Childhood Revisited: John Guy on the Children of Henry VIII

John Guy’s newest work, a biographical analysis of the intersecting lives of the four acknowledged children of Tudor monarch Henry VIII, is an eminently readable monograph that covers familiar territory through a new lens. It focuses on the educational and domestic lives of Mary, Edward, Elizabeth, and Henry Fitzroy, painting a lavish and attentive portrait of their lives in and around the English court. Guy posits that Henry VIII’s different treatment of his children was intrinsically connected to his political machinations and that his goals as monarch can be reexamined through his relationship with each child. The text is organized in a combination of chronological and thematic sections, the focus shifting among Henry, some of his wives, and the four children.

The prologue sets up the relationships among Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, and their families. It also establishes a background for Henry VIII’s anxieties over his lack of an heir, a thread of insecurity that runs throughout the narrative. Chapter one begins with the marriage and early reproductive problems of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, including their multiple neonate deaths and pregnancy losses before and after the birth of Princess Mary. Of particular interest here is the overview of Whiteley and Kramer’s 2010 study of Henry VIII’s reproductive problems. They bring to light a new possible diagnosis for Henry — if he carried positive Kell antigens, then his ability to produce living offspring with a Kell-negative partner would have been reduced. Henry’s fertility troubles, Guy suggests, were at the root of his extramarital affairs as well as his political machinations.

Chapter two outlines Princess Mary’s childhood, her households, and education as well as the beginning of Henry VIII’s infatuation with Anne Boleyn. Even as an infant Mary was to be an extremely useful tool for Henry in his negotiations with other heads of state, and his treatment of her reflected as much. Chapter three describes the establishment of care for Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son with Bessie Blount. Once it became apparent that Katherine of Aragon was unlikely to have another successful pregnancy, the spectre of the legitimization of Fitzroy loomed large. Fitzroy’s education contrasted in purpose and content with Mary’s until his death at age seventeen, his curriculum aimed at producing an active leader rather than an educated follower.

Chapters four through six detail the remainder of Henry’s reign, including his Great Matter and subsequent marriages, extramarital adventures, and divorces. Focus on Elizabeth’s household and shifting alliances therein, as well as tensions between Mary and Elizabeth, sets the groundwork for later sections. Edward’s education is contrasted with Elizabeth’s in chapter six in much the same way as Mary and Fitzroy were set in opposition to each other earlier in the text.

Edward was only nine years of age when Henry VIII died, leaving the young king to the mercies of his regency council and their varied priorities. Henry’s influence continued to reach past his own death, and the ways in which he moulded his children became apparent through their individual retrenchments after his death. Chapters seven through nine outline the years of Edward’s, Mary’s, and Elizabeth’s reigns, respectively, with brief mention made of their cousin Jane and her equally brief rule. The usual ground is covered here, from marriage negotiations to scandal and religious struggles, with particular emphasis placed on the ever present influence of their father’s legacy. Guy depicts a world of mutual jealousies and power plays, where the royal children were set against each other, both deliberately and as accidental side effect of their upbringings. He dismisses any suggestions of affection among them as political ploys, and draws a picture of a collection of isolated and embittered youngsters connected only in their patrimony.

The notion that childhood is the making of the adult is not new, but some of Guy’s sources certainly are, and...