Henry VIII dies in France in 1513.

[mrhell]

James IV of Scotland ignored his nobles and led his pikemen at the 1513 Battle of Flodden (where he died.). Henry VIII listened to his advisors when he was in France who advised him not to lead from the front. 

Let's say that the headstrong Henry didn't listen and plays a leading role in a battle soon after the 1513 Battle of the Spurs. In this battle Henry VIII is killed.

There are issues which won't happen in the way they did in history:
No need for a divorce and so split from Rome. The Scottish reformation will continue as it did. I suspect that there would have eventually been one in England.
Mary I, Elizabeth I and Edward VI won't be born.
Who is King of England? Henry VII had no brothers so there's no male cousins to make a move for the throne. Henry VIII's oldest sibling is Margaret Tudor and she has a child. The problem is that her one year old child is the new Scottish King James V. We hardly could let his Scottish protectors take over the English crown having just killed their king in battle. Perhaps we offer to 'look after' the child in England as a dual king.
Next is in line is Mary Tudor. She went on to marry the French king in 1514 so would this still happen in the way that her namesake married Philip of Spain? He died the next year without an heir. She went on to marry the Duke of Suffolk although this would be much more unlikely if she were Mary 1.

[Devil Wincarnate]

An interesting one- a good parallel for the behaviour of the day is what happened in Milan about twenty years previously, when the duke died without issue.  After a brief period of republican rule, a mercenary leader under the old regime, Francesco Sforza, effectively took control and then mounted an auto-coup to become duke.

I can see a senior nobleman taking over in similar circumstances, as long as they have Wolsey's backing.  Maybe Norfolk would fit the bill?

[Pete Whitehead]

Perhaps Lambert Simnel would have made a comeback

[andrewteale]

Nov 18, 2014 10:20:12 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

Perhaps Lambert Simnel would have made a comeback

No chance. Simnel (and to a lesser extent Warbeck) was just a pawn controlled by his Yorkist backers. The main reason Henry VII kept him in his household rather than throwing him in the Tower is that on his own he wasn't a threat.

The main Yorkist challenger to Henry VIII was Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who had conveniently been executed earlier in 1513.

[john07]

Strangely enough my mother had two dachshunds called Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel. The first was so named because when my parents went to collect him I was watching the TV adaption of Henry VII and as they arrived back with the dog someone said on screen "can I introduce you to Perkin Warbeck".

[East Anglian Lefty]

Arthur Plantagenet might have been an option, if he had a noble backer. But James V is probably the safer bet. If that were the case, a stronger English-Scottish state might have a better shot at preventing Knox and co. building support.

On the other hand, if there was a protracted civil war, it might create more suitable conditions for the adoption of Lutheranism, or (if it were really bad) an English equivalent of the Peasants' War.

[slon]

Interesting what if ......
By the time of the Tudors, or in the earlier part of their reign the English parliament was established and had the larger share of power.
The thing about monarchs is that there is always another one available, if Henry VIII pops his clogs then we get another with different views but still more or less under control of the English parliament and life goes on.

We like to talk in terms of personalities and their influence on world events but to a great extent the world events would roll out the same anyway .... social changes, dissatisfaction with established religion, the passing of feudalism, the age of exploration, growth of trade and technology; these were the driving forces.

I realise I am arguing contrary to me thesis on Napoleon (winning at Waterloo) but I think that is a different scenario, the continuation of the ideas of the French 1st Republic through the early 1800s to the detriment of the established but crumbling feudal empires of continental Europe, with Henry VIII it is about a person rather than an idea or an ideal.