![]() True, she retired to her maternal home, at Wolf Hall, whilst the tragedy which consummated the destruction of Anne was played out but it was only to prepare the gay attire and the sumptuous banquet to celebrate her marriage with the ruthless King, whilst the blood was yet warm in the lifeless form of the ill-fated Anne. She accepted the addresses of the husband of her mistress, knowing him to be such and scrupled not to walk over the corpse of Anne to the throne. Our historians laud her discretion, her modesty, and her virtue but on what principles of morality it is difficult to conceive. Aware that her star was in the ascendant, she scrupled not to obtain her elevation by the destruction of Anne and five unfortunate noblemen. Jane, being a woman of consummate art, and having already advanced to the very threshold of the throne, despised the threats, and disregarded the orders of her angry mistress. Whether Anne Boleyn tamely submitted to this breach of her husband's conjugal vow, has not been recorded she certainly was too hasty to bear her wrongs in silence and when, a few days after the burial of Katherine of Arragon, she accidentally discovered Jane seated on the King's knee, and receiving his caresses with complacency, she became mad with passion, and threatening Jane with the deepest revenge, ordered her instantly to depart from her presence, and to quit the court for ever. Jane blushed, and drew back when the Queen, whose jealousy had already been aroused against her, violently snatched it from her neck and, on examining it, found it to contain a miniature of the King, presented by himself to her fair rival. If tradition is to be accredited, Jane had been introduced to Court but a short time, when the Queen, seeing a splendid jewel suspended from her neck, expressed a wish to look at it. Her two brothers, both esquires of the King's person, were ambitious men, eager in the pursuit of fortune, and willing to sacrifice their sister's beauty to their own personal advantage and there is too much reason to believe that she had powerful aid from the Duke of Norfolk and his party, who detested the Queen, and strenuously opposed the reformation.īut, however this may be, Henry had been the husband of Anne Boleyn only about two years, when real or pretended suspicions of her fidelity, induced him to slight her, and shortly afterwards to pay clandestine court to Jane Seymour. Her sister, Elizabeth, had married the son of the crafty, climbing secretary Cromwell it was, therefore, to his special interest that she should share the throne of his sovereign. Her beauty and lack of moral rectitude rendered her a fit instrument for such a purpose. Wyatt says she was introduced to court for the express purpose of stealing the King's affections from his once idolized Queen, Anne and many circumstances conspire to render this statement probable. Nor is it known when, or by whom she was placed as maid of honour to Anne Boleyn. Whether she ever entered the service of Katherine of Arragon, is problematical. A full-length portrait of her by Holbein, in the royal collection at Versailles, entitled maid of honour to Mary of England, Queen to Louis the Twelfth, and placed by the side of that of Anne Boleyn, which bears the like designation, has given rise to the conjecture that she finished her education at the court of France, in the service of Queen Mary Tudor, and subsequently of Queen Claude, and renders it at least probable that she and Anne Boleyn proceeded together to France, lived there under the same roof, and returned to England at the same time. Her career, up to the period when she won Henry's heart, is involved in obscurity. For several centuries they only took rank as second-rate gentry, and although some of the name served as high sheriffs for Wilts and other were knighted in the French wars, in no instance had a Seymour obtained historical celebrity, or been returned as Knight of the Shire. ![]() The Seymours, a Norman family, came to England with William the Conqueror, and increased their wealth and influence by alliances with rich heiresses of noble blood. JANE SEYMOUR, the third consort of Henry the Eighth, was the eldest daughter of Sir John Seymour, or Wolf Hall, Wilts, and Margaret, daughter of Sir John Wentworth, of Nettlestead in Suffolk.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |