# So, what was Henry the VIII's problem anyway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2006, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-henry-the-viiis-problem-anyway/341060 "2006-01-22T02:21:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 5
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-henry-the-viiis-problem-anyway/341060/5 "2006-01-22T04:55:57Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Is there any generally accepted theory for why it was so hard for him to get a healthy son? > > Or what it just pure chance? Sometimes you just roll snake eyes, over and over and over. There is the possibility that Henry and family ( including sisters ) may have suffered from some medical issues like diabetes or some circulatory issue ( and of course syphilis has been a suspicion almost since he died, but remains only that ), but it still is a bit of a mystery. However bad luck probably plays a roll and was nothing unusual. Dynasties, great and small, died out all the time from a lack of _legitimate_ male heirs. I forget the exact number, but tornover was high in the medieval world among noble houses ( I want to say about a third of them went extinct in the male line every generation, but I’d need to look for a cite ). Take the Norman dynasty for example - William I ‘the Bastard’ ( i.e. ‘the Conqueror’ ) was himself illegitimate and just barely gained acceptance because of it. He had four sons who reached sexual maturity. Richard, his second, died in his teens of a hunting accident, unmarried. Robert, the eldest, had one legitimate male heir, William Clito, who while married ( twice ) died at age 27 from a battle wound, no heirs. William II ‘Rufus’, the third, was probably solely homosexual and died ( again of a hunting accident, unless he was assassinated ) in his forties, unmarried and without heirs. Henry I, the youngest, had ~35 bastards ( a probably record for the English monarchy 😛 ), but only two legitimate heirs, one of whom was male. His male heir, William Audelin, perished in his early teens in the White Ship disaster ( when quite a few young nobles drowned ). Consequently the dynasty came to an end with Henry’s death in 1135. The dynasty then switched to the house of Blois ( Stephen of Boulogne, Henry’s nephew ), then to the (1rst ) Angevin dynasty or Plantaganets through Henry I’s grandson Henry II, son of his daughter Mathilda and Geoffrey ‘_Plante Geneste_’ of Anjou, which held on for the next 300 years or so. In essense the conquering dynasty of England was gone after only two generations. Given the hazards of battle ( a declining issue in Henry VIII’s time ) but more importantly the poor state of health care with the consequent very high infant mortality rate and simple dumb luck, failing to produce a viable male heir wasn’t at all rare. - Tamerlane --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-henry-the-viiis-problem-anyway/341060)._