Reading Jane Seymour: Queen of England

hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here hi you're very welcome this is reading the past and i'm dr cat and i'm sure the title of this video is a clue but i am making a start on the promises that i made in the last video which i'll be leaving lynch in a card in that video i made mention of the fact that i am aware that i have been remiss that i have not got a video dedicated to each of the wives 10 of the 8th on this channel and that i knew this would never do i still need to cover catholic aragon but today we're looking at jane seymour i wonder if it's possible to uncover excavate or perhaps shape an idea of jane that goes beyond what we perhaps think of her in the first case something slightly more multifaceted something that isn't i think obscured by the veil of henry's love for her and that love i think is principally there because she did what he wanted she helpfully gave him a son and that appeased him and perhaps even more helpfully for her legacy if not for her life she then passed away before she could make any further demands or annoy him but to find out more i think we look at her or at least what we know of her let's go although more recent explorations have challenged and attempted to counter it the wise of henry viii are frequently remembered imagined and or reimagined in fairly archetypal and i would say reductive ways perhaps it's because there were six of them that old rhyme divorced beheaded died divorced beheaded survived well i don't think that helps much either the rhyme is too easy to remember and i think an unintended result is that these real distinct women have become for some at least nameless and principally defined by their fates in relation to their most famous husband when their names have been listed they are also often remembered alongside a singular reductive trait the wronged wife the temptress the obedient one the ugly one the tart and the nursemate now in fairness i think we can argue that jane doesn't do much to help herself and her legacy by choosing bound to obey and serve as her personal motto as queen when this motto is coupled with jane's early death itself a result of giving henry his heart's desire of illegitimate son and heir to follow him on the throne i think the idea of her as the ideal wife who would do all that was expected of her even if it meant her own death gained rock-solid foundations but what do we know or rather think we know about the woman herself we know very little about jane's early life and education she and her siblings claimed lineage that included king edward iii as such jane is a distant cousin of her future husband king henry viii some have suggested that this is what motivated the couple to seek archbishop thomas kramer's dispensation for them to marry this dispensation was dated to the day of anne berlin's execution the 19th of may 1536 however the third and third degrees of affinity mentioned here refers to a relationship of a closer degree than that that was shared by henry and jane to my calculations they are fifth cousins this has led some suggest that this dispensation is actually a reference to her future husband's sexual relations with mary and ann berlin mary and anne were distant cousins of jane seymour albeit not as distant as henry was jane was born in around 1508 most likely at her family home of wolf hall in wiltshire she was one of 10 children and the eldest daughter sadly three of her brothers and a sister died relatively young or at least before they had the chance to get married the scholar barrett l beer suggests that jane was probably taught by her father's chaplain at wolf hall before proceeding to assert that most contemporaries agree that she was above average in intelligence further to this elizabeth norton explains that in the 19th century a story arose that she jane had spent time in france first in the household of henry viii sister mary tudor queen of france and then with mary's stepdaughter claude this claim is apparently based on the identification of a portrait in the louvre as jane unfortunately it has no base in fact and it is clear that jay never left england what is more likely is that she received a basic education at wolf hall from the family chaplain there is evidence that jane was able to read and write and she had at least some understanding of french and perhaps a little latin this was the extent of jane's education and she received the solid teaching befitting a future country gentlewoman rather than that of a great lady in the making so perhaps jane does have an educational deficit when she's compared to catherine or anne but it's worth bearing in mind that both catherine and anne are the exceptions rather than the rule when it comes to female education at the time it would therefore be a mistake to tar jane with the brush of stupidity that she is some kind of naive bumpkin from the country time and money was spent on educating jane and i believe as we look at the rest of the events of her life she was a fast learner and incredibly adaptable she may not have had the privileges or benefits of catherine or anne but she was by no means stupid as far as i'm concerned many scholars assert that jane seymour entered queen catherine's household as one of her ladies in around 1529. if this is the case then she would have been given a front row seat to that queen's waning position her eventual fall banishment annulment and replacement equally she would have also seen the rise and later fall of that replacement and berlin as it currently stands i can find no evidence of what jane may have done or where she may have been between the exile of catherine from court in 1531 and the recognition of anne as queen in 1533 during this period there was no queen at the english court for jane to serve if she had served catherine perhaps she returned to wolf hall to wait for the dust to settle at court and to see what was to come next perhaps however she stayed and transferred into anne's service to keep her company before she actually became queen it's possible that it wasn't long before jane seymour became the focus for henry's affection a letter from eustis shapwee to the emperor charles v is dated to the 13th of october 