12:00

like some of the other aspects of being queen, we can

12:02

see that in the sources. So I think it denies

12:05

her agency to say that she's being

12:07

solely coached. She almost certainly is being

12:09

advised, but I think it goes too

12:11

far to say she's being coached. I

12:13

think she knows the story of Anne

12:15

Boleyn, how Anne Boleyn became queen, and

12:17

to some extent she's emulating that she's

12:19

holding out for marriage. But she's also

12:21

created her own persona. This is a

12:23

woman that she's bound to obey and

12:26

serve as her motto. She's clearly created

12:28

how she wants Henry to perceive her and I

12:30

mean he falls for it, absolutely buys into this.

12:32

I just don't see how a

12:35

woman can be as successful as she is

12:37

without really having any her own personal input.

12:39

And I think really we should credit Jane

12:41

with the fact that she's able to persuade

12:43

Henry to marry her. One

12:45

letter from Henry to Jane survives

12:47

from their courtship, presumably sent

12:49

while Anne was in the Tower. Although

12:53

not demonstrating the sheer infatuation of

12:55

his bie deux to Anne, there

12:58

is something in it that is reminiscent of

13:00

those heady notes. Sending

13:02

the letter along with a gift he

13:04

writes, My dear friend

13:06

and mistress, the bearer

13:09

of these few lines from thy

13:11

entirely devoted servant will deliver into

13:13

thy fair hands a token of

13:15

my true affection for thee, hoping

13:17

you will keep it forever in

13:20

your sincere love for me. But

13:22

his main concern is to warn her of something.

13:25

Advertising you that there is a ballad

13:27

made lately of great derision against

13:29

us, which if it is

13:32

seen by you, I pray you to pay

13:34

no manner of regard to it. I

13:36

am not at present informed who is

13:38

the setter forth of this malignant writing,

13:41

but if he is found out he

13:43

shall be straightly punished for it. He

13:46

signs off. Thus hoping shortly

13:49

to receive you in these

13:51

arms, I end for

13:53

the present your own loving servant

13:56

and sovereign, H.R.

13:59

Aidenon. Henry assesses it. I

14:01

love the idea that it

14:04

is responding to a ballad that

14:06

is saying naughty things, shall we

14:09

say. They were very successful

14:11

in suppressing it because the ballad does

14:13

not seem to have survived. And

14:15

obviously Henry is trying to avoid Jane

14:18

knowing about it so he doesn't recount

14:20

the details of it in the letter

14:22

to her. He's clearly

14:24

worried about it and so I

14:28

wonder if it's trying

14:31

to say something about Jane's

14:33

virtue, her chastity, whether

14:35

they've already been sleeping

14:37

together, perhaps suggesting that

14:39

she isn't a virgin already, given

14:42

the way that Henry is almost frightened

14:44

about what Jane might think about the

14:46

ballad if she comes across it, given

14:49

that we know that court gossip is something

14:52

that can be really dangerous in

14:54

the period. It makes sense

14:57

that would be the content of the ballad

14:59

or something along those lines and that's why

15:01

Henry does not want Jane to know about

15:03

it but also to not be upset by

15:05

it. Do we see

15:07

here then a relationship of real affection

15:10

or was he on the rebound? He's

15:14

clearly not committed to ending the balloon

15:16

marriage really until not long before Anne's

15:18

fall. He's able to get

15:20

Chapeau to finally recognise her as Queen,

15:22

that Easter. It's by no means a

15:24

certainty that he will end his marriage

15:26

to Anne that April. So I think

15:28

to some extent he's keeping his options

15:31

open. I think he's seeing how it

15:33

plays out with Jane. It

15:35

is a bit reboundy, it's often suggested that

15:37

Henry ricochets around. He goes for glamorous Anne

15:39

Boleyn and then he goes for homely Jane

15:41

Seymour. And I think that's quite unfair. I

15:44

think Jane again suffers quite a lot from

15:46

comparison with Anne Boleyn and they're often treated

15:49

as a dichotomy. Anne Boleyn is this so Jane

15:51

Seymour must be this. I think they're a lot

15:53

more similar in a lot of aspects and I

15:56

think we've necessarily given them credit for. It

16:00

is a little reboundy. Henry is interested in

16:02

Jane. She's this virgin, she's very pure, she's

16:04

very modest, but Anne Boleyn, of course, presents

16:07

herself as a virgin before her marriage to

16:09

Henry VIII as well. Henry does have a

16:11

thing about virginity. So I think

16:13

he is interested in Jane. He's clearly attracted

16:16

to her because he wouldn't have married her.

