Arthur, Henry VIII’s brother, died at Ludlow Castle. He and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, spent a few weeks here. Wonder what would have happened had he become king instead of his brother.

Published at 3264 × 1832 in Dining with the Michelin Man: la Bécasse

Arthur, Henry VIII’s brother, died at Ludlow Castle. He and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, spent a few weeks here. Wonder what would have happened had he become king instead of his brother.

One thought on “Arthur, Henry VIII’s brother, died at Ludlow Castle. He and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, spent a few weeks here. Wonder what would have happened had he become king instead of his brother.”

  1. It is interesting to reflect on what might have happened if Arthur had lived to become king. There might not have been any Church of England. Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII, wanted to establish a dynasty. The determination to continue the Tudor dynasty resulted in Henry VIII’s attaching so much importance to producing a legitimate male heir. Their male dynasty finished with Edward VI, but the Tudors continued under Mary I and Elizabeth I. However, the bloodline of Henry Tudor has continued throughout the English monarchy because of his daughter, Margaret. She married King James IV of Scotland, one of the Stewart kings, and after his death married Archibald Douglas. Margaret and James had a son who became King James V and whose daughter was Mary Queen of Scots. Margaret and Archibald had a daughter named Margaret who married Matthew Stewart and had a son, Henry, who became Lord Darnley and married Mary Queen of Scots. Their son became King James VI of Scotland and later King James I of England, thus establishing the Stewart dynasty in England.
    By naming his eldest son Arthur, it seems that Henry Tudor was copying the Normans and Plantagenets in trying to establish a legitimacy for their regimes. They had written stories about the British king who had fought against the invading Saxons. By portraying the Saxons as illegitimate rulers they had tried to give the impression that they were liberating the Britons from Saxon rule and establishing a better civilization based on the chivalry of Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Such stories might have inspired Henry Tudor to want to establish his own ‘Camelot’ with his son Arthur as the next king to continue the legacy of the British Arthur. The death of Arthur Tudor must have been a blow to his father who then had to put his vision for a Tudor dynasty in the fortunes of his remaining son, Henry. The death of Arthur Tudor did have a great bearing on the direction of English history.

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