1534 so that is the following year after anne boleyn's coronation this letter includes the following information of late days the lord rochford's wife that's jane berlin lady rochford has been banished the court because she conspired with the concubine that chaplie's name for anne berlin to procure the withdrawal from court of the young lady whom this king has been accustomed to serve whose influence increases daily while that of the concubine diminishes which has already abated a good deal of her insolence the said young lady has of late sent to the princess he is here referring to mary tudor daughter of henry and catherine of aragon to tell her to be of good cheer and that her troubles would sooner come to an end than she supposed and that when the opportunity occurred she would show herself her true and devoted servant the young lady of chapley's letter is assumed by many to have been jane seymour in september 1535 king henry viii honoured the seymour family by visiting their ancestral home wolf hall the next year on the 10th of february 1536 chapley wrote once again to emperor charles v this time with news that ann berlin had suffered a miscarriage on the 29th of january of that year the 29th of january was also the date that cather vargan was buried at peterborough cathedral chapwi informs his imperial master that on the day of the internment the concubine had an abortion a miscarriage which seemed to be a male child which he had not borne three and a half months at which the king has shown great distress the said concubine wished to lay the blame on the duke of norfolk her uncle whom she hates saying he frightened her by bringing the news of the fall the king had six days before this is the king's jousting injury that for some is a root source of a brain injury that might have used his personality but it is well known that is not the cause for it was told her in a way that she should not be alarmed or attach much importance to it some think it was owing to her own incapacity to bear children others to a fear the king would treat her like the late queen especially considering the treatment shown to a lady of the court named mistress siemel to whom as many say he has lately made great presence on the first of april another missive from chapwi to the emperor stated the king being lately in this town and the young lady mr siemel whom he serves at greenwich he sent her a purse full of sovereigns and with it a letter and that young lady after kissing the letter returned it unopened to the messenger and throwing herself on her knees before him begged the said messenger that he would pray the king on her part to consider that she was a gentleman of good and honorable parents without reproach and that she had no greater riches in the world than her honor which she would not injure for a thousand deaths and if he wished to make some present in money she begged it might be when god enabled her to make some honorable match chapwi goes on explaining that he has been informed that by this the king's love and desire towards the said lady was wonderfully increased and that he had said she had behaved most virtuously and to show her that he only loved her honorably he did not intend henceforth to speak with her except in the presence of some of her kin for which reason the king has caused cromwell to remove from a chamber to which the king can go by certain galleries without being perceived and has lodged there the eldest brother of the said lady with his wife in order to bring viva the same young lady who has been well taught for the most part by those intimate with the king who hate the concubine that she must by no means comply with the king's wishes except by way of marriage in which she is quite firm she is also advised to tell the king boldly how his marriage is detested by the people and none consider it lawful and on the occasion when she shall bring forward the subject there ought to be present none but titled persons who will say the same if the king put them upon their oath of fealty and berlin had supplanted the aunt of the emperor charles the fifth the man who chapley is writing to thus it might be quite easy to dismiss a lot of this as propaganda chapwee looking for information that would please his master chapwi has spies at court people who is paying for information perhaps they will tell him what he wants to hear but i think that probably doesn't ring very true rather i think that chapley is going to be looking for the best most reliable intelligence that money can buy certainly he's going to be more interested if that intelligence relates to the failing marriage of anne and henry but if he later finds it to be deceptive he certainly won't pay that source for further intelligence a man like chapwi is reliant on the trustworthiness and honesty of his intelligence network at the english court it's a network that he will have pruned and honed one that he can trust and for that reason i would argue that we should perhaps also trust it ann berlin was sent to the tower of london on the 2nd of may 1536 there she was confined and there she was ultimately executed on the 19th of may 1536 on the day following amberlynn's execution the 20th of may 1536 king henry viii and jane seymour were betrothed ten days later on the 30th of may 1536 henry and james were married in a private ceremony in the queen's closet at whitehall palace henry was finally in an undisputed marriage because either way you slice it henry was now a widower and free to marry he presented his new wife with expensive jewelry and also valuable jointures of lands and lordships jane's family also felt the benefit of her elevation her brothers edward and thomas were richly rewarded edward became viscount beecham in 1536 earl of hartford the next year and also a privy councillor on the 27th of may 1537 thomas became a gentleman of the privy chamber and was knighted in 1537. both brothers received generous grants of land from their brother-in-law the king her sister elizabeth was married to gregory cromwell the son of the king's favored counsellor and friend at least he was at that time thomas cromwell behind the scenes jane is said to have sought to bring about a reconciliation between her husband and