Within 24 hours of the execution of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and Henry VIII were formally betrothed.
Jane Seymour by Hans Holbein the Younger
In an unbelievable twist of fate, Jane Seymour, the woman that had come to court as a lady in waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon and then served as a lady in waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn after the first queen fell from favour, was now on the brink of becoming queen herself.
There is much debate surrounding whether Jane Seymour was simply a political pawn that her powerful family manoeuvred into position when Anne Boleyn failed to provide the king with a male heir or whether she was in fact as ambitious as Anne had once been and willingly sought to replace the queen by enticing Henry with her outward façade of modesty and virtue.
Either way, on the 30th May 1536, Henry VIII married Jane Seymour in the Queen’s Closet at Whitehall Palace and she was publicly declared queen on the 4th June 1536.
Jane was not given the lavish coronation that Henry’s two previous queens enjoyed even though she did what her predecessors did not, she provided the king with his long wished for son.
In early 1537, rumours of Queen Jane’s pregnancy were confirmed and celebrations held in honour of this wondrous event. In early October, Jane retired to Hampton Court Palace for her ‘lying-in’ and on the 12th October 1537, after a long and arduous labour, Jane gave birth to a baby boy.
Finally, after 28 years on the throne, King Henry VIII had his legitimate heir to the Tudor throne.
On the 15th October, on the eve of St. Edward’s day, the little prince was baptised. Both his half sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, participated in the ceremony with Mary chosen as Edward’s Godmother. Thomas Boleyn was also in attendance and one can only wonder what his thoughts would have been at this time.
A weak and exhausted Jane participated in the ceremony but later retired to her rooms where her condition rapidly deteriorated. A distraught Henry did not leave his wife’s side the entire night. Despite all efforts made, the doctors were unable to save her and in the early hours of the 24th October, only 12 days after the birth of her precious son, Jane died.
It was later said that Jane died from complications of a caesarian section but this is highly unlikely as Jane survived the birth and attended Edward’s christening. There is also no record of excessive bleeding.
It is generally accepted by modern historians that Jane Seymour died of puerperal fever, also known as ‘childbed fever’. Eleven years later, Jane’s sister-in-law, Catherine Parr, would suffer the same fate.
She was given a solemn but magnificent state funeral and ironically, after being forbidden to attend her own mother’s funeral only a year before, Princess Mary acted as her chief mourner.
Henry VIII always spoke of Jane as his ‘true wife’ and left instructions to be buried next to her at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
Although the apartments where Jane gave birth to Edward and where she later died no longer exist, it is possible that the ‘space’ in which these events occurred recorded the pain, joy and sadness felt by those involved and every so often plays it back for those sensitive among us to ‘see’.
It is said that Jane Seymour’s ghost haunts Hampton Court Palace. She has been seen walking the cobbled grounds of Clock Court and on the anniversary of the birth of Edward is said to ascend the stairs leading to the Silver Stick Gallery, dressed in a white robe and carrying a candle. Unfortunately, the Gallery is not on the public route and so visitors are not permitted to enter this particular apartment.
Legend says that Jane’s heavy conscience and guilt about the manner in which she supplanted her queen, cause her to remain earthbound until she gains forgiveness from Anne Boleyn.
Each of us should decide for ourselves, is it the ghost of Jane Seymour returning in search of her son and forgiveness or simply the overactive imaginations of the Palace guests?
Thanks for this, Natalie. I wonder, is Jane really an earthbound spirit? Or are these apparitions more a case of sensitive people accessing a scene from the past? Am looking forward to more posts … is there a ghost story for every wife??
There is certainly a ghost story for every wife! After I have written the stories related to each of Henry’s wives, I plan to move on to the ghosts of other Tudor personalities. So lots more to come!
If Jane appears in a white robe and carrying a candle, it does look like a penance. I wonder if she is also barefoot? If this really is Jane, then I think it’s her own guilty conscience at work, not Anne withholding forgiveness. After all, both women would have said they were Christians and according to the Lord’s Prayer “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us”. In other words, if Anne refused to forgive Jane, Anne herself would be refused forgiveness of her own sins. And much as we may admire Anne, I doubt any of us would claim she was “without sin”!