16:18

If he wasn't attracted to her, it's his

16:20

own free choice. I think the persona of

16:22

being this virgin figure, obedient, quiet, I think

16:24

that does appeal to him. So it is

16:27

to some level a rebound relationship. But I

16:29

think in general, he really gets to know

16:31

Jane in that period in March, April, early

16:33

May. And that's really what makes the decision

16:35

for him that he's going to marry her

16:38

because he doesn't have to marry her. He

16:40

can still behead Anne Boleyn if he wants

16:42

and then marry somebody else. I

16:45

think this is another area where Jane's

16:47

reputation very much suffers because of course

16:49

she becomes betrothed to Henry the day

16:51

after Anne's execution. It doesn't look good.

16:53

What I would say is even Anne didn't

16:56

realise she was going to be beheaded. In

16:58

the tower, she says, they'll send me to

17:00

an Unnery. To actually behead your wife is

17:02

really unusual. Anne's enemies in Europe are quite

17:04

shocked by it. Even Eustor Shpui is shocked

17:07

by Anne's beheading. I think it's really unlikely

17:09

that Jane would have realised that Henry would

17:11

behead Anne. And really

17:13

it's not something she desired because it sets

17:15

a precedent. Because if he can behead Anne

17:17

Boleyn, of course he can behead Jane Seymour

17:19

if he wants to. So I think it's

17:21

unfair to charge her with Anne Boleyn's death.

17:23

That comes from Henry. He certainly didn't have

17:25

to execute Anne to get rid of her

17:27

because most people had doubts about the validity

17:29

of that marriage anyway. So I

17:32

think she was probably in a state of

17:34

fear. And we can see that an occasion

17:36

while she's queen, she's talked about as a

17:38

woman who isn't very secure. Her coronation keeps

17:41

being postponed. And it's postponed because of plague,

17:43

but there is an implication that perhaps she

17:45

is disposable in a way

17:47

that Anne Boleyn was also disposable. So

17:50

I think we can extrapolate that Jane's reaction

17:52

is probably not one of great joy that

17:54

Anne Boleyn is executing that. She does set

17:56

a very dangerous precedent for her. And we

17:58

see that because of that. and Howard of

18:00

course. The

18:04

wedding took place on the 30th of May 1536. We

18:10

don't even know who performed the

18:12

ceremony, which is incredible. Aidan Norrie.

18:15

I've tried very hard to

18:17

narrow down the list in

18:19

terms of which mainly bishops

18:21

were available. Tranmo was

18:23

available and given that he is the Archbishop

18:26

of Canterbury I think it likely was him.

18:29

But the fact that we don't know

18:31

who did it tells you that it

18:33

was clearly very quick. But I think

18:36

it's a reminder of how

18:38

capricious and changeable Henry was, but

18:41

also how concerned he was

18:43

with having a male heir.

18:45

The sooner you're married, the sooner you can start

18:47

popping out babies. It's clearly at

18:50

the back of his mind and you

18:53

do wonder how Jane feels about it.

18:56

So they're married on the 30th

18:58

of May, but she's not really

19:00

formally introduced in court until Whitson.

19:02

So that's like the 4th of

19:04

June. So they do get a

19:06

little bit of a honeymoon in a sense.

