Jane Seymour
BORN: 1509? w MARRIED: MAY 30 1536 w DIED: OCTOBER 24 1537
Jane Seymour became Henry's third wife within two weeks of Anne Boleyn's death, marrying him in a somewhat private ceremony at her family home, Wolf Hall in Wiltshire, England. A quiet and unassuming woman, she was not noted for her scholarship or artistic talents, like Anne Boleyn, and she was not considered particularly attractive. She was probably the last person expected to become Henry's Queen.
It is thought that Jane, like Anne Boleyn, was originally a maid in waiting to Queen Catharine, and remained at court after Catharine was effectively banished. She was a maid of honour to Anne Boleyn during her rise to power and her marriage, though at some point she left the Court to return home to Wiltshire, perhaps to nurse her father, Edward Seymour.
Wolf Hall had traditionally been a favored hunting lodge for the King, as it was remote and well situated as a "rest stop" during a day's hunting, and it is known that Henry stayed there as a guest of the Seymour family during the autumn of 1535. After that visit, Jane soon returned to Court, and by February of the next year, it was obvious that she was an object of Henry's affections.
Both of Jane's brothers, Thomas and Edward Seymour, were ruthlessly ambitious men anxious to be placed highly in Henry's service. Her father had been a royal favorite, serving both Henry VII and Henry VIII before his health failed, but the family had faded into the background politically as well as financially since the rise of Anne Boleyn. A sister who had come to the King's attention was an incredible stroke of luck for the Seymour men, particularly as Anne Boleyn and her favorites were definitely losing place in the endlessly shifting sphere of influence at Court.
Jane was twenty-six or seven when she came to Henry's attention, and according to the marriage customs of the time, was likely on her way to a lifetime of unmarried spinsterhood. Girls were betrothed young, often at birth or shortly thereafter, during the Tudor era, and were usually married as soon as they were considered old enough, shortly after menarche. A woman of Jane's age was considered to be of "mature years", well past the point where she was likely to become a bride. There is some conjecture that she had been betrothed as a child, but by the time she came to Henry's attention, she was well established as a young woman of noble birth who had little chance of being married.
Jane's brief reappearance at court, prior to the final fall of Anne Boleyn, was marked with two confrontations with Henry's second Queen. One incident occurred when Anne saw that Jane wore a miniature given to her by Henry, a locket containing a portrait of his mother. Anne was enraged, and tore it from Jane's neck, causing a slight injury. The second incident was the infamous scene after Anne discovered Henry and Jane embracing, setting off the temper tantrum that some said led to the miscarriage of the son Anne was carrying at the time.
There are various schools of thought as to the actual involvement of Jane in her whirlwind courtship and rise to the position of Queen. One theory is that she was unintelligent and was simply used as a pawn by her ambitious brothers. Others believe that, as her motto "Bound to Obey and Serve" stated, she followed the orders and desires of the King without question, despite any fears she might have -- and fears would be expected, considering the fates of Henry's first two Queens. Catharine of Aragon had been banished and mistreated for years prior to her death, and Anne Boleyn was rapidly sliding to her final defeat.
Lastly, the opinion was held by some, Anne Boleyn among them, that Jane was scheming and sly, and that she had deliberately attracted the King's attention as his love for Anne Boleyn faded, actively assisting her family it its rise to a position of power.
Jane was not a diarist -- in fact, it is suspected that like most women of the time, she could only write enough to sign her name -- so her opinion of her meteoric rise to prominence is unknown, as is her comprehension of it and her possible participation in it.
Henry, however, made no secret of his passion for Jane. Legend has it that he waited anxiously for the cannon shot that heralded the execution of Anne Boleyn, and was on horseback the moment it sounded, headed for Wolf Hall, where Jane had been sent during the weeks after Anne Boleyn had been charged with treason. Henry and Jane were betrothed the same day, and married on May 30 in a homelike celebration in the barn at Wolf Hall.
Henry had no qualms about marrying for a third time, and believed that Jane was his first true wife. But unlike Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, he hesitated prior to crowning her. The enormous and costly coronation of Anne Boleyn must have rankled, in the light of the "evidence" against her and the fact that she, after all the years of waiting and the complete disruption of the Church in England, had failed to produce Henry's long awaited male heir. In other words, a coronation could wait until Jane gave birth to a healthy son.
Henry and Jane settled into a quiet domestic life. She was a foil to Anne Boleyn, taking little interest in pageantry and active entertainment. She was also devout and punctilious in her religious observances, far more Catholic in her devotions than Protestant, as was Henry (he continued to hear Mass with all the trappings of the Catholic ceremony for the rest of his life, despite the progressive "cleansing" of the Anglican Church as far as ritual was concerned). Additionally, she sought to reconcile Henry with his estranged children, Mary, Elizabeth, and Henry Fitzroy, Henry's illegitimate son from a liaison with Elizabeth Blount seventeen years before.
