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Jane Seymour - Historical profile

The History
of
Jane Seymour

"...fairest of all Henry's wives" or "Plain Jane"?
c.1508 - 1537 (29 yrs)

Queen Consort

May 30, 1536 - October 24, 1537
(16 months)

Timeline

INTERESTING FACTS:

Jane mediated the reconciliation between the Princess Mary Tudor and the King. This may have been due to the fact that Jane was very much interested in restoring Catholicism & had been a supporter of Queen Katherine of Aragon.

In 18 months of regal life Jane went without uttering a single sentence significant enough for preservation. It was generally considered that queen Jane purposely steered her course so that her manners appeared diametrically opposed to those of Queen Anne Boleyn.

The only act of Jane Seymour's queenly life of which a documentary record has been preserved, is an order to the park keeper at Havering-atte-Bower "to deliver to her well-beloved the gentlemen of her sovereign lord the king's chapel-royal, two bucks of high season." For this very trifling exercise of the power and privileges of a queen of England she names the king's warrant and seal as her authority, as if her own were insufficient

Jane laid down very rigorous rules regarding the etiquette of dress at her court. She abolished the flirtatious french fashions of Anne's reign & re-instituted English garb for her ladies. The maids of honour were expected to wear very costly girdles of pearls, and if not very fully set, they were not to appear in her royal presence. The number of pearls required was more than one hundred and twenty,

Jane's mother, Margery Wentworth, was thought to have been a muse for the poet John Skelton who had tutored the young Henry VIII.

-oOo-

A member of the king's privy council Sir John Russell said: "that the richer queen Jane was dressed the fairer she appeared; on the contrary, the better Anne Boleyn was apparelled the worse she looked: but that queen Jane was the fairest of all Henry's wives,"

However Ambassador Chapuys who although championed Jane was less than flattering saying: "She is of middle height and nobody thinks that she has much beauty. Her complexion is so whitish that she may be called rather pale........she is not very intelligent and is said to be rather haughty"

Historian David Starkey says: "Apparently, her beautiful, pale complexion was not enough to offset her large nose, small eyes and compressed lips. It was Jane Seymour's virtuous and gentle nature that attracted the king for she was indeed a "plain Jane." Yet, she, like Anne Boleyn, had lured the king away from his wife. But while Anne would be portrayed as a witch, Jane would be forever remembered as a saint."

Miniature of Jane by Lucas Horenbout

Jane, from dynastic portrait of Henry VIII and his parents
(notice the poodle on her skirt)

As Jane was 26 or 7 when she came to Henry's attention, according to the marriage customs of the time, she 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. Queen Katherine 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.

c. 1540's

Was Jane Seymour really a virgin?

Approximately 27 years old when the king began his courtship, Jane had been at court for 6 years. Although her virtuous behavior was praised by everyone, Spanish Ambassador Chapuys thought it unlikely that she was still chaste. According to Chapuys, Jane, "being an Englishwoman and having been so long" at court, where immorality was widespread, could not be as virtuous as was popularly assumed. Chapuys stated that king was not troubled by Jane's chastity or lack thereof "since he may marry her on condition she is a maid, and when he wants a divorce there will be plenty of witnesses ready to testify that she was not."

Despite the speculation, there is no proof that Jane had sexual dalliances prior to her relationship with King Henry.

Links:

David Starkey on Jane Seymour -- 1/2
David Starkey on Jane Seymour -- 2/2
Biography of Jane Seymour - D.Starkey
Biography of Jane Seymour - Luminarium encyclopedia project
Short Bio by tudorhistory.org

Mary Zouch, one of Jane's Ladies in waiting
by Hans Holbein

One of the king's love-letters to his new favourite Jane Seymour seems to have been written while the fallen Queen Anne Boleyn was waiting, her doom in prison:

"MY DEAR FRIEND AND MISTRESS,
"The bearer of these few lines from thy entirely devoted servant will deliver into thy fair hands a token of my true affection for thee, hoping you will keep it for ever in your sincere love for me. Advertising you that there is a ballad made lately of great derision against us, which if it go abroad and is seen by you; I pray you to pay no manner of regard to it. I am not at present informed who is the setter forth of this malignant writing; but if he is found out, he shall be straitly punished for it.
"For the things ye lacked, I have minded my lord to supply them to you as soon as he could buy them. Thus hoping, shortly to receive you in these arms, I end for the present,
"Your own loving servant and sovereign,
"H. R."

