It is well known that King Henry VIII had no luck in trying
to father a male heir until he married the third of his six wives, with Prince
Edward being born to Jane Seymour in 1537, 28 years after Henry had come to the
throne in 1509.
Henry was quite ready to place the blame for his misfortune
on his first two wives, divorcing Catherine of Aragon after 24 years of
marriage and having Anne Boleyn executed after being married to her for three
years. However, it is entirely possible that it was his own health condition
that was the cause of the problem all along.
Kell blood
It has been suggested (by researchers Catrina Banks Whitley
and Kyra Kramer) that Henry had what is known as Kell blood, caused by a
genetic abnormality. When a Kell-positive man fathers a child, so they assert, the
mother’s antibodies will attack the foetus during pregnancy, leading to
stillbirth or miscarriage.
This does not happen on every occasion, which is why three
of the ten pregnancies of Henry’s first three wives led to the birth of live
children, namely Mary, Elizabeth and Edward. However, the other seven pregnancies
failed.
McLeod Syndrome
There is another condition that is known to be suffered by
Kell-positive individuals, and only by them, namely McLeod Syndrome. The
symptoms are both physical and mental, the latter including paranoia,
depression and socially inappropriate conduct. The disease usually becomes
apparent only after the victim has reached their 30s or 40s.
This pattern seems to fit Henry VIII quite well. As a young
man he was very much an outgoing and fun-loving person who was greatly admired.
However, things went downhill after he reached his 40s, which was when he
divorced Catherine of Argon, executed Anne Boleyn and created the Church of
England by rejecting the authority of the Pope.
The deterioration in Henry’s character led to him becoming a
suspicious and ruthless tyrant with a quick temper. This is perfectly
consistent with a diagnosis of McLeod Syndrome.
A fascinating "what if"
It should surprise no-one that this analysis is not accepted
universally, with some objectors questioning the assertion - mentioned above –
that a father’s Kell blood would affect a foetus. Apart from that, the theory
might seem to have much to recommend it.
However, if the theory is correct, it could be the fact that
an inherited gene had huge consequences for the later history of England.
If Henry had been able to father a healthy male heir with
Catherine of Aragon, early in his reign, not only would his marital life have
been very different – Catherine died in 1536, so he might well have remarried,
but who to? – but there would have been no need to break with Rome or dissolve
the monasteries.
The later history of England would therefore have been very
different. Princess Elizabeth (the daughter of Anne Boleyn) would never have
been born and so there not have been an “Elizabethan Age”, with all that that
entailed.
History is full of “what ifs” – that posed by King Henry VIII’s
health is just one of many!
© John Welford
