Ten days after she was formally betrothed to the King, Jane Seymour once again got into the royal barge in the early morning and was rowed to York Palace (Whitehall) to be married in the Queen’s Closet there.
I’m going to lay it on the line here, go all-out to defend Jane right now. For her, this was God’s doing. She did not see herself as having walked through Anne Boleyn’s blood – she believed that she was Catherine of Aragon’s divinely-appointed scourge. She believed she was righting a wrong, that she was saving Mary from certain death, that she was guiding England back to morality.
Think about it. Jane was 27 in an era when women married at 16 or younger. She was not beautiful, not witty, not accomplished, not anything. She had family issues that reduced her value as a bride (her father seduced her brother’s wife, likely fathered his own grandchildren…). And yet she married the King of England. What the hell?
Her entire attraction was that she was the anti-Anne. Pale where Anne was dark, quiet where Anne was vivacious, meek where Anne was bold, innocent where Anne was knowing… This was her big chance – it HAD TO BE divinely guided.
I see Jane as fully confident right now….I don’t see the doubts beginning until she starts to endure miscarriages of her own (“It was just miscounting…”), until Henry threatens her for trying to argue for the rebels during the Pilgrimage of Grace. I see her spending her entire pregnancy worried that she would lose the baby at the last minute, or birth a girl…
That’s the story of Jane the Quene. Right now in the story, she is confident and self-righteous. And I think we have to give her the right to be that way….
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Don’t like her. Just don’t. I don’t think she was as demure as often portrayed. I think she was rather cunning in a subtle way.
You’re absolutely right – it was no accident the way she followed Anne Boleyn’s playbook to the letter!
Anne Boleyn’s ‘playbook’?
Anne Boleyn had laid out the step-by-step plan for wresting a royal husband away from his wife…Jane followed it pretty closely. In fact, I think this allowed her to avoid guilt since she was doing nothing more to Anne than what Anne had done to Catherine (at least until the arrests were made!)
Oh dear. Sorry, but I think that is very biased. Anne’s plan to wrestle Henry from Catherine? That she had laid out a step by step plan to do so? Henry’s marriage to Catherine was over well before Anne came on the scene. She fled to Hever to try and get away from Henry. She did everything in her power to remove herself from his unwanted advances. To suggest that was a ploy/plan to become queen is highly subjective.
I didn’t mean to sound judgmental; I just see a “playbook” that exists independently of Anne’s intentions. I agree that Henry’s attentions were indeed unwelcome to Anne at the start (though I also think there was an evolution over the seven years). I also agree that Henry’s marriage to Catherine was over before Anne came on the scene. But I also think these situations created a blueprint that Jane followed – and I say that without judging Jane for it…
Do you know if the younger sister Elizabeth was present at the wedding?
I do not believe she was. She and her husband were favored by Anne Boleyn…Elizabeth did not return to court until later.