David Loades
Jane was Henry VIIIâ€™s third queen, and she was described by him as â€˜his first true wifeâ€™, both his first two marriages having been annulled. She was twenty-seven when he married her, and came of a solid gentry family with good court connections. She had served both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn as a Lady of the Privy Chamber, and her failure to find a suitable marriage is something of a mystery. He was forty-four and desperate for the male heir who had so far eluded him, but which Janeâ€™s placid disposition and sexual availability seemed to promise. She was no great beauty, but came of a good breeding stock, and therein lay his hope.,They married at the end of May 1536, and she became pregnant at about the end of the year, a condition which advanced normally, but which caused the king acute anxiety as the summer of 1537 advanced. Then in October 1537 Jane performed the great miracle, and bore Henry a son, who lived and flourished. Tragically she died of puerperal fever a few days later, leaving the court in mourning and the king devastated. Her obsequies were elaborate and prolonged, and Henry stayed in mourning for many weeks.,The kingâ€™s son, Prince Edward, was carefully nurtured, and probably did not miss the mother he had never known. When the time came, his education was overseen by Henryâ€™s sixth queen, Catherine Parr, and he seems not to have had much of the Seymour in his make-up. He was very much his fatherâ€™s boy.
History,English History,Tudor Period,Nonfiction,Biography,Historical
Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's Favourite Wife