Tag: answered

Can I just express my annoyance with historians who like, love to point out that Katherine of Aragon had put on weight later in the marriage?? As if they’re saying “she’d gotten so F A T how could Henry be expected to love her now”??? I mean most of them mention how she went through numerous pregnancies and a lot of stress, but idk it tends to leave a bad taste in my mouth…

Oh for sure… I mean, even if she hadn’t had several pregnancies, that like…still happens? Our metabolisms slow as we age, so people tend to put on weight later in life. The same thing happened to Henry, too, even before the significant leg injuries; we can tell by the increasing measurements of his armour. 

There’s a lot of fatphobic…tones, at the very least, by a lot of historians, if not an outright fatphobic rhetoric/commentary. Starkey’s speech for the five-hundred-year mark of Henry VIII’s included fatphobic remarks about COA (comparing her to Queen Victoria and making snide remarks about her weight as well) that I particularly did not care for.  

Tbh, they can all spare me with the ‘he had totally fell out of love/devotion with her’ when they mark it as far earlier than it realistically was. He literally nearly caused an international incident that ambassadors had to smooth over (#Beardgate) in 1520 because she told him to shave. If he was ~repulsed~ by the inevitable weight gain of six previous pregnancies, then how exactly was she pregnant in 1518? Magic?

SO I recently read ‘The Private Lives of the Tudors’ by Tracy Borman and 1. would recommend as a read bc it goes from Henry VII right the way to Elizabeth I. But 2. it talks about potentially there being a genetic problem with Henry VIII that may have contributed to the miscarriages of KOA and Anne Boleyn, and apparently new research has shown there can be a link between a male issue and female miscarriages, what do you think? Would love to hear ur opinion it too!!

I’m not really a fan of Tracy Borman, honestly? But I’ve never read that book so I can’t judge it. 

Have talked more about this theory here.  I remain pretty skeptical of it. If we look at the pregnancy-to-full-term and miscarriage patterns of Bessie Blount, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour alone (as in…their first children by Henry were to term) the theory makes sense. When we look at COA’s, however, it doesn’t:

[Mary] wasn’t Katherine of Aragon’s first child; Katherine’s previous four children all died in the womb or soon after birth. If Henry did carry the big K antigen, he likely passed it on to one of Katherine’s first four babies, and Katherine would have developed antibodies to it, devastating her later pregnancies. Mary never would have been born…. “Katherine of Aragon’s initial
miscarriages and perinatal deaths, followed by a
successful fifth pregnancy are not typical of Kell antigen
sensitivity.”

We also don’t know, in the case of Blount and Seymour, if they would’ve had pregnancies by Henry that ended in healthy births because their first children by Henry were also their last. 

I think the theory became popular because it doesn’t make sense if we look at fertility (or not really even fertility, as there were technically several pregnancies by him in his lifetime but…births to full-term, rather) as a genetic…sort of inheritance? Elizabeth of York and Henry VII had several children, so why would Henry VIII not? Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV did the same. Ferdinand and Isabella also did, Elizabeth and Thomas Boleyn had three children that survived to adulthood, etc. So, Henry VIII must have simply been unlucky enough to have the Kell positive blood type. 

The Kell theory also links into McLeod’s to explain his behavior and mental state later in life, but proves inconsistent in signs of McLeod’s:

However, although Henry displayed significant behavioural
change, he was not reported to have a neurological
movement disorder such as epilepsy, and his chronic leg
ulcer caused considerable pain, arguing against a sensory
neuropathy. 

I think the theory disregards other factors that could have led to miscarriages and stillbirths. The Tudor diet was not the best (although the diet of Queen Consorts was far more nurtitious and plentiful than the majority of England at the time); and as the water was not safe to drink alone, women drank watered-down ale or wine throughout the duration of their pregnancies. 

Given contemporary description, it is also possible that Anne Boleyn was underweight. Underweight women are generally at a greater risk of miscarriage.