Jane Seymour

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 (who referred to her as Jane Semel in his letters), 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. 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. They stayed at Wolf Hall, the ancestral home of the Seymour family, for one week in September. Upon receiving a letter and a purse full of sovereigns from the king, Jane returned the gift and the letter unopened. 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. 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. 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. 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. 's family portrait 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. [I] pray you... will send some with as much speed as may be possible, but they must be very fat." The Lisles obliged. 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. == Legacy ==

Jane gave the king the son he so desperately desired, helped to restore Mary to the succession and her father's affections, ensuring that both her husband and stepdaughter felt tremendously bereft after her death. She used her influence to bring about the advancement of her family, which had been hindered by the scandal of her father's affair with his daughter-in-law, Catherine Filliol. Two of her brothers, Thomas and Edward, used her memory to improve their own fortunes. Thomas was rumoured to have been pursuing the future Elizabeth I, but he married the queen dowager Catherine Parr instead. In the reign of the young King Edward VI, Edward Seymour set himself up as Lord Protector and de facto ruler of the kingdom. Both brothers eventually fell from power and were executed. == Costume ==

Lady Margery Lyster was in charge of the jewels of Jane Seymour. An inventory was made of the queen's beads, jewels, pomanders, tablets, girdles, borders, brooches, bracelets, buttons, aglets, and chains. Many of the pieces were gold decorated with enamel and some were set with gems. An inventory of Henry VIII includes costume belonging to Jane Seymour, which was stored in 1542 in the Old Jewel House of Whitehall Palace. The list includes: gowns of damask, velvet, and satin; kirtles of velvet, cloth of silver, taffeta, and purple cloth of gold; cloaks of satin; sleeves of silver and gold tissue embroidered with Venice gold and tied with gold aglets; placards for gowns; stomachers; frontlets; French hoods and billiments of black velvet and white satin; partlets; and crimson velvet hats. The same clothes were listed again in 1547. Jane Seymour was said to have embroidered a bed and a chair, later given by Charles I to her relation William Seymour. Included in the 1542 inventory are some items of embroidery, possibly her own work such as a cushion featuring an antelope. A piece with a branch of roses and a crowned white falcon seems to be an emblem associated with Anne Boleyn. Jane Seymour owned great and little "babies", dolls dressed in gowns of cloth of silver, satin, and velvet tied with gold "aglettes", like her own sleeves. These may have been fashion dolls. == In media==

In film and on stage • In 1933, Wendy Barrie played Seymour opposite Charles Laughton's Henry VIII in Alexander Korda's highly acclaimed film The Private Life of Henry VIII. • In 1969, Lesley Paterson portrayed Jane briefly in Anne of the Thousand Days. • As part of the 1970 BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Henry was played by Keith Michell, and Seymour by Anne Stallybrass. • In 1972, this interpretation was repeated in the film Henry VIII and His Six Wives, adapted from the BBC series, in which Keith Michell reprised his role as Henry; on this occasion Seymour was played by Jane Asher. • Seymour was played by Charlotte Roach in David Starkey's documentary series The Six Wives of Henry VIII in 2001. • Seymour is a supporting character in the 2003 BBC television drama The Other Boleyn Girl, played by Naomi Benson opposite Jared Harris as Henry VIII and Jodhi May as Anne Boleyn. • In October 2003, in the two-part ITV drama Henry VIII, Ray Winstone starred as the King. Jane Seymour was played by Emilia Fox. • In The Simpsons 2004 episode "Margical History Tour", Seymour is portrayed by the shrill Miss Springfield during Marge's retelling of Henry's reign. Henry (portrayed by Homer) quickly orders Seymour's beheading after hearing her annoying voice. • Corinne Galloway depicts Seymour in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). • Anita Briem portrayed Seymour as lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn in the second (2008) season of the television series The Tudors, produced for Showtime. In the third season of the same series, when Jane Seymour becomes queen and later dies, the part is played by Annabelle Wallis. • Kate Phillips, in her first professional role, plays Jane Seymour in the BBC Two adaptation of Wolf Hall. Phillips reprises the role in the sequel Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. • Jane Seymour is portrayed in the stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall parts I and II, adapted by Mike Poulton. It was presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London's West End (2014) and on Broadway (2015). • Lucy Telleck played Seymour opposite Charlie Clements as Henry VIII in Suzannah Lipscomb and Dan Jones Henry VIII and his Six Wives on Channel 5. • In the musical Six, she was played by Holly Musgrave in the original Edinburgh cast, Natalie Paris in the studio and West End casts and Abby Mueller in the Chicago cast. In books • Is the main character in Janet Wertman's Jane the Quene novel, the first installment in her Seymour Saga. • Is the main character in Carolly Erickson's highly fictionalized novel The Favoured Queen, which follows her from her appointment as lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon right up until her death. • Is the subject of the novel Plain Jane: A Novel of Jane Seymour (Tudor Women Series) by Laurien Gardner (Sarah Hoyt). • Appears as a lady serving both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which ends with hints of her coming prominence. The second novel in Mantel's series, Bring Up the Bodies focuses on the machinations that led to the execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's growing determination to replace her with Jane Seymour and the Seymour family's strategems to gain from the King's attraction to Jane. The third volume, The Mirror & the Light, includes Jane Seymour's story. • The book I, Jane, by Diane Haeger, tells of her growing up and, before catching the eye of King Henry, meeting a young man whose parents are well placed in court and look down on Jane and her family. Despite this, Jane and the son become close, and over the years she never forgets him. • Is the title character of ''Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's True Love'' by Elizabeth Norton. • Seymour is the title character in Alison Weir's book Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen, the third in the Six Tudor Queens series. In music • As Giovanna Seymour, she appears in Gaetano Donizetti's opera Anna Bolena. • Rick Wakeman recorded the piece "Jane Seymour" for his 1973 album The Six Wives of Henry VIII. • The English ballad "The Death of Queen Jane" (Child No. 170) is about the death of Jane Seymour following the birth of Prince Edward. The story as related in the ballad is historically inaccurate, but apparently reflects the popular view at the time of the events surrounding her death. The historical fact is that Prince Edward was born naturally, and that his mother succumbed to infection and died 12 days later. 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. • A setting of the ballad to a tune by Irish musician Dáithí Sproule was included on the Bothy Band's 1979 album After Hours (Live in Paris), on the 1995 album Trian II by Trian (Sproule, Liz Carroll, and Billy McComiskey), and the Bothy Band's 2008 album Best of the Bothy Band. The song also appears on Loreena McKennitt's 2010 album The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and on Dáithí Sproule's 2011 album Lost River: Vol. 1; and it was performed by Oscar Isaac in the Coen brothers' 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis. ==Footnotes==