19:08

So clearly there is still a little bit

19:10

of a romantic spark there from Henry. Chapeau

19:13

writing the day before Anne's death

19:16

had been scathing about Henry's new

19:18

love interest, describing her

19:20

appearance in disparaging terms as of middling stature

19:22

and no great beauty and implying that she

19:24

had been at court so long that she

19:27

was unlikely to be a virgin. But

19:29

once she was queen, the general report of

19:32

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21:26

Sloan. Of

21:48

all of Henry's later

21:50

wives, she is the one that

21:52

from the very beginning, everyone is

21:54

saying very nice things about whether

21:58

or not... because

24:00

they're less becoming. I think it goes too

24:02

far to suggest that Jane bans the French

24:04

hood, which is obviously much sexier than the

24:06

Gablehood. The French hood is where you can

24:08

see the hair. When you see portraits of

24:10

Anne Boleyn she's normally wearing the French hood,

24:13

whereas Jane is wearing the Gable hood that

24:15

looks like the roof of a house. Jane

24:17

did own a French hood. She probably wore

24:19

them on occasion, but she does seem to

24:21

have tried to present this era of modesty

24:23

in her household, which is quite sensible because

24:25

of course Henry has borne his previous two

24:27

wives from his wife's households. So perhaps not

24:30

displaying the maids as particularly attractive isn't

24:32

necessarily a bad thing. We know that

24:34

she dresses very richly. Surviving evidence of

24:36

jewellery and of her dresses show that

24:38

she really does enjoy the finer things

24:40

of being queen. She's got red velvet,

24:42

she's got furs, she's got a huge

24:44

amount of jewellery. She clearly dresses to

24:46

impress, so I think it's really unlikely

24:48

that she's trying to appear as this

24:50

dowdy little woman. I think actually she

24:52

looks good when she's at court, but

24:54

she doesn't necessarily want other people to

24:56

look as good as her. Strategic

24:59

who was Jane's choice of

25:01

motto? Bound to obey

25:04

and serve. Not only was it

25:06

a kind of mission statement, but

25:08

it also carried connotations of Catholic

25:11

orthodoxy. It's

25:15

a very interesting motto and the

25:18

choice of a motto that is

25:20

clearly based on something from the

25:22

Book of Job, Bound to

25:24

obey and serve. In

25:27

some ways I'm always tempted to read it as

25:29

a direct almost smackdown

25:31

of Amberlynn because it is

25:34

very clearly distancing from Anne's

25:37

kind of form of queenship.

25:40

But while Jane obviously has to be

25:42

on board with the royal supremacy, she

25:44

doesn't really have a choice in the matter, she

25:47

is still very clearly what

25:49

you might call traditionally Catholic.

25:51

This is a very Catholic

25:53

understanding of both wife and

25:55

particularly queen. If we're

25:58

thinking about the very Catholic understanding

26:00

that queens are the earthly embodiment

26:02

of the Queen of Heaven. It

26:04

makes sense, that's the motto she

26:06

would choose and the role that

26:08

she would want to present herself

26:10

as having. Jane's Catholicism

26:12

underpinned her religious and political

26:14

interventions as Queen. In

26:17

defending her faith, she was more outspoken

26:19

than most popular depictions of her would

26:21

suggest. The evidence suggests that

26:23

Jane is quite opinionated. Elizabeth Norton.

26:26

It was claimed that she actually spoke out for

26:28

the rebels of the pilgrimage of grace, where she

26:30

actually threw herself on her knees before Henry and

26:32

said, do you think this might be God's judgment

26:34

for you ruining so many churches? And

26:37

that's very outspoken and going against

26:39

what the King himself is thinking.

26:41

So that's quite interesting. There's talk

26:43

of her being regent. The second

26:45

act of succession that's passed actually

26:47

gives provision for her to be

26:49

regent should Henry die while their

26:51

child is still a minor. Also,

26:53

when Henry is considering going against the rebels

26:56

himself in the pilgrimage of grace, he's going

26:58

to leave Jane in charge of the council

27:00

at Windsor, which again suggests that she does

27:02

have some level of political input. What

27:05

we can see of Jane, she is quite

27:07

politically active to some extent. She also is

27:10

involved in some of the nunneries and religious

27:12

houses during the dissolution of the monastery. One

27:14

particularly is Kate's be nunnery, which she seems

27:16

to have spoken out for to try to

27:19

save the house. Aidan

27:21

Norey agrees that Jane's intercession for

27:24

Kate's be Priory reveals both her

27:26

faith and her activism. In the

27:28

one hand, Jane

27:30

is interfering or meddling with

27:32

the dissolution of the monasteries.

27:35

But again, what's interesting here is when

27:37

Henry does start with the dissolution of

27:39

the monasteries, initially there's never any sense

27:41

that every single monastery in England is

27:43

going to be dissolved. There

27:46

is an understanding that the number will certainly

27:48

be pruned, but there will still be some.

