The Six Wives of Henry VIII | Jane Seymour

Only 11 days after the execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry married another English woman, Jane Seymour. After the force of personality that was Anne Boleyn, Henry wanted a wife that would be sweet, submissive and wouldn’t talk back, and he found that in Jane. After marrying Henry, Jane chose a very appropriate motto; ‘Bound to Obey and Serve.’

Jane was born to the wealthy and noble Seymour family. She was not super educated like Catherine and Anne had been, but was very good at things the Tudors saw as ‘girly’ such as gardening and sewing. She had been a lady-in-waiting to both Catherine and Anne in turn, but didn’t catch Henry’s eye until 1535. At that point, Henry was married to Anne and visiting the Seymour house, Wolf Hall. Anne had recently miscarried and he was getting pretty tired of his sonless wife who dared have opinions of her own. Jane was pretty and, in complete contrast to Anne, she was meek and reserved.

Jane wasn’t dumb though, she had the wits to play the ‘no sleeping together until marriage’ card Anne had played. Again, this sent Henry wild. He convinced himself he’d made a terrible mistake with Anne and that Jane was the one for him.

Henry quickly got rid of Anne and married Jane in 1536. In May the next year it was announced that Jane was pregnant. By this point, Henry had been waiting for 28 years to have a son and he was pretty desperate. In October Jane gave birth to his long-awaited son. Henry was over the moon. But his happiness didn’t last long, Jane contracted a pretty bad infection after giving birth and nine days later, she was dead.

As the only wife who gave him a boy Henry took Jane’s death pretty badly. He wore black for months and didn’t remarry for a whole three years (crazy for old marriage loving Henry).

Henry and Jane were only married for 17 months, but she is the only wife to be buried by Henry VIII. Because of this, some cheesy romantics say that she was the only wife he ever truly loved. Just as likely though, is that Jane was the only one to give Henry what he really wanted, a son.