her stepdaughter mary however persuasive she may have been whatever she may have promised or tried as it would turn out the thing that would successfully bring father and daughter back together was only mary's total submission her absolute acknowledgement that her father had been right she was made to agree that henry was the head of the church of england and that she of course was a bastard because naturally henry was right about that too he had never been married to her mother jane is often presented as being conservative in matters of religion but to my mind this may simply be another way to show her as the antithesis of her predecessor the reform-minded and berlin because as it stands there is no evidence either way the seymour family's reforming interests and dedication to the protestant faith would be a factor of a later decade there is an oft-repeated rumor that in october 1536 jane attempted to intercede on behalf of the pilgrimage of grace by doing so it is said that she also received a warning from her husband he told her to not meddle in politics and he used ann berlin as an example and a threat this rumor is at least as far as i can tell just that a rumor jane fell pregnant early in 1537 she entered her confinement in her chambers at hampton court palace in the september of that year and in those rooms she was eventually delivered of her son prince edward in the early hours of the 12th of october three days later on the 15th of october the infant edward was baptized in a fittingly elaborate ceremony which took place in hampton court's royal chapel jane's health began to decline we aren't quite sure what happened her illness may have been the result of an infection and or the retention of part of her placenta despite the desperate and best efforts of all of those around her jane could not be saved she died on the 24th of october 1537 i'd like to look at another quote by barrett l beer who asserts that she jane left for posterity an indelible impression of perfection and was remembered by henry as the wife with whom he had been uniquely happy when henry died in 1547 he was buried with jane at windsor for me jane seymour remains an enigma it is i think all too easy to write her off as a bit of a wettie a bit dull less clever than those who came before her nothing more than a willing biddable vessel for henry tudor's dynastic hopes indeed credit for her rise is often placed on her obedience alone to henry but also to the scheming men around her father brothers cousins i worry that all this perhaps conspires to leave jane being remembered by history as little more than a pawn a nice weak biddable but ultimately quite dull and forgettable character however there is something about this that feels incomplete hollow perhaps even a little deceptive here because as far as i'm concerned jane is too perfectly crafted as the diametric opposite to amberlynn jane is fair and brunette jane makes no attempt to push for a political or religious faction anne was a political animal and a motivated outspoken reformer who also always had one eye on her own personal advancement and the success of her family jane was compliant and argumentative jane was demure anne was a flirt even if all we are seeing here are jane's own natural traits i think it's clear they are being at least somewhat amplified by her now perhaps this is due to the guidance or even puppeteering of others whatever is going on jane plays her game deftly she holds the line and more tellingly for me she holds her nerve in jane seymour we have a woman who has intimate eyewitness knowledge of her future husband's capriciousness of his willingness to discard his wives occasionally in extraordinarily brutal ways and as chapley's missive show jane was increasingly under near constant surveillance by spies paid by shapley and no doubt by countless others because of her position jane's behavior had become the subject of international reports yet it seems that jane doesn't falter doesn't hesitate doesn't blink at least not in the sight of witnesses jane maintains her composure as her former mistress a woman who she has lived and worked alongside for years is arrested tried and eventually executed on the orders of her husband the very next day after anne's execution through her betrothal to henry jane simply takes another step towards filling anne's barely cold seat to me this behaviour is evidence that we do jane perhaps a great disservice by writing her off as nice and weak i think she had a will of iron and a spine of steel and perhaps the sufficient lack of empathy which increasingly seems to be a prerequisite for success while this picture of her might make her a little bit less likable to my mind it certainly makes her more multifaceted and therefore arguably more interesting but what do you think who was jane seymour as far as you're concerned as always i'm looking forward to reading your conversation in the comments section underneath this video or you can come and find me over on my social media i'll leave links to my instagram and twitter in the description box follow me there and we can continue this conversation i do hope you found this video interesting and useful if you did then please let me know by hitting the thumbs up please also subscribe to this channel and while you're there hit the notification bell beside the subscribe button so that youtube tells you when i've next uploaded and also on that note i have been told that people are finding themselves being unsubscribed this channel so if you think you're subscribed you want to be why not take this moment to have a little check go down check out the button see if you are subscribed and while you're there make sure you've also clicked that bell if you haven't already i do hope you're gonna have a great day whatever you're doing and i look forward to speaking to you in my next video take care of yourselves bye for now you

Channel: Reading the Past

Views: 114,635

Keywords: Jane Seymour, Tudor, Henry VIII, Wolf Hall, Chapuys, Charles V, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Education, Literature, Culture, History, Early Modern, Renaissance

Id: dg4f2NM7MbM

Length: 23min 11sec (1391 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021