First Cousins: King Henry VIII of England

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2019

King Henry VIII of England (1491 – 1547)

(All photos credits – Wikipedia unless otherwise noted)

King Henry VIII was the third child and the second son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. His paternal grandparents were Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond and Lady Margaret Beaufort. His maternal grandparents were King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. Henry and his siblings represented the merging of the Lancasters and the Yorks who fought for power during the Wars of the Roses. By 1483, Henry VIII’s father, Henry Tudor, was the senior male Lancastrian claimant remaining. Henry VIII’s mother, Elizabeth of York, was the eldest daughter of the Yorkist King Edward IV.

Upon the death of his elder brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, eleven-year-old Henry became the heir to the throne. He succeeded to the throne at the age of 17 upon the death of his father. Henry is renowned for having six wives: Catherine of Aragon (divorced, mother of Queen Mary I), Anne Boleyn (beheaded, mother of Queen Elizabeth I), Jane Seymour (died due to childbirth complications, mother of King Edward VI), Anne of Cleves (divorced), Catherine Howard (beheaded), and Catherine Parr (survived).

Perhaps the most consequential event of Henry VIII’s reign was his break with the Roman Catholic Church which was to lead to the Protestant Reformation in England and the establishment of the Church of England.

Henry VIII has no paternal aunts and uncles because his father King Henry VII had no siblings. Therefore, King Henry VIII had no paternal first cousins. Henry shared his cousins with his siblings Arthur, Prince of Wales; Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots; Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Duchess of Suffolk and Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset; and Katherine Tudor who both died in infancy.

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Maternal Aunts and Uncles of King Henry VIII: Children of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville

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Maternal First Cousins of King Henry VIII: Children of Cecily of York, Viscountess Welles and John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles

  • Elizabeth Welles (circa 1489 – 1498), died in childhood
  • Anne Welles (circa 1491 – circa 1499), died in childhood

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Maternal First Cousins of King Henry VIII: Children of Anne of York and Thomas Howard (later 3rd Duke of Norfolk)

  • Thomas Howard (circa 1496 – 1508), died in childhood

Anne of York and Thomas Howard probably had four children but their only child known for certain was Thomas. Thomas Howard was childless upon Anne’s death so it is surmised all their children had died.

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Maternal First Cousins of King Henry VIII: Children of Catherine of York, Countess of Devon and William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon

Henry Courtenay, second from the left, in a procession of the Knights of the Garter

Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, 2nd Earl of Devon (circa 1498 – 1539)

When Henry VIII became king, his cousin Henry Courtenay became part of the circle of his personal friends and favorites. Henry became a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber which gave him unrestricted access to King Henry VIII. He was made a member of the Privy Council, a Knight of the Order of the Garter, the Constable of Windsor, and granted the title of Marquess of Exeter.

Henry first married Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle, the only child and sole heiress of John Grey, 2nd Viscount Lisle and Muriel Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Elizabeth died soon after the marriage. Henry’s second marriage was to Gertrude Blount, daughter of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy. The couple had two sons.

After the Reformation, Henry’s second wife Gertrude remained Catholic and Henry had Catholic leanings. In 1538, there was a supposed attempt to overthrow Henry VIII and replace him with Henry Courtenay. Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief minister and Courtenay’s political rival, convinced Henry VIII that Courtenay was a part of it. There are strong suggestions that Cromwell exaggerated the conspiracy for political purposes. There is no evidence to suggest that Courtenay had the means to or intended to rebel against King Henry VIII. The charges brought against him were based on the correspondence he had with Cardinal Reginald Pole, a Yorkist claimant to the English throne, and the testimony of Reginald’s brother Geoffrey Pole, who was then pardoned of all wrong-doing. Reginald and Geoffrey’s mother was Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury was the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence and niece of King Edward IV and King Richard III

Henry Courtenay and his son Edward were both arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Henry was found guilty and executed by sword on Tower Hill. His titles and lands were forfeit. His son remained imprisoned for fifteen years until the accession of Queen Mary I when she ordered his release. 67-year-old Margaret Pole, a maternal first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII, was brutally executed for conducting supposed treasonable correspondence with her son Cardinal Pole after being imprisoned in the Tower of London for nearly three years.

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Edward Courtenay (circa 1497 – 1502), died in childhood

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Margaret Courtenay, Baroness Herbert (circa 1499 – before 1526)

Margaret married Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester, son of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester and Elizabeth Herbert, 3rd Baroness Herbert but the marriage was childless. There is evidence that Margaret was in attendance to her four-year-old first cousin once removed Mary, the future Queen Mary I, in 1520. Margaret appears to have died in the 1520s but there is no specific date.

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Works Cited

    • Lundy, D. (2019). Main Page. [online] Thepeerage.com. Available at: http://www.thepeerage.com/. (for genealogy information)
    • Unofficial Royalty. (2019). Unofficial Royalty. [online] Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com. (for biographical and genealogy information)
    • Wikipedia. (2019). Main Page. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/.  (for biographical and genealogy information)