was Jane “studded” by an unknown profligate of male children ?

Was the ultimate irony in Henry’s life,
the fact that he executed his 2nd wife for adultery
when it was in fact his 3rd wife who may have indulged
in such actions to procure and protect her own life ?

we shall never know….