Jane had long been a proponent of Catharine of Aragon and the Princess Mary, and now brought about a reconciliation between Henry and his oldest child. Mary had finally given in, after the deaths of her mother and Anne Boleyn, where it became clear that no matter how highly ranked a woman was in England, she could fall prey to the executioner, and had sworn to the Act of Supremacy (she was given absolution for this sin from the Pope, as she swore to the Act under duress). Very much alone and friendless, living in complete obscurity at Hatfield with her little sister, Elizabeth, Mary had grown increasingly bitter as she entered womanhood. Now that the obstacle of Mary's refusal to swear to the Act of Supremacy had been removed, Jane was able to convince Henry to have her return to Court, after a virtual banishment of nearly ten years.
Jane also brought Anne Boleyn's child, Elizabeth, forward and treated her kindly, as she did Henry Fitzroy, who had recently married. But two months after Henry's third marriage, Henry Fitzroy died of the same wasting disease that had claimed so many Tudors during their teens, leaving the King without any male heir, legitimate or not. Henry had once before tried to elevate Henry Fitzroy's status while Catharine of Aragon was still Queen, hoping that he could eventually legitimize the boy and make him his heir, as Catharine neared menopause. Now this option was completely closed to him -- and for Jane, the pressure to produce a son was now intense.
Jane's pregnancy was confirmed in early 1537. Her cravings and whims were indulged, but she was also very restricted, for fear that harm would come to her or the child she carried. But the pregnancy, unlike those of Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, passed without incident. After a long and difficult labor, she gave birth to Henry's son at Hampton Court in October.
A lavish christening was performed on October 15, 1537. Mary was named as the child's godmother. Elizabeth had a prominent part in the ceremony as well -- the three year old was slated to carry the holy oil that her baby brother would be christened with, though she was actually carried in the arms of the Queen's brother, Thomas Seymour, as her gown and train were too heavy for her to walk in.
Jane, as a mother and as the Queen, was not expected to attend the ceremony (women who had given birth were not accustomed to return to church services until the ritual known as "cleansing of women after childbirth" was performed), but she was expected to receive the guests prior to the feasting afterward. So she left her bed in her weakened condition, dressed and carried out her duty as Queen, receiving the multitude of guests one by one while reclining on a couch. Her obedience to duty probably brought about her death, as she became ill with puerperal fever the next day.
Jane died on October 24, 1537. Mary was assigned to be chief mourner by Henry, who left Court immediately to mourn in private. An enormous funeral ritual was begun, which involved moving the Queen's body from place to place, while a life sized wax effigy (later ordered to be burned by King Henry, as it was a painful reminder of her in life) rested on top of the closed and sealed coffin. Queen Jane was finally buried at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, where Henry's own tomb was being constructed.
Jane's tenure as England's Queen lasted only eighteen months, but she had accomplished what her two predecessors had not -- she had provided Henry with a legitimate and healthy male heir. She had also reconciled Henry with his eldest daughter and was probably instrumental in having Mary made godmother to the child as well, assuring him of guidance and support in the years to come, as Mary loved children and was passionately devoted to the baby.
Jane was probably unaware that her rise to the position of Queen would have far reaching effects on England, apart from the fact that she had supplied the country with a future King. Her brothers, Edward and Thomas, had risen in prominence with her, and would retain powerful positions at Court throughout Henry's reign. Edward Seymour would become the Protector of Henry's son after Henry's death -- and Edward Seymour was a secret Protestant. As a result, Prince Edward would be raised as Protestant. He was lodged and educated far from Court at his father's order to protect him from disease, which made Edward Seymour's task of producing a Protestant King for England that much easier, as Henry VIII's contact with his young son was very limited.
Edward VI would become England's first truly Protestant King, a development which would further change the socio-religious demographic of England and pave the way for the violent years of his older sister Mary's reign. She would, as a staunch Catholic, attempt to return England to the Catholic Church, earning herself the nickname Bloody Mary, as force, including torture and execution, was used in England's "conversion".
The legend of Jane Seymour as all-sacrificing to supply Henry with a son became entrenched within days of her death. The myth that she underwent a Caesarean section to give birth was propagated in several ballads, where Jane insists that Henry have her "side cut open to save his babye". In the light of the facts, Jane underwent no such surgery, as she lived for two weeks after the birth of her son. In those days, Caesarean section was an immediate death sentence, and was not condoned by either the Catholic or Anglican church, as it consisted of making a choice between the life of the mother and the life of the child. Anyone making such a choice would be guilty of murder. Caesarean section was used only in cases where the mother was dead, and there was a chance that the child would still be alive. If Jane had undergone a Caesarean section, she would have bled to death within minutes.
Henry seemed to genuinely mourn Jane's death, and remained unmarried for more than two years. It was at this time that he also began to fail in health and became very heavy and irritable. Later, during his marriage to Katherine Parr, he was to have a "dynastic" portrait done of his entire family -- his father and mother are present, as are Henry, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth. But the Queen in the painting is not Katharine Parr, who posed for the artist -- the face is that of Jane Seymour.