Thank you for a very interesting article. Please keep them coming!
Wow, I never knew. So interesting. Is there a ghost of King Henry VIII anywhere?
The apartments where Jane gave birth do exist, but are not accessible to the public. Lucy Worsley, Tudor historian and head curator of Hampton Court Palace presented a show about the palace, where she showed us the exact room Edward was born in. Nowdays staff use the room as an office.
Hello Sarah, I know the room you speak of but this was just one of three chambers that once existed on this level and which formed part of the Queen’s apartments – a series of interconnecting rooms. According to Simon Thurley, architectural historian and author of ‘Hampton Court: A Social and Architectural History’ “the top floor contained three large rooms, the entrance to which still survives on the top landing of the stairs. The monumental doorway has the royal arms in one spandrel and Wolsey’s in the other. Within, more fragments of the original decoration exist, including a massive fireplace with Wolsey’s motto and a door leading to a closet to its right.” It is certainly possible that this was the room in which Jane gave birth to Edward, it just depends on the arrangement of the rooms at the time.
I am obsessive about the tudor dynesty.have no idea why i find it so.there were after all many kings and wueens to chose from.i guess king henry’s propinsity ti kill them off when they became obselete to him. Ive basically come to the conclusion that he was a narcisstic personality.he was both cruel yet said to be handsome.i think maybe being unable to produce a male heir pricked his masculinity.which was taken iut on his wives.i understand from research that it was suspected he might have had an std which he passed on to his wives thus pissiably being the cause of misscarriages. What do you think?im sure youve had fsr more extensive study articles than i.i am limited to documentaries i can find on line.anything new i could find out would be welcome.
It has been medically suggested that King Henry suffered from McLeod syndrome. (pronounced /m??kla?d/) It is an X-linked recessive genetic disorder that may affect the blood, brain, peripheral nerves, muscle, and heart. … The gene is responsible for producing the Kx protein, a secondary supportive protein for the Kell antigen on the red blood cell surface. This could be the reason that all of his wives could not bear a second child. The antibodies, then in the mother after her first birth, would attack the fetus. Mary is an exception, as she was not the first child of Katherine of Aragon and Henry…but she may have had the recessive gene which would have made her immune to her mother’s antibodies and enabled her to survive. In modern medicine, this would not be an issue as blood transfusions can insure a safe pregnancy. It is doubtful that Henry had syphilis or any other major STD, as there is no record of him having any of the noted remedies of that time, nor of his mistresses and wives.
What was Jane’s state of mind when she married Henry following the death of Anne Boleyn.
Love a good ghost story, Natalie!
Alison Weir, in her series of books on The Six Wives, mentions in the Afterword of her novel on Jane Seymour that the speculation of childbed fever has been questioned. She consulted medical friends, including a midwife, with the timeline and symptoms of Jane’s illness, resulting in her death. The opinions were very convincing. Alison puts forward the theory that Jane suffered good poisoning (records of her diet were available for research) which left her dehydrated and ultimately led to cardiac arrest. I encourage anyone who has bought Alison’s novels carefully read the Afterwords in all 6 novels. I love that over the years, Alison revisits earlier assumptions with new evidence and embraces the shift in how each is viewed.
I had never found Jane a particularly interesting Wife, but out of the 6 novels, hers is the story that I have revisited at least 5 times. The theories put forward are carefully researched and many based entirely on fact. Other parts are, Alison admits, the result of both careful consideration and a question of ‘what if?’
Katherine Parr’s story, especially of her earlier life and upbringing, also make fascinating reading.
I believe Henry married Jane so quickly in response to the charges levelled against Anne. Divorce would have then given rise to the validity of his first marriage and Mary being his legitimate heir, annulment would have been a timely business and, of course, Cromwell needed her gone before Anne could have him removed. Hery wanted to save face and given both his vanity and the lack of Anne’s popularity amongst the people and the court, re-marrying her polar opposite so quickly showed him as the aggrieved King doing the best for his country and trying to gain that much longed-for son and heir.