Henry VIII had a secret daughter who should have taken English throne before Elizabeth I, historian claims

King Henry VIII had a secret daughter who should have taken the throne before Elizabeth I, new research has revealed.

Elizabeth Tailboys was the Tudor monarch's illegitimate lovechild who would have changed the course of English history had the King acknowledged her as his at the time.

By rights she should have taken the throne on the death of Queen Mary in 1558, making her the true Elizabeth I and not Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn.

The decision would have had far reaching consequences for English history and the succession of every monarch since.

The revelation has been unearthed by historian Elizabeth Norton who has re-examined royal records as part of an investigation into the life of Henry VIII's famous mistress Bessie Blount.

Mrs Norton discovered Elizabeth Tailboy's was not the daughter of Bessie's future husband Gilbert Tailboys as previously thought, but the secret lovechild of the King....

Mrs Norton, an author and historian who studied at Cambridge and Oxford universities, said: 'If Henry had acknowledged her, it could have changed the whole course of British history....