Misplaced Pages

Jane Seymour: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 08:07, 19 November 2007 view sourceGurch (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Rollbackers109,955 editsm Revert 2 revisions by 60.230.217.192← Previous edit Revision as of 15:51, 19 November 2007 view source Ptolemy Caesarion (talk | contribs)26,307 edits more correct as wasNext edit →
Line 25: Line 25:
Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir ] of ] and ]. Her exact birth date is debated; it is usually given as 1509; however, it has been noted that at her funeral 29 women walked in succession <ref>], ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' </ref>. 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. Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir ] of ] and ]. Her exact birth date is debated; it is usually given as 1509; however, it has been noted that at her funeral 29 women walked in succession <ref>], ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' </ref>. 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.


She was not educated as highly as Katherine or Anne as she could only read and write her name. She was not educated as highly
as Katherine or Anne; as could
only read and write her name.
Instead she was taught in needlework and household management, which was popular at that time for women. Instead she was taught in needlework
and household management, which was popular at that time for women.
She became a ] in 1560, in the last year of ]'s reign. After Katherine was divorced and ] became queen, ahe served her instead. Jane caught the king's eye in September 1535 when Henry was returning from a march and he stayed at the Seymour's stately home. His love for her was not confirmed until February the following year when his marriage to Anne was falling rapidly downhill. His desire to marry her may have predisposed him to believe the false accusations of adultery and witchcraft against Anne. She became a ] in 1560, in the last year of ]'s reighn. After Katherine was divorced and ] became queen, ahe served her instead. Jane caught the king's eye in September 1535 when Henry was returning from a march and he stayed at the seymour's stately home. His love for her was not confirmed until Febuary the following year when his marriage to Anne was falling rapidly downhill. His desire to marry her may have predisposed him to believe the false accusations of adultery and witchcraft against Anne.


Henry became betrothed to Jane on ], ], the day after Anne's execution, and married her on ]. Jane was publicly proclaimed queen on ]. She was never crowned, because London, where the coronation was to take place, was hit by a plague epidemic. It has also been suggested that Henry was reluctant to crown Jane before she had fulfilled her duty as a queen by bearing him a son and heir. Henry became betrothed to Jane on ], ], the day after Anne's execution, and married her on ]. Jane was publicly proclaimed queen on ]. She was never crowned because of an epidemic of plague in London where the coronation was to take place. It has also been suggested that Henry was reluctant to crown Jane before she had fulfilled her duty as a queen by bearing him a son and heir.


As queen consort, Jane was strict and formal. She was close only to her female relations, ] (her brother's wife) and her sister, ]. 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 in Jane's time. For example, the dress requirements for ladies of the court were detailed down to the number of pearls that were to be sewn into each lady's skirt, and the ] fashions introduced by Anne Boleyn were banned. Politically, Jane appears to have been conservative. However, her only involvement in national affairs, in 1536, when she asked for pardons for participants in the ]<ref name="PBShandbook"><!--This is not a proper reference citation; use {{Cite web}}.--></ref> rebellion, was abandoned after the King reminded her of the fate the other queens met with when they "meddled in his affairs".<ref name="PBShandbook" /> As queen consort, Jane was strict and formal. She was close only to her female relations, ] (her brother's wife) and her sister, ]. 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 in Jane's time. For example, the dress requirements for ladies of the court were detailed down to the number of pearls that were to be sewn into each lady's skirt, and the ] fashions introduced by Anne Boleyn were banned. Politically, Jane appears to have been conservative. However, her only involvement in national affairs, in 1536, when she asked for pardons for participants in the ]<ref name="PBShandbook"><!--This is not a proper reference citation; use {{Cite web}}.--></ref> rebellion, was abandoned after the King reminded her of the fate the other queens met with when they "meddled in his affairs".<ref name="PBShandbook" />

Revision as of 15:51, 19 November 2007

For the actress, see Jane Seymour (actress).
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Jane Seymour" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2006) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Queen Consort of England
Jane Seymour
Queen Consort of England
Jane Seymour
SpouseHenry VIII
IssueEdward VI
FatherJohn Seymour
MotherMargaret Wentworth

Jane Seymour (1507/150824 October 1537) was the third wife of Henry VIII. She died of post-natal complications following the birth of her only child, Edward VI. She was also King Henry VIII's fifth cousin three times removed.

Biography

Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wiltshire and Margaret Wentworth. Her exact birth date is debated; it is usually given as 1509; however, it has been noted that at her funeral 29 women walked in succession . 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.

She was not educated as highly as Katherine or Anne; as could only read and write her name. Instead she was taught in needlework and household management, which was popular at that time for women. She became a lady-in-waiting in 1560, in the last year of Catherine of Aragon's reighn. After Katherine was divorced and Anne Boleyn became queen, ahe served her instead. Jane caught the king's eye in September 1535 when Henry was returning from a march and he stayed at the seymour's stately home. His love for her was not confirmed until Febuary the following year when his marriage to Anne was falling rapidly downhill. His desire to marry her may have predisposed him to believe the false accusations of adultery and witchcraft against Anne.

Henry became betrothed to Jane on 20 May, 1536, the day after Anne's execution, and married her on 30 May. Jane was publicly proclaimed queen on 4 June. She was never crowned because of an epidemic of plague in London where the coronation was to take place. It has also been suggested that Henry was reluctant to crown Jane before she had fulfilled her duty as a queen by bearing him a son and heir.

