autrenecherche:

So like, I’ve talked about precedence of the WOTR in regards to Henry VIII, also civil war vs. succession in general, but something I haven’t touched on (and that I haven’t seen touched on, actually) is his desire for haste in the annulment possibly having something to do with the close precedence of the heir in  question upon Edward IV’s death.

Henry knew he wasn’t immortal, obviously, and the last time an heir was left before they reached their majority (Edward V…Henry himself if you want to get really technical; but I’m gonna call 17-almost-18 a ‘close enough’) and a Lord Protector was left for them…that heir had not gone on to have a long reign. 

A lot about that might have hit too close to home for Henry, potentially– the “news” was received that the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville was invalid (due to a “previous marriage”) after Edward’s death. Even if he had done the without-peaceful/successful-English-precedent thing and left Mary heir, the French had already raised questions about the legitimacy of her status– what would stop others from doing the same if Henry were to die? 

With only a daughter by KOA in 1527, and with others questioning her legitimacy as well, it really wasn’t in his best interest to just…keep on as things were.

Given that there had been royal annulments granted by the Pope before (even one in which the couple had been married for nearly 23 years; and there had been at least thirteen such annulments granted by the Pope for royal marriages before 1533, some in which the couple had issue); Henry didn’t have much reason to believe the process would take as long as it did (at the very least, not before the Sack of Rome). Ideally, he probably imagined that the annulment would go through by 1529 at the latest, that he would marry Anne in 1529 by the latest. His first child by another woman (Bessie Blount) had been a son; due to this he maybe hoped that Anne would give birth to a prince by 1530. And then, hopefully, Henry wouldn’t die until his son had reached majority– or very close to it.

As history went, that dream remained an “AU”– but, if it had gone that way and Henry had died in 1547, his son would have inherited the throne at 17…just as Henry himself had.