Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was accused by Henry of adultery after failing to produce a male heir. Jane, however, died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, the future King Edward VI. She was the only wife of Henry VIII to receive a queen's funeral, and Henry was later buried alongside her remains in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Early life
Jane, the daughter of Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth, was most likely born at Wulfhall, Wiltshire, although West Bower Manor in Somerset has also been suggested. Her birth date is not recorded; various accounts use anywhere from 1504 to 1509, but it is generally estimated at between 1508 and 1509. Through her maternal grandfather, she was a descendant of King Edward III's son Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence. Because of this, she and King Henry VIII were fifth cousins. She also shared a great-grandmother, Elizabeth Cheney, Lady Say, with his second and fifth wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.Jane was not as highly educated as Henry's first and second 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. Her needlework was reportedly beautiful and elaborate; some of it survived as late as 1652, when it is recorded to have been given to the Seymour family. After her death, it was noted that Henry was an "enthusiastic embroiderer".
Jane was praised for her gentle, peaceful nature, being called as "gentle a lady as ever I knew" by John Russell and "the Pacific" by the Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys, for her peacemaking efforts at court. According to Chapuys, she was of middling stature and very pale; he also said that she was not of much beauty, but Russell said she was "the fairest of all the King's wives". Polydore Vergil commented that she was "a woman of the utmost charm in both character and appearance". She was regarded as meek, gentle, simple, and chaste, with her large family making her thought to be suitable to have many children.
Service in royal court
Although no original evidence of Jane's employment in the royal court survives, most historians agree that Jane arrived to serve as a lady-in-waiting for Queen Catherine between 1527 and 1529. In 1531, Henry VIII banished Catherine from court. Elizabeth Norton posits that Jane likely accompanied Catherine into exile.Alison Weir suggests Jane likely remained at the royal court and entered Anne's service instead.A "Mistress Seymour" received a New Year's gift from Henry in January 1534, which may indicate that Jane was indeed part of Anne's retinue at this time. However, according to Jane Dormer's memoir, Jane Seymour's entry to Anne's retinue was arranged in late 1535 by courtier Francis Bryan, himself a relative of both Anne and Seymour. In July 1536, Holy Roman ambassador Pedro Ortiz wrote to Empress Isabella that his colleague, Eustace Chapuys, understood Jane to have previously served as a maid to both Catherine and Anne.
Anne became Henry's wife in January 1533 and Queen consort of England later that year, in June. After giving birth to a daughter, Elizabeth I, in September 1533, Anne suffered a series of miscarriages, and her relationship with Henry began to fail, in large part due to Henry's growing desperation for a male heir.
Visit to Wolf Hall and relationship with Henry: 1535-1536
In late 1535, Henry VIII embarked on what would be his final royal tour with Anne. They stayed at Wolf Hall, the ancestral home of the Seymour family, for one week in September. Henry often visited the homes of his favoured courtiers during progresses, of which Jane Seymour's father was one.Most historians agree that Jane was likely present during this visit, either to support her parents in providing hospitality to the royal couple or to attend to Queen Anne. Seymour was likely already acquainted with Henry in some personal capacity, due to her service in the royal court and Henry's dealings with the Seymour family. However, it is possible that Henry took a romantic interest in Jane for the first time during this visit.
By February 1536, Henry was, according to Eustace Chapuys, sending Jane gifts, indicating interest in her as a potential mistress. Upon receiving a letter and a purse full of sovereigns from the king, Jane returned the gift and the letter unopened. She asked the messenger, who may have been Richard Page, to tell Henry that "there was no treasure in this world that valued as much as her honour," and to request that Henry reserve sending gifts "for such a time as God would be pleased to send some advantageous marriage."
Both contemporaries and historians have posited that Jane was being coached by her family in her responses to Henry's attentions, with the ultimate goal of Jane usurping Anne as queen. Conservative members of the royal court, including Jane's brother Edward, certainly saw Jane supplanting Anne as a means to undo reformist policies associated with Anne's reign. Nonetheless, biographer Antonia Fraser posits that Jane's refusal may have been less strategic than practical: protecting her reputation meant protecting her future marriage prospects, as she lacked independent wealth and could not risk a scandalous association with the monarch.
