Jane Seymour Biography

Jane Seymour
extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

For other persons named Jane Seymour, see Jane Seymour (disambiguation).
Jane Seymour
Queen Consort of England
Tenure 30 May 1536 – 24 October 1537
Proclamation 4 June 1536
Spouse Henry VIII of England
Issue
Edward VI of England
Father John Seymour
Mother Margery Wentworth
Born 1508/1509
Died 24 October 1537 (age 28-29)
Hampton Court Palace
Signature
Religion Catholic

Jane Seymour (1508 – 24 October 1537) was Queen Consort of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as Queen Consort following the latter's execution in 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, a son who briefly reigned as Edward VI.

Contents

Early life

Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wiltshire and Margery Wentworth. Through her maternal grandfather, she was a distant descendant of King Edward III of England and also the Percy family. Because of this, she and King Henry VIII were fifth cousins three times removed.citation needed She was a second cousin to her predecessor Anne Boleyn through their mutual great-grandmother, Elizabeth Cheney.1 Her exact birth date is debated; it is usually given as 1509, but it has been noted that at her funeral 29 women walked in succession.2 Since it was customary for the attendant company to mark every year of the deceased's life in numbers, this implies she was born in 1508 or 1507.

She was not educated as highly as King Henry's previous wives, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. She could read and write a little but was much better at needlework and household management, which were considered much more necessary for women. Jane's needlework was reported to be beautiful and elaborate, some of her work survived up to 1652, where it is recorded to have been given to the Seymour family. After her death, it was noted that Henry was an "enthusiastic embroiderer".3

She became a maid-of-honour in 1532 to Queen Catherine and went on to serve Queen Anne Boleyn. The first report of Henry VIII's interest in Jane Seymour was in February 1536. Jane Seymour was noted to be pale and blond, the opposite of Anne Boleyn's dark hair and olive skin.

Marriage

King Henry VIII was betrothed to Jane on the 20 May 1536, the day after Anne Boleyn's execution, and married her ten days later. She was publicly proclaimed as Queen Consort on 4 June. She was never crowned, due to a plague in London where the coronation was to take place. Henry was also reluctant to crown Jane before she had fulfilled her duty as a Queen Consort by bearing him a son and a male heir.citation needed

As Queen Consort, Seymour was said to be strict and formal. She was close to her female relations, Anne Stanhope (her brother's wife) and her sister, Elizabeth. Jane was also close to the Lady Lisle and the Lady Beaucamp. Jane considered Lisle's daughters as ladies-in-waiting and she left many of her possessions to Beaucamp. Jane would form a very close relationship with Mary Tudor. The glittering social life and extravagance of the Queen's Household, which had reached its peak during the time of Anne Boleyn, was replaced by a strict enforcement of decorum. For example, the dress requirements for ladies of the court were detailed down to the number of pearls that were to be sewn onto each lady's skirt. The French fashions introduced by Anne Boleyn were banned. Politically, Seymour appears to have been conservative. Her only reported involvement in national affairs, in 1536, was when she asked for pardons for participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion. Henry is said to have rejected this, reminding her of the fate her predecessor met with when she "meddled in his affairs".4

The Six Wives of
Henry VIII
Catherine aragon.jpg Catherine of Aragon
Anne boleyn.jpg Anne Boleyn
Hans Holbein d. J. 032b.jpg Jane Seymour
AnneCleves.jpg Anne of Cleves
HowardCatherine02.jpeg Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr from NPG cropped.jpg Catherine Parr

Jane was of the Roman Catholic faith, known as the "old faith."It is believed, because of this and her loyalty to her former mistress, Catherine of Aragon, Jane put forth much effort to restore Henry's first child, Mary Tudor, to court and heir to the throne behind any children that Jane would have with Henry. Jane brought up the issue of Mary's restoration both before and after she became Queen. While Jane was unable restore Mary to the line of succession, Jane was able to reconcile Henry with his daughter Mary. Chapuys wrote to Charles V of Jane's compassion and strive for Mary's return to favour. A letter from Mary to Jane shows that Mary was grateful to Jane. While it was Jane who first pushed for the restoration it would not be until Henry's sixth wife convinced him to reinstate Mary and Elizabeth. 5

In early 1537, Jane became pregnant. During her pregnancy, she developed a craving for quail, which Henry ordered for her from Calais and Flanders. She went into confinement in September 1537 and in October she gave birth to the coveted male heir, the future King Edward VI of England on 12 October 1537 at Hampton Court Palace.

