Discussion: Henry's so-called Alliances

"Earlier on during his reign, Henry was willing to negotiate alliances with his daughter(s) to foreign countries - presumably because, as women, they would not be able to rule alone. He back and forthed between Spain and France a lot. Now it will come to him being given an opportunity to form similar alliances (after Jane dies) and several are proposed to him - none will have him. Aside from that, though, Henry insists that HIS mate must be bed-worthy. He wants to be attracted, in love. Any thoughts on this?"

"As Henry was not initially brought up to be Prince of Wales, he spent a great deal of time with his mother & two sisters as Duke of York.
Unlike Arthur, and until he was 11, Henry was not raised to be "duty bound" to the crown. He picked up a lot of romantic notions as a young boy which he carried into adulthood. Except for C of A, whom he married at his father's request, none of his subsequent marriages were political alliances. OOPS!, I forgot Anne of Cleves, but look where that went!"

"I think some of these alliances are crazy when it comes to his wives. He marries Katharine to have an alliance with Spain but then when he is mad at Spain he still has his spanish bride. One time he took his anger at a "betrayal" of his father out on her. Then you have Anne the French lover who works wonderfully when you are on good terms with France but Spain hates her with a passion so that causes a problem. Same thing with Anne of Cleves being from protestant Germany. Cromwell wanted her as a queen to have some back up aginst Spain and France, but then the hostility dwindles so what do you need the German bride for? Did any other king have to go through this crap? It seems very stressful for the wives especially if you don't have a son as back up. "

"Yes Juliana that is a great point. I wonder why Cromwell did not dip into the protestant gene pool among the ladies right in England, or if Cromwell was searching for foreign aid, why Henry did not question him about an equally good strategy (for the kingdom) of keeping a wife among his subjects. Catherine Parr was around at that time, no? There were other titled ladies, I am sure, who were attractive enough for him. True that if you marry into foreign royalty, you marry that person's family and country and anything can happen.

This also leads me back to the point that Henry switched back and forth between Spain and France and didn't seem to care who might be offended that while dumping Katherine, he was also turning his back on her country in a way and "embracing" france as A.B. was raised in that court, and wasn't her father made French ambassador. Seems as though his romantic whims fueled his politics instead of the other way around.?"

"Yes, one of the downsides of marrying for an alliance was that your ally one year might turn out to be your enemy in the next. But they all swapped sides so often that it didn't matter that much. In general, Henry was opposed to France, despite the occasional truce, so a Spanish alliance was usually in his interests. And marrying a foreign bride gave a prince more prestige and raised his international profile.
You make a good point about religion. The break with Rome made it more difficult for Henry to marry a catholic princess and protestant ones were scarce - the only options were Germany and Scandanavia, neither of which had a history of providing Queens of England. "