Intrigued by Jane's apparent modesty, Henry's interest in her intensified. He arranged for Jane and her brother Edward to move into Thomas Cromwell's apartments at Greenwich Palace, so that Edward could act as Jane's chaperone while Henry continued to pursue her.
Marriage and birth of heir
Henry VIII was betrothed to Jane on 20 May 1536, the day after Anne Boleyn's execution. They were married at the Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall, London, in the Queen's closet by Bishop Stephen Gardiner on 30 May 1536. As a wedding gift he granted her 104 manors in four counties as well as a number of forests and hunting chases for her jointure, the income to support her during their marriage. She was publicly proclaimed queen on 4 June 1536. Her well-publicised sympathy for the late Queen Catherine and her daughter Mary showed her to be compassionate and made her a popular figure with the common people and most of the courtiers. She was never crowned because of plague in London, where the coronation was to take place. Henry may have been reluctant to have her crowned before she had fulfilled her duty as a queen consort by bearing him a male heir.As queen, Jane was observed by her court to be strict and formal. The lavish entertainments, gaiety, and extravagance of the queen's household, which had reached their peak during Anne Boleyn's time, were replaced by strict decorum. She banned the French fashions Anne had introduced. Politically, Jane was conservative. Her only reported involvement in national affairs, in 1536, was when she asked for pardons for participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Henry is said to have rejected this, reminding her of the fate her predecessor met with should she "meddle with his affairs." Her motto as a queen was Bound to obey and serve.
Jane formed a close relationship with her stepdaughter Mary, making efforts to have Mary restored to court and to the royal succession, behind any children she might have with Henry. She brought up the issue of Mary's restoration both before and after she became queen. While she was unable to restore Mary to the line of succession, she was able to reconcile her with Henry. Chapuys wrote to Emperor Charles V of her compassion and efforts on behalf of Mary's return to favour. A letter from Mary to her shows Mary's gratitude. While it was she who first pushed for the restoration, Mary and Elizabeth were not reinstated to the succession until Henry's sixth wife, Catherine Parr, convinced him to do so.
One non-contemporary source conjectures that she may have been pregnant and had a miscarriage by Christmas 1536. In January 1537, Jane conceived again.
During her pregnancy, she developed a craving for quail. Henry had an uncle and aunt in Calais, the Viscount and Viscountess Lisle; quails were abundant in the marshes around where the couple lived, and they were also able to source the birds from Flanders. In May, Henry instructed John Russell to contact the Lisles: "My lord, the king commanded me to write to you for some fat quails, for the queen is very desirous to eat some but here be none to be gotten. pray you... will send some with as much speed as may be possible, but they must be very fat." The Lisles obliged.
During the summer, Jane took no public engagements and led a relatively quiet life, attended by the royal physicians and the best midwives in the kingdom. She went into confinement in September 1537 and gave birth to the coveted male heir, the future King Edward VI, at two o'clock in the morning on 12 October 1537 at Hampton Court Palace. Edward was christened on 15 October 1537 without his parents in attendance, as was the custom. He was the only legitimate son of Henry VIII to survive infancy. Both of his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, were present and carried Edward's train during the ceremony.
Death and funeral
Jane's labour had been difficult, lasting two days and three nights, probably because the baby was not well positioned. After the christening, it became clear that she was seriously ill. She died on 24 October 1537 at Hampton Court Palace. Within a few weeks, there were conflicting accounts of the cause of her death. According to King Edward's biographer Jennifer Loach, her death may have been due to an infection from a retained placenta. According to Alison Weir, she may have succumbed to puerperal fever following a bacterial infection contracted during the birth. Weir has also speculated, after medical consultation, that the cause of her death may have been a pulmonary embolism.Jane was buried on 12 November in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle after the funeral in which her stepdaughter Mary acted as chief mourner. A procession of 29 mourners followed Mary, one for every year of Jane's life. She was the only one of Henry's wives to receive a queen's funeral.
After her death, Henry wore black for the next three months. He married Anne of Cleves two years later, although marriage negotiations were tentatively begun soon after Jane's death. He gained weight during his widowerhood, becoming obese and swollen and developing diabetes and gout. When he died in 1547, he was buried beside her, on his request, in the grave he had made for her.