Almost everyone knows, or thought that they knew, that Henry VIII had six wives and every school child remembers; divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded and survived.
Fewer people know that he had at least ten or eleven mistresses and at least 4 or 5 illegitimate children but probably more. He also had many more children that did not survive infancy a not uncommon occurrence in Tudor times. He had at least 10 by his first three wives alone.
How different our history would have been if one of these had survived, been male and legitimate and became King Henry the IXth.
What hardly anyone knows is that he actually married one of his mistresses in 1538 so in fact the school yard rhyme should read ; divorced, beheaded, died, murdered, divorced, beheaded and survived
http://goo.gl/EaL0b