Jane Seymour's arms as queen consort6

Death

Custom asked that the Queen did not participate in her children's christening (She still had to lay in bed to rest and children had to be christened fast so they did not end up in Limbo). So the son was christened without his mother on 15 October 1537 and it then became clear that Queen Jane was seriously ill. Her labour had been difficult, lasting two days and three nights, and rumours circulated that she died following an emergency Caesarean section, after Henry ordered the baby to be cut from her to prevent more stillbirths. In reality, according to Edward's biographer Jennifer Loach, her death was probably due to an infection from a retained placenta. Queen Jane died on 24 October 1537 at Hampton Court. She was buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle after a funeral in which her stepdaughter, Lady Mary (later Queen Mary I), acted as chief mourner. Jane Seymour was the only one of Henry's wives to receive a Queen's funeral.

The following inscription was above her grave for a time:

Here lieth a Phoenix, by whose death
Another Phoenix life gave breath:
It is to be lamented much
The world at once ne'er knew two such.

After her death, Henry wore black for the next three months and did not remarry for three years, although marriage negotiations were tentatively started soon after her death. She was Henry's favourite wife because, historians have speculated, she gave birth to a male heir. When he died in 1547, Henry was buried beside her.

Legacy

Two of Jane's brothers, Thomas and Edward, used her memory to improve their own fortunes.citation needed Thomas was rumoured to have been pursuing Princess Elizabeth, but married Catherine Parr instead after King Henry died. In the reign of the young King Edward VI, Edward Seymour set himself up as protector and de facto ruler of the Kingdom. Both brothers eventually fell from power, and were executed.

Jane Seymour first portrayed in film in the 1920 German film Anne Boleyn by Aud Edege Nissen.

In books

In song

Most versions of the song end with the contrast between the joy of the birth of the Prince and the grief of the death of the Queen.

From version 170A:

The baby was christened with joy and much mirth,
Whilst poor Queen Jane's body lay cold under earth:
There was ringing and singing and mourning all day,
The Princess Elizabeth went weeping away

Historiography

Books solely on Jane Seymour are scarce, however there are two biographies on Jane. The first is by Pamela Gross, it is a scholarly biography. The second is by Elizabeth Norton, released in July of 2009, is readily avaiable to the public. A third biography, while not only on Jane, is by William Seymour, Ordeal by Ambition.

Jane was widely praised as "the fairest, the discreetest, and the most meritous of all Henry VIII's wives" in the centuries after her passing away. One historian, however, took serious umbrage to this view in the 19th century. Victorian author Agnes Strickland, who wrote multi-volume anthologies of French, Scottish, and English royal women, said that the story of Anne Boleyn's last agonised hours and Henry VIII's swift remarriage to Jane Seymour "is repulsive enough, but it becomes tenfold more abhorrent when the woman who caused the whole tragedy is loaded with panegyric."

Hester W. Chapman and Eric Ives resurrected Strickland's view of Jane Seymour, and believe she played a crucial and conscious role in the cold-blooded plot to bring Anne Boleyn to the executioner's block. Joanna Denny, Marie Louise Bruce and Carolly Erickson have also refrained from giving overly-sympathetic accounts of Jane's life and career. It should be noted that Ives, Bruce, and Denny are biographers of Anne Boleyn as opposed to all Wives of Henry VIII.

On the other hand, historical writers like Alison Weir and Antonia Fraser paint a favourable portrait of a woman of discretion and good-sense—"a strong-minded matriarch in the making," says Weir.

