When Francis vanished and probably died in 1487, the main male line of the Lovell family died with him. He left no children behind to continue it, to try and gain back the riches Francis had given up or follow in his footsteps as rebel.
Francis was only thirty when he vanished, his wife Anne twenty-six or recently turned twenty-seven. Both were still young enough they might have had several children had they continued living together, and it is possible that this would have happened. Naturally, there is no way to know.
However, it is also possible that the two did face some problems with infertility. In novels, their lack of children is often explained by a reluctance to sleep together to try and conceive an heir, but there is no evidence about this, and customs of the time would have dictated that they had to, that their feelings about it did not matter. Almost certainly, they would have tried for at least an heir.
Some circumstantial evidence, such as a letter by Elizabeth Stonor I mentioned in an earlier article about their marriage already, suggests that by early 1477, Francis was establishing relations with the gentry in Oxfordshire, near his ancestral home of Minster Lovell Hall, and making a place for himself and his wife. This would suggest that perhaps in the year or so before that, he and Anne had first moved there to make their home together. Anne would have been around sixteen at that time.
If so, this would mean that she and Francis lived together as man and wife for around nine years. Given that what little evidence there is indicates their relationship was not a bad one and that they did not spend an unusual amount of time apart, it is interesting that nothing indicates Anne ever conceived a child.
While it is hard if not downright impossible to say if she perhaps had miscarriages, it can be said with reasonable certainty that until February 1483, the couple did not have a living, even if short-lived, child born to them, for there were no prayers for any included in the request then made for prayers to be said annually for Francis and Anne. Had they had children, even children who died shortly after birth or even were stillborn, this would have been conventional.
Since Francis rose to prominence shortly afterwards and was in the public eye from then on, and was almost always at court, it is almost certain that his wife did not give birth in the time from 1483 to 1485, as this would have been noted. Since afterwards, she and Francis did not longer live together as man and wife and it is not known if they even saw each other again after the Battle of Bosworth, it appears that they never had children.
There could have been several reasons for this, of course, but it is quite possible and perhaps even probable that this was because of some medical reason. Even assuming one or both of them simply were not very fertile, and even allowing for time spent apart, nine years is a long time for a couple almost certainly trying for a child to never have one.
Given that we do not know if Anne had miscarriages, it is possible that it was not a problem with conceiving but with carrying a pregnancy to term. This was sadly wide-spread at the time, and many women experienced one or more miscarriages during their life. However, if that was the case for Anne Lovell, it could in itself point to a medical issue, as common though it was, otherwise healthy women who, like Anne would have, had access to all prenatal care there was, usually did not lose all pregnancies over a span of nearly a decade.
As so often with the couple, this is guesswork, of course. It is possible that they were not very fertile to begin with and Anne only conceived two or three time and her losing those pregnancies was "only" a tragedy as so often happened, not indicative of a bigger problem.
Another possibility is, of course, that either Francis or Anne, or possibly both, were infertile. Though both came from fertile families, an infection or injury, or simply nature, could have caused it, making it impossible for them to even conceive children.
If so, it can probably be assumed that by the time of Bosworth, Francis and Anne were starting to worry about the fact that in nine years, there had been no sign of pregnancy. This, however, is sheerest conjecture with nothing to support it except what is known of the customs of the day.
What we do know is that when Francis made arrangements for Anne for the event of his death in 1485, he did not seem to consider it possible that she was pregnant and made no special arrangements for such an eventuality. This could indicate that he no longer expected to become a father, but it could also simply point to the fact he knew that she was not at that point and that timing made it impossible for her to be so without them already knowing.
Similarly, while none of the arrangements Francis made for his possessions for the future that we still know of include a clause allowing for any children yet to be born, but this may simply be because it was thought to be unnecessary since there was no sign of them yet.
To sum up, we do know with near certainty that Francis and Anne never had any children together. Why this was so, we can only guess. However, what little there is and what we know both of the conventions of the day and their relationship suggests it was due to medical issues or perhaps simply bad luck, not because of any choice they made.
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