English Throne Succession: The Intriguing Tudor Line

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Introduction The line of succession for the English Throne has been one to drum up conversation. At the heart of these succession talks would be the end of the Tudor line. With Henry VIII’s many different love affairs and the arguments of whether or not his children after Mary I were legitimate, Henry set up his line of succession in which he named who was to take the throne after his death. He named his youngest child, and only son, Edward to ascend directly after him, then Mary, and then finally Elizabeth. There has also been speculation that after Mary had passed, the next rightful heir to the English throne would have been Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary, who ascended to the throne of Scotland when she was a week old after the death of her father James V in 1542 , was the granddaughter of Henry VII of England, making her Henry VIII’s niece. With the constant issues between Scotland and England, Henry VIII had considered Mary as a potential wife for his son Edward, as a way to simmer tensions between the two nations – tensions that he had caused through the Rough Wooing . Though this idea fell short, that didn’t stop Mary from making a name for herself among royals and the …show more content…

When he named off his heirs that would ascend to the crown after his death, he had Elizabeth at the bottom of the list, if neither one of his other two children had heirs before they died. Henry named Edward to take the throne immediately after his death because Edward was the son that Henry had long coveted and had the best chances of ruling the nation well. Edward was born to Henry through his third wife, Jane Seymour. Henry wed Jane after he had Anne beheaded, however, it was also after Henry’s first wife had passed away . Due to the fact that Catherine had passed before he married Jane, in the eyes of the Church, his marriage then would be legitimate because his ties to his first wife had been released in her

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