David Starkey and Karen Lindsey are relatively dismissive of Jane's importance in comparison to that of Henry's other queens (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr) though they refrain from stating that she was the cause of the unfair trial. It must also be noted that it was unlikely she could accomplish as much as her predecessors, when her reign had been relatively short, no more than 1 year where she spent most of her time at bed rest, with child. Another consideration is that in this period of history, most queen consorts had little say in decision making and as such, Henry may logically be seen as the decision maker in Anne Boleyn's downfall. While it is believed that the Seymour brothers, Edward and Thomas, had coached Jane on how to gain the king's favor, it is important to note that Henry himself could not be gained unless he willed it. Similar to how the Boleyn faction wrested positions of power at court during the reign of Queen Anne, the Seymours would continue this cycle through their kinswoman, Jane.

It is also believed that Jane, in the presence of her supporters and the king, may have stated that the English would never accept Anne as queen. Despite the possibility of this scenario, it is not proven whether this implies she would have wanted Anne's death or merely her removal at court.

Lineage

Notes

  1. ^ Ancestors of Jane Seymour(see bottom of page)
  2. ^ Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
  3. ^ "Henry VIII - the Embroiderer King". Royal School of Needlework. http://www.royal-needlework.co.uk/Henry_VIII_-_the_Embroiderer_King_.html. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 
  4. ^ The Six Wives of Henry VIII
  5. ^ Farquhar, Michael (2001). A Treasure of Royal Scandals, p.72. Penguin Books, New York. ISBN 0739420259.
  6. ^ Boutell, Charles (1863), A Manual of Heraldry, Historical and Popular, London: Winsor & Newton, pp. 278 
  7. ^ a b c d e f Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10151.htm#i101505, retrieved 2007-10-27 
  8. ^ a b Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, http://www.thepeerage.com/p333.htm#i3330, retrieved 2007-10-27 
  9. ^ Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, http://www.thepeerage.com/p334.htm#i3331, retrieved 2007-10-27 
  10. ^ a b c d e Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10151.htm#i101506, retrieved 2007-10-27 
  11. ^ a b Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, http://www.thepeerage.com/p334.htm#i3338, retrieved 2007-10-27 
  12. ^ a b Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, http://www.thepeerage.com/p334.htm#i3339, retrieved 2007-10-27 
  13. ^ a b c d e f Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, http://www.thepeerage.com/p334.htm#i3337, retrieved 2007-10-27 

References

External links

English royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Anne Boleyn		 Queen consort of England
Lady of Ireland
30 May 1536 – 24 October 1537		 Vacant
Title next held by
Anne of Cleves
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English Royal Consorts
George of Denmark (1702–1707) · Mary of Modena (1685–1688) · Catherine of Braganza (1662–1685) · Henrietta Maria of France (1625–1649) · Anne of Denmark (1603–1619) ·Philip II of Spain (1554-1558) · (Lord Guilford Dudley?) (1553) · Catherine Parr (1543–1547) · Catherine Howard (1540–1542) · Anne of Cleves (1540) · Jane Seymour (1536–1537) · Anne Boleyn (1533–1536) · Catherine of Aragon (1509–1533) · Elizabeth of York (1486–1503) · Anne Neville (1483–1485) · Elizabeth Woodville (1464–1483) · Margaret of Anjou (1445–1471) · Catherine of Valois (1420–1422) · Joanna of Navarre (1403–1413) · Isabella of Valois (1396–1399) · Anne of Bohemia (1383–1394) · Philippa of Hainault (1328–1369) · Isabella of France (1308–1327) · Margaret of France (1299–1307) · Eleanor of Castile (1272–1290) · Eleanor of Provence (1236–1272) · Isabella of Angoulême (1200–1216) · Berengaria of Navarre (1191–1199) · Eleanor of Aquitaine (1154–1189) · Matilda I of Boulogne (1135–1152) · (Geoffrey V of Anjou?) (1141) · Adeliza of Louvain (1121–1135) · Matilda of Scotland (1100–1118) · Matilda of Flanders (1066–1083)