On this day in 1536, Jane Seymour’s father died at Wolf Hall.
Many people question the nature of Jane’s relationship with her father, but there was no record of any bad blood between them when the Court stopped at Wolf Hall in September 1535 near the end of its Summer Progress. The fact that Jane did not attend the funeral at Easton Priory in Wiltshire doesn’t mean much: Sir John was not in the public eye (indeed, after he seduced his son Edward’s wife he tried as hard as he could to avoid any part of the limelight…) so the Queen would not be expected to attend. This – and the fact that the Court was in the middle of Christmas celebrations that were highly important from a political perspective – could also explain why there was no court observance of mourning either.
It would be interesting to know whether Edward Seymour attended Sir John’s funeral, but unfortunately this record has been lost. I suspect he did, since he was the heir – but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he had not given the strain on their personal relationship.
Either way, Sir John Seymour died in comfort. His daughter was Queen of England and he had no financial fears. Unlike Sir Thomas Boleyn, who had to watch and even participate in the deaths of two of his children. By that standard, Sir John was clearly lucky.
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