(Henry never found out or punished the malignant ballad writer)

Jane Seymour found herself courted, not only by King Henry VIII, but also by Anne Boleyn's enemies and Ambassador Chapuys ' Catholic Faction.
[ *See the "Tudor Court Politics" page on the wiki]

"The ambassador advised her to drop heavy hints about Anne's heretical leanings in Henry's ear, and to say that the people of England would never accept her as their true Queen. She must say these things in the presence of her supporters, who would all then swear, on their allegiance to the King, that she spoke the truth.

Jane certainly acted upon this advice, and it had the desired effect upon the King, who was now receptive to criticism of his wife. Jane also followed her own instincts, and the advice of her friends, by not admitting Henry to her bed. Instead, she dropped heavy hints about marriage, which fell on fertile ground, and before long Henry began to behave towards her with great circumspection, leading others to believe that he was already considering her as a future wife.

From this time on, he took care to avoid any hint of scandal attaching itself to her name; her family and adherents were quick to notice this new deference on the part of the King, and Sir Francis Bryan told Jane's parents that they would shortly see their daughter 'well bestowed' in marriage"

[Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, p. 306].

From Victorian Historian Agnes Strickland

"Lives of the Queens of England" (1850)

"JANE SEYMOUR was the fairest, the discreetest, and the most meritorious of all Henry VIII.'s wives."

This assertion has been generally repeated by all historians to the present hour, yet, doubtless, the question has frequently occurred to their readers, in what did her merit consist? Customs may alter at various eras, but the laws of moral justice are unalterable: difficult would it be to reconcile them with the first actions known of this discreet lady, for discretion is the attribute peculiarly challenged as her own.

Yet Jane Seymour's shameless conduct in receiving the courtship of Henry VIII. was the commencement of the severe calamities that befell her mistress, Anne Boleyn. Scripture points out as an especial odium the circumstance of a handmaid taking the place of her mistress. Odious enough was the case when Anne Boleyn supplanted the right royal Katharine of Aragon, but the discreet Jane Seymour received the addresses of her mistress's husband, and passively beheld the mortal anguish of Anne Boleyn when that unhappy queen was in a state which peculiarly demanded feminine sympathy; she knew that the discovery of Henry's inconstancy had nearly destroyed her, whilst the shock actually destroyed her infant.

Jane saw murderous accusations got up against the queen, which finally brought her to the scaffold, yet she gave her hand to the regal ruffian before his wife's corpse was cold. Yes; four-and-twenty hours had not elapsed since the sword was reddened with the blood of her mistress, when Jane Seymour became the bride of Henry VIII. And let it be remembered that a royal marriage could not have been celebrated without previous preparation, which must have proceeded simultaneously with the heart-rending events of Anne Boleyn's last agonized hours.

The wedding-cakes must have been baking, the wedding-dinner providing, the wedding-clothes preparing, while the life-blood was yet running warm in the veins of the victim, whose place was to be rendered vacant by violent death. The picture is repulsive enough, but it becomes tenfold more abhorrent when the woman who caused the whole tragedy is loaded with panegyric. On the morning of the 19th of May, Henry VIII., attired for the chase, with his huntsmen and hounds around him, was standing under the spreading oak, breathlessly awaiting the signal-gun from the Tower which was to announce that the sword had fallen on the neck of his once "entirely beloved Anne Boleyn."

At last, when the bright summer sun rode high towards its meridian, the sullen sound of the death-gun boomed along the windings of the Thames. Henry started with ferocious joy. "Ha, ha " he cried with satisfaction, "the deed is done. Uncouple the hounds and away!" he chase that day bent towards the west, whether the stag led it in that direction or not. The tradition of Richmond adds, that the king was likewise advised of the execution by a signal from a flag hoisted on the spire of old St. Paul's, which was seen through a glade of the park to the east. At night the king was at Wolf-hall, in Wilts, telling the news to his elected bride; the next morning he married her, May 20, 1536. "

Detail of a portrait of Henry VIII's family, which is located in Hampton Court. Jane is seated next to Henry, despite having been dead for several years and Henry married to Catherine Parr at the time the portrait was commissioned in 1545.

