Legitimate heirs to Henry VIII

[Kriscat28]

How many legitimate children did Henry VIII have? Although he had 1 legitimate male heir, I am confused about whether his daughters were considered legitimat heirs or not!

[jno]

sometimes yes, sometimes no. When Mary was queen, as I recall, she had Elizabeth declared illegitimate (because Henry had divorced Mary's mother to marry Elizabeth's). But the question of who the heir was in those days was much less set in concrete than the modern list of hundreds of names in order. If people, in particular the powerful lords, accepted you as heir when the time came, that was good enough.

[Kriscat28]

Thanks for your answer, although it still sounds like a puzzle of which (& when) of Henry VIII's children were considered to be legitimate!

[noxlumos]

Henry had 3 children in chronological order as follows

Mary---with Catherine of Aragon

Elizabeth---with Anne Boleyn

Edward ----with Jane Seymour

Very briefly at the end of his reign only Edward was considered to be legitimate bc Henry himself declared both Mary illegitimate ( bc her mother had previously been married to his brother Arthur, the grounds for his divorce from her) and also Elizabeth illegitimate ( on the grounds that Anne Boleyn had been found guilty of treason by means of adultery and incest).

So during Henry's own reign his daughters were not considered legitimate after their respective mother's demise.

[Kriscat28]

Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me.

[mike b]

...just be thankful that you're not living at the time when the 'wrong' answer could have got your head chopped off...!

[bernardo]

He also had a number of other legitimate children who died in infancy - five by Catherine of Aragon and two by Anne Boleyn.

[jno]

wikipedia for details of Henry's children: he had one illegitimate one who was never in line for the throne. According to this, Mary and Elizabeth were from 1544 in the line of succession though still illegitimate - I don't know if that makes them 'legitimate heirs' or not.