27:51

And you can almost see this

27:53

in the way that Joe

27:56

Sparkly, the Prioress, and Jane are

27:59

trying to... convince Henry to let

28:01

the Priory at least continue in

28:03

some form, and

28:06

there's no written records of

28:08

what Jane herself said, but

28:11

Joyce writes to Cromwell saying what the

28:13

Queen has said, and I

28:15

don't think she would have lied there, she would

28:17

have told the truth, and the fact that she

28:19

says that Jane has offered to buy the Priory

28:22

so that the nuns

28:24

can remain there is

28:27

quite revealing. So Jane

28:29

has not been successful in convincing

28:31

Henry to leave the Priory alone,

28:33

to not dissolve it, but

28:35

Jane is going, okay, you've made this decision,

28:37

let me buy it for them so they

28:39

can live out their life, and there's no

28:42

reason as far as I can tell, it's

28:44

a secession nunnery, that there's nothing that kind

28:46

of screams the Queen should

28:48

be interested in this, but the commissioners

28:51

had said wonderful things about it, so

28:54

wonderful in fact that Henry thought that they

28:56

had been bribed to say wonderful things, which

28:59

I think is revealing for Henry's

29:01

kind of general distrust about everyone

29:03

and everything, and if

29:05

we're thinking about Jane's Catholicism

29:08

and her piety

29:10

and the various kinds of expressions of

29:12

her faith, a lot of that's not

29:14

going to be recorded or done in

29:16

a public way, just like the very

29:19

nature of it, but this does seem

29:21

to be a very clear

29:23

example of her wanting to act

29:25

on her faith. As

29:28

Queen, Jane also took on the role

29:30

of stepmother, even to Mary, who was

29:32

only her junior by eight years. We

29:35

can see her interacting with Elizabeth to some

29:37

extent, she's obviously Anne Boleyn's daughter. Elizabeth Norton.

29:40

She's still a toddler, she's not even three,

29:42

but Jane does seem to have bought us

29:44

some clothes on occasion. After

29:46

Jane's death, some gifts of Jane's property

29:48

are given to Elizabeth, which suggests that's

29:51

something that Jane would have wanted. Elizabeth

29:53

also visits court on occasions. She does

29:55

have a relationship with Elizabeth, it probably

29:57

is somewhat difficult given what's happened to

29:59

Elizabeth's mother, but again, that's extrapolating if

30:02

you like. With Mary, we're on much

30:04

firmer ground and Jane is clearly very

30:06

fond of Mary. It's said in fact

30:08

that she'd already spoken out for Mary

30:10

before she's married Henry about reinstating her

30:12

in the succession of bringing her back

30:15

to court. Jane is

30:17

absolutely instrumental in Mary

30:19

being brought back. Henry probably

30:21

would have brought Mary back anyway. He likes

30:23

to keep his options open and we can

30:26

see in marriage alliances, which is still going

30:28

on after she's been declared illegitimate, that he

30:30

is keeping his options open about whether or

30:32

not Mary is one of the heirs to

30:35

the throne, even though she's legally illegitimate. But

30:37

I think Jane helps to smooth the process.

30:39

She provides a human face, whereas Henry still

30:42

insists that Mary recognises her legitimacy. At the

30:44

same time, Mary's getting letters and presents from

30:46

Jane saying, come to court, spend time with

30:48

me. And they clearly do have

30:51

a very affectionate relationship. We know they

30:53

play cards together, for example. And Mary

30:55

is Jane's chief mourner when she dies.

30:57

And that's the role that you would

30:59

give to the closest relative of the

31:01

same sex. Jane has a

31:03

mother, she has sisters. So the

31:05

fact that it's Mary, I think, demonstrates just

31:07

how close the relationship was. And it's also

31:09

Mary who pays off members of Jane's household,

31:11

who gives the charitable arms at Jane's funeral

31:13

as well. So I think the two are

31:16

very close. As

31:19

well as genuine affection and a shared faith,

31:21

Jane's advocacy of Mary was also likely to

31:23

have been another strategic decision. At the end

31:25

of the day, until she has a child,

31:27

Henry will have to be succeeded

31:34

by one of his daughters. That

31:36

is really the only outcome. And

31:38

if you have Mary, the daughter of

31:42

a very popular queen, Mary herself

31:44

is quite popular, having

31:46

her position in this kind of weird liminal flux,