"Before the miscarriage [of Anne Boleyn's child], Henry might have enjoyed an asexual flirtation with the maidenly Jane Seymour, or he might have hoped to win her over as he had a number of other women. But until Anne's child was born he could not think of marrying Jane, The miscarriage changed all that. Now Henry wanted to be rid of Anne, and he wanted to marry Jane.

What Jane wanted, if indeed she wanted anything is hard to ascertain. Among all the women Henry married --- among all the major figures of that dramatic era -- Jane is the only one whose personality never clearly emerges. In popular mythology she's close to a saint, the perfect foil to the temptress Anne Boleyn. It's an ironic image, since she did exactly what Anne had done. Having attracted the king's interest, she refused his advances without removing herself from his presence. Then as the efforts to rid himself of his current wife got underway, she accepted her role as the wife's replacement. There are two differences, neither of which are to her credit. The first is that Anne unlike Katherine, was still young enough to conceive again when Henry threw her over. The second is that at some point it became clear to Jane that Anne was not to be merely discarded, but killed.

....While most accounts in her own time extol her great virtue, they are notably lacking in detail. Despite the praise, the figure that emerges in contemporary accounts is neither saint nor villain, neither virtuous nor calculating.Nothing as defined as malice or ambition or compassion or warmth or coldness comes through the description of Jane. In all the events in which she took part, Jane as an individual seems puzzlingly almost eerily absent. Her brother pushed her at the king, and she, in Strickland's apt word, "received" Henry's advances.Acting as a virtuous woman was supposed to, and as Henry seems to have wanted her to, she held out for marriage, passively watching the horrifying process of Anne's destruction. Did she believe in Anne's guilt? Was she angry with Anne for betraying Henry? With Henry for killing Anne? Was she frightened at the thought of marrying a man who humiliated one wife and was about to kill another? Did she ever turn to her brother and say "get me out of this?" We don't know. We don't even have enough material to make an educated guess.

...Although Henry didn't know it, [Jane's Brother] Edward Seymour was probably doing a great deal more than giving access to Jane. Approached by Princess Mary's supporters on the Privy Council, he had become as active member of the plot to overthrow Anne Boleyn. He and the others told Jane how to behave with Henry, and she complied. Along with ostentatiously preserving her chastity, Jane was to speak against Anne to Henry, always in the presence of supporters among the nobility, who would then agree with her. She was to emphasize "how much his subjects abominate the marriage contract with the concubine and that no one considers it legitimate". Again Jane went along -- gladly? sadly? Or indifferently doing as she was told?

.... As soon as Anne was condemned to die, Henry sent a messenger to tell Jane the good news. It's an unappetizing picture, the rush to assure his new love of the old one's imminent execution, and Henry compounded the ugliness by running off that same afternoon to visit Jane in person. One wonders if they laughed together, envisioning Anne's death -- or did Jane chastely console the King in his elaborate charade of betrayed husband?"

[Excerpt from Karen Lindsey's Divorced Beheaded Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of The Wives of Henry VIII]]

Historian Eric Ives ("Life &Death of Anne Boleyn") says that he feels Agnes Strickland's view of Jane was an over-harsh Victorian judgement, but he says:

"Jane was willing to be used to oust Anne; Henry's first marriage was dead before Anne came on the scene. Anne's sexuality challenged Henry, but Jane dangled her virtue as a bait. Anne offered Henry marriage or nothing. Jane upped her price once the chance of a bigger prize appeared; Anne was no man's creature, Jane was a willing tool whose personality it is more than kind to describe as 'pliable'.....Chapuys considered that the guilt was primarily Henry's. Londoners watching at the time blamed Henry & Jane, both."

Comments:

Most historians do not record Jane the way Strickland does, She is one of the first historians who questions Jane's motives and other Historians such as Hester W. Chapman, Joanna Denny, Mary Louise Bruce, and Carolly Erickson also share Strickland's view of Jane. David Starkey does not consider Jane of much importance in comparison to her predecessor Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Antonia Fraser and Alison Weir paint Jane in a favourable light. All in all, Jane Seymour's motives and ambitions, like her predecessor Anne Boleyn are often questioned, with some historians vilifying her and others praising her.

Mary of Habsburg (1505 -1558), also named Mary, Maria, or Marie of Hungary, of Austria, of Castille, or of Burgundy (sister of Emperor Charles V & niece of Margaret of Austria) said :

The King had " paid considerable attention to [Jane] Seymour before her predecessor [Anne Boleyn] was dead which, along with the fact that none of those executed with her except the organist [Mark Smeaton] admitted the deed, any more than she had, made people think he invented the ploy just to get rid of her. Nevertheless the woman herself suffered no great injustice by this for she was well known to be a worthless character... I think that women will not be all that happy if such ways of going on become the custom - and with good reason. And although I do not intend to take the risk myself, yet for the sake of the female sex I will pray like the rest that God will protect us"

Jane's siblings, (left to right) Elizabeth Seymour
(Identification of this portrait is disputed, in March 2008 David Starkey identified this as Katherine Howard ), Edward Seymour (Lord Protector of England), and Thomas Seymour (Lord High Admiral of England), all benefited greatly from their sister's raise to the throne and her son, Edward VI as well.

Jane Seymour's letter and signature announcing the birth of Prince Edward Letter of Queen Jane Seymour to the Privy council of England, 12th October 1537 Right trusty and well beloved, we greet you well, and for as much as by the inestimable goodness and grace of Almighty God, we be delivered and brought in childbed of a prince, concieved in most lawful matrimony between my Lord the King's majesty and us, doubting not but that for love and affection which you bear unto us and to the commonwealth of this realm, the knowledge thereof should be joyous and glad tidings unto you, we have thought good to certify you of the same. To the intent you might not only render unto God condign thanks and prayers for so great a benefit but also continually pray for the long continuance and preservation of the same here in this life to the honour of God, joy and pleasure of my Lord the King and us, and the universal weal, quiet and tranquillity of this whole realm. Jane the Quene	LITERATURE: Non-fiction Elton, G. R. England Under the Tudors. Fraser, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII. Starkey, David. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Gross, Pamela. Jane, The Quene, Third Consort to King Henry VIII Fiction Plain Jane- by Laurien Gardner Jane Seymour by Frances B. Clark The Tudor Rose by Julia Watson
Jane's grave in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, along side Henry VIII	Wax figure of Jane Seymour at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London
"Here a Phoenix lieth, whose death To another Phoenix gave breath It is to be lamented much, The world at once ne'er knew two such." Epitaph of Jane Seymour, who's symbol was the phoenix.

MsSquirrly	Latest page update: made by MsSquirrly , Jun 14 2009, 3:54 PM EDT (about this update About This Update the taglines are comments made by historians and both have been said of Jane - MsSquirrly 5 words added 1 word deleted view changes - complete history)
	Keyword tags: Henry VIII Jane Seymour showtime series The Tudors More Info: links to this page

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Jes89

The damnation of Jane seymour (page: 1 2)

Jul 18 2009, 11:47 AM EDT by BoleynGirl

Thread started: Jul 12 2009, 2:10 PM EDT Watch

I think she is too much vilified because of her "saint" memory.
People says that she and her family did the same game as Anne and the boleyns(i agree) But i don't think she deserves to be so vilified as some people does.
Be successor of 2 intelligent,loved and hated but important queens must have been hard for her,incluind the fact that she knew what would happen to her after all Henry did to his previous wives.

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Jes89

Jane Seymour and lack of bath???????

Jun 17 2009, 10:43 PM EDT by tjb22

Thread started: Jun 17 2009, 6:55 PM EDT Watch

Extracted of " Adventures in the History" , nº 48, August of 2007

Jane Seymour, the third of the six women with who king Henry VIII of England was married, died for lack bath. She had pathological water phobia and she did not allow her ladies t give her the bath later the birth of her son Edward VI. She caught an infection and died in 12 days, to the 28 years.

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mary_bess_edward

Jane's education

May 4 2009, 5:32 PM EDT by Maggie-AnneB.

Thread started: May 4 2009, 4:26 PM EDT Watch

Is it only speculated that Jane was illiterate or was it actually documented? I was just wondering why Henry would send her letters if she couldn't read. I don't think he would want anyone else to have to read them out to her in case they were a bit personal. Also, do you think that KOA and AB would have let such an uneducated woman into their services, especially considering the rivalries between noble families to get daughters a position as one of the queen's ladies. I'm sure they would have only allowed the best to serve them.

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Jane Seymour - Historical profile

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