As queen consort, Jane was strict and formal. She was close only to her female relations, Anne Stanhope (her brother's wife) and her sister, Elizabeth Seymour. 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 in Jane's time. For example, the dress requirements for ladies of the court were detailed down to the number of pearls that were to be sewn into each lady's skirt, and the French fashions introduced by Anne Boleyn were banned. Politically, Jane appears to have been conservative. However, her only involvement in national affairs, in 1536, when she asked for pardons for participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion, was abandoned after the King reminded her of the fate the other queens met with when they "meddled in his affairs".

Six wives of Henry VIII
and years of marriage
Catherine of Aragon
m. 1509–1533Anne Boleyn
m. 1533–1536Jane Seymour
m. 1536–1537Anne of Cleves
m. 1540Catherine Howard
m. 1540–1542Catherine Parr
m. 1543–1547

In early 1537, Jane became pregnant. During her pregnancy, she developed a craving for quail, which the King ordered for her from Calais and Flanders. Jane went into seclusion in September 1537 and gave birth to a male heir, the future King Edward VI of England on 12 October at Hampton Court Palace. After she participated in the prince's christening on October 15, it became clear that Jane was seriously ill. She had contracted puerperal fever and died on 24 October at Hampton Court. She was buried at Windsor Castle after a funeral in which her step-daughter, Princess Mary (later Queen Mary I), acted as chief mourner.

Above her grave, there was for a time the following inscription:

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 and did not remarry for two years. Henry always remembered her with affection, forgetting the youthful days he spent with Catherine of Aragon and his obsession with Anne Boleyn. Historians have speculated that it was Jane's "achievement" of securing Henry a male heir that made her so fondly remembered. When he died in 1547, Henry was buried beside her.

Jane's two ambitious brothers, Thomas and Edward, used her memory to improve their own fortunes. After Henry's death, Thomas married Henry's widow, Catherine Parr, and also had designs on the future Queen Elizabeth I. In the reign of the young King Edward VI, Edward Seymour set himself up as protector and effective ruler of the Kingdom. Both brothers eventually fell from power, and were disgraced and executed.

In film

In song

The English ballad The Death of Queen Jane (Child #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 twelve days later.

In the ballad, during long labour, Queen Jane repeatedly asks that her side be opened to save the baby. In most versions, she is refused repeatedly until finally someone -- usually King Henry -- succumbs to her pleas and allows the surgery that results in her death.

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

The song Lady Jane by the Rolling Stones also holds some connection. The song can be interpreted as Henry's sadness over the loss of Jane, because she was the only wife who actually gave him a much-wanted son, and yet her life was the price of the achievement. The song also mentions a 'Lady Anne' and that fact that the narrator can't be expected to love her when he has, or had, Lady Jane. Anne of Cleves followed Jane Seymour, and Henry quickly divorced her (on the much more fickle ground that she was not attractive).

Rick Wakeman had a pipe-organ based instrumental with Seymour's name on the concept album The Six Wives of Henry VIII. It was made to sound mainly like a typical song from her lifetime, save for a synthesiser solo and drums.

Historiography

Jane was widely praised as "the fairest, the discreetest, and the most meritous of all Henry VIII's wives" in the centuries after her death. One historian, however, took serious umbrage to this view in the 19th century. Victorian scholar Agnes Strickland, author of encyclopaedic studies 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."

Modern historians, particularly Alison Weir and Lady Antonia Fraser, paint a favourable portrait of a woman of discretion and good-sense -- "a strong-minded matriarch in the making," says Weir. Others are not convinced.

Hester W. Chapman and Professor 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. Dr. David Starkey and Karen Lindsey are both relatively dismissive of Jane's importance in comparison to that of Henry's other queens -- particularly Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr. Joanna Denny, Marie Louise Bruce and Carolly Erickson also -understandably- refrain from giving overly-sympathetic accounts of Jane's life and career.

Lineage

16. John Seymour (1402-c.1464)
8. John Seymour (before 1434-c. 1463)
17. Isabel William (?-1486)
4. John Seymour (c. 1450-1491)
18. Sir Robert Coker
9. Elizabeth Coker
19. ?
2. John Seymour (c. 1474-1536)
20. ?
10. Sir George Darell (?-c. 1474)
21. ?
5. Elizabeth Darell (before 1458-?)
22. John Stourton, 1st Baron Stourton (1400-1462)
11. Margaret Stourton (before 1442-?)
23. Marjory Wadham
1. Jane Seymour (1507/1508-1537)
24. Sir Roger Wentworth (?-1452)
12. Sir Philip Wentworth (?-1464)
25. Margaret Despenser (c. 1400-1478)
6. Sir Henry Wentworth (before 1448-?)
26. Sir John de Clifford, 7th Lord Clifford (c. 1388-1421/22)
13. Mary Clifford (1422-?)
27. Elizabeth Percy (before 1393-1437)
3. Margaret Wentworth (before 1490-?)
28. John Say (before 1445-?)
14. Sir John Say (before 1461-c. 1478)
29. Maud N.
7. Anne Say (?-before 1494)
30. Sir Lawrence Cheney (c. 1396-1461)
15. Elizabeth Cheney
31. Elizabeth Cokayn

References

  1. Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII
  2. ^
  3. ^ Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, retrieved October 27, 2007
  4. ^ Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, retrieved October 27, 2007
  5. ^ Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, retrieved October 27, 2007
  6. ^ Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, retrieved October 27, 2007
  7. Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, retrieved October 27, 2007
  8. ^ Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, retrieved October 27, 2007
  9. ^ Lundy, Darryl, thePeerage, retrieved October 27, 2007

External links

English royalty
Preceded byAnne Boleyn Queen Consort of England
30 May, 1536 - 24 October, 1537
Succeeded byAnne of Cleves
EnglishScottish and British royal consorts
Royal consorts in England until 1603Royal consorts in Scotland until 1603
Spouses of debatable or disputed rulers are in italics

Template:Persondata

Categories: