How many children did King Henry VIII have with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon?
Six Henry tried to have their twenty-four year marriage annulled in part because all their male heirs died in childhood, with only one of their six children, Princess Mary (later Queen Mary I) surviving as heiress presumptive, at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne. The Pope refused to allow the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine, which set off a chain reaction that led to Henry’s break with the Roman Catholic Church and his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn in the hope of fathering a male heir to continue the Tudor dynasty. http://en.wikipedia.
