THE HEREDITY of the TUDORS and the Common Characteristics of the Family by W
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THE HEREDITY OF THE TUDORS And the Common Characteristics of the Family By W. T. J. GUN, F.R.Hist.S., F.S.G. B ELIEVERS in the importance of tain members of the sixteen, especially heredity are always faced with the where there is a double descent. difficulty of ascertaining from which It may be added that in the immediate ancestors the traits of a given individual Tudor ancestry there is no case of doubtful are probably derived. In the case of most paternity, so far as I am aware. men and women, whether of note or other- wise, little is known as a rule of the charac- KING HENRY VII ters and attainments of most of the various PARENTS. ancestors for three or four generations; bare names are usually all that can be ascer- Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. tained. For this reason the heredity of Margaret Beaufort. monarchs presents, on the whole, the best GRANDPARENTS. field for investigation, as in their cases much more is known as to the character of Sir Owen Tudor. ancestors. Among English monarchs the Katharine of Valois. Tudors and Stewarts are the most favour- John, Duke of Somerset. able for this purpose. The personalities of Margaret Beauchamp. the Plantagenets were quite as interesting, GREAT-GRANDPARENTS. but the further we go back in time, the less Meredyth Tudor. we can ascertain of ancestral characteristics. Margaret Vaughan. The Guelphs, on the other hand, though Charles VI, King of France. later, are both in themselves and in their Isabel of ancestors of far less interest than are the Bavaria. Tudors and the Stewarts. John, Earl of Somerset. I do not pretend in this study of the Margaret Holland. Tudors, or in the one which will follow of Sir John Beauchamp. the Stewarts, to have altogether solved the Edith Stourton. problem of their characters, but, as will be The character of the first of the Tudor seen, most of the ten monarchs in question monarchs stands out distinct in history, do appear to show quite clearly the influence cold, wary, sagacious, unlovable, avari- of heredity. cious, possessed, however, of a genuine love In the case of each monarch, the names of learning. His hard and difficult early of the parents, four grandparents, and eight life may account to a certain extent for his great-grandparents are set out. I have not character, but what further can we learn given the names of the sixteen great-great- from his ancestry? In the first place, it is grandparents, partly for consideration of singularly unroyal; apart from the line of space, but mainly because diffusion renders Katharine of Valois, and an ultimate Plan- the tracing of characteristics from this gen- tagenet descent through the Beauforts, eration a matter of great complexity. I Henry sprang from either the nobility or propose at times, however, to refer to cer- quite ordinary gentry. In those turbulent III II2 THE EUGENICS REVIEW times most of his ancestors were forced to verse. On the doctrine of chances, Henry struggle, and did in effect struggle very should therefore have proved able, and able successfully. Owen Tudor must quite he proved to be. clearly have been an exceptional person- ality to have fascinated the Queen Dowager, KING HENRY VIII while Margaret Beauchamp, whose origin was not much more exalted than that of PARENTS. Owen, must have been possessed of con- King Henry VII. siderable attractions to have won the affec- Elizabeth of York. tions of the head of the great house of Beaufort. GRANDPARENTS. Of the earlier Tudors and Beauchamps Edmund Tudor. little is known, but the former were promin- Margaret Beaufort. ent and energetic supporters of Owen Glen- King Edward IV. dower who, it is interesting to note, was a Elizabeth Woodville. relative. Of Margaret Beauchamp it is said that she carefully educated her excellent GREAT-GRANDPARENTS. daughter, from whom Henry certainly de- Sir Owen Tudor. rived his love of learning and probably Katharine of Valois. most of his sagacity, though some of the John, Duke of Somerset. latter may have come from the Tudors, Margaret Beauchamp. none at any rate from the foolish Katharine Richard, Duke of York. of Valois, who sprang from an essentially Cicily Nevill. weak stock-this was fully brought out in Richard Woodville, Earl Rivers. her son by her first marriage, Henry VI. Jaquetta of Luxemburg. From the earlier Beauforts Henry VII may have derived some qualities; there were re- The character of the second of the Tudor semblances between his character and that monarchs stands out even more clearly than of Cardinal Beaufort, the famous brother of that of his father. With mental capacities John, Earl of Somerset. If Henry had on well above the average and a superb the one side a successful adventurer among physique till he ruined it by self-indulgence, his ancestry in Owen Tudor, he