This summer, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is due to give birth to an heir to the throne. This is the first in a pair of lectures in which leading historians examine how Tudor and Stuart monarchs begat children. Peter Jones, Principal Investigator on the Generation to Reproduction project at Cambridge University, presents the first lecture in this series Born to Rule: Public Lectures on Royal Births in Tudor and Stuart England. Henry VIII: The Quest for an Heir. Producing an heir obsessed all the Tudor monarchs, for the future of a fragile dynasty was at stake. In the case of Henry VIII we usually focus on the pregnancy history of his wives, but not on Henry’s own issues with fertility. This lecture will look at his anxieties, and the resources—medical, religious, political—on which he drew to secure a male heir.