| January 15 |  |
Editor says, what if (triple POD) Henry VIII had been killed in his jousting accident while still married to his first wife Catherine of Aragon because son Henry Junior had survived childhood? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1536, on this day the forty-four year old King of England, Henry VIII was killed in a jousting accident at Greenwich Palace.
Defender of the Faith
By Ed & Scott PalterTudor, in full armour, was thrown from his horse, itself armoured, which then directly fell on top of him.
At the appex of his powers, a great "Defender of the Faith" had been taken from Catholic England. And the unfortunate timing of this appalling tragedy meant that his sickly twenty-five year old son, Prince Henry, Duke of Cornwall would prematurely inherit a divided nation locked in a schismatic power struggle with the Protestant faction.
Lacking his father's huge popularity in the country, he was quite unable to exercise anything like the same vice-like grip over this struggle - even on his own court. With the country disintegrating fast, he desperately needed the support of a willing Catholic ally.
Enter Philip II, King of Spain, who agreed to marry Henry IX's thirty-seven year old sister Mary in 1544. The forging of this alliance required a grand bargain that would ultimately cause a long-term, global shift of alignment of the Great Powers. For his wars against the France, and to save a huge cost to His Majesty's Treasury, Britain willingly agreed to cede Calais to Philip. But this trade-off was not quite enough, and Spain insisted on a deal-breaker. With Henry's support, Philip claimed all of the Americas except Brazil, bar Canada which the English now began to settle by lawful possession.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Henry VIII, Tudor, Jousting, Greenwich Palace, Premature Death. Editor says, in this post we change a single POD on the Discussion BoardsWhat if Henry VIII of England had died after falling from his horse in January 1536 into a double POD (the continued marriage to Catherine is justified by the survival of their son Henry). In reality Henry VIII survived the accident but was fundamentally changed by the serious injuries he endured. The Independent newspaper reports ~ He became estranged from the second of his six wives, Anne Boleyn - the king, once sporty and generous, became cruel, vicious and paranoid, his subjects began talking about him in a new way, and the turnover of his wives speeded up.
~ With a big gap between the northernmost Spanish Florida and , the Dutch would swoop in with hopes of settling and might just do well if they established tobacco plantations. (ps, 1844?)
~ Canada didn't exist at the time. North America was so poorly explored that most people still thought for another century that the alleged Northwest Passage existed. The division of the continent into two federal states is an accident of history that Canadiacs still quite don't get.
~ Grand Banks were being fished so we are simply projecting English settlement in the Gulf of ST Lawrence and then up river. New England where proto-Quebec went. Spanish in fact contested settlement in Georgia and the Carolinas into the early 18th century. Here we have a stronger SPain because it is allied with England and therefore the Iberian and British fleets are natural allies.
~ Surely you mean "marry his . . . sister Mary in 1544", not 1844. Fixed - thanks. Ed
~ I don't think the Protestants were that powerful at that time. That said, a weak Tudor heir would have laid the country open to all sorts of shenanigans.
~ Perhaps make it clear that Philip married Henry IX's sister. Fixed - thanks. Ed And where does James V of Scotland fit into the story? (And, in a different timeline, wasn't there a move to marry Edward VI-as-would-be to Mary Queen of Scots?)
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