had on the nature had bestowed many gifts on Henry, other an equally successful adventuress in but not the capacity to use them wisely. Catharine Swinford, the mistress of John His complete selfishness and ruthlessness of Gaunt and progenitor of the Beauforts. are commonplaces of history; these charac- To sum up, of the four immediate lines teristics were certainly derived in part from which Henry VII derived descent, he from his father, who was, however, far appears to have owed little to the Valois, more sagacious in his methods. The though there were certainly resemblances Seventh Henry was wily and tortuous, while between him and that strange character the Eighth went straight to the point; here Louis XI of France, his first cousin once the great difference in early environment removed. He probably took from the undoubtedly played some part, added to Tudor, Beaufort, and Beauchamp descents which the position of the son was always in perhaps equal degrees. From all these far more secure than that of the father. he could well have derived worldly wisdom, Henry VIII's straightforward ruthless- and from the Tudor and Beaufort ruthless- ness was certainly mainly derived from his ness, though this latter trait was certainly maternal ancestors, but not from his mother no part of the characteristics of his mother. herself, Elizabeth of York, who was a gentle Assuming, as I think we may, some ability and lovable character. There were, how- in the Beauchamps, three of the four lines ever, many resemblances between Henry were distinctly able, one alone was the re- and his maternal grandfather, who equally THE HERE,DITY OF THF, TUDORS II3 ruined a fine physique by self-indulgence, Henry's characteristics may now be and who also possessed decided mental traced from his ancestors in the following abilities, though of a more sluggish dis- detail: position than his grandson, and with far less love of learning and culture. These last (i) General ability- qualities Henry would seem to have derived Conspicuous in his father and in Mar- from Margaret Beaufort, while Elizabeth garet Beaufort and to some extent in Ed- Woodville, an ambitious, sensual woman ward IV and in Elizabeth Woodville among with much feminine charm, certainly trans- his grandparents. Among the great-grand- mitted characteristics to her grandson, who parents in various ways in both the Duke thus derived something from at least three and Duchess of York, in Richard Wood- of his grandparents. Of the disposition and ville, in Owen Tudor, probably in the attainments of the fourth, Edmund Tudor, Duchess of Somerset, not so obviously in who died at an early age, no record remains. the Duke, who came, however, of an able Turning to the eight great-grandparents stock. we find an exact counterpart to the hand- some adventurer Owen Tudor, in the hand- (2) Pitiless determination- some adventurer Richard Woodville. The Conspicuous in the father, in Edward IV careers of these two were extraordinarily and both his parents, probably in Owen alike, each marrying widowed princesses Tudor and Richard Woodville, and cer- far above themselves in degree. The earlier tainly in various Beauforts. In this respect Woodville stock, of which, like the Tudor, in particular, the double descent from John very little is known, was almost certainly of Gaunt and Catharine Swinford must be efficient. The character of Jaquetta of taken into account. Luxemburg bore obvious resemblance to (3) Physical good looks- that of Katharine of Valois; she came, Notable in the mother and in both her however, of a somewhat abler stock, which parents. Owen Tudor and Richard Wood- showed no traces of the Valois degeneracy, ville won their positions largely through though morally on an equally low plane. this attribute, so probably did the Duchess Henry's love of learning, though probably, of Somerset, and so almost certainly did the as has been said, mainly derived from the double Beauforts, may have also owed something ancestress, Catharine Swinford. to the Woodvilles. Elizabeth's brother, (4) Love of learning and culture- Anthony, Earl Rivers, a highly cultured Most decidedly through Henry VII from man, was the great patron of Caxton. But Margaret Beaufort, and in that line ulti- the ruthless determination of Henry's mately from John of Gaunt, possibly a fur- character, derived from several sources, ther portion from the Woodvilles. came most conspicuously from Richard, Duke of York and Cicily Nevill, the parents On the whole it will be seen that the of Richard III, who himself exemplified this qualities of Henry VIII are very referable trait to the highest possible degree. The to heredity, and that the chances were con- Duke of York was remarkably like his siderable that a son of Henry VII and great-grandson, while the Duchess, ' Proud Elizabeth of York would prove a strong Cis,' was almost the latter's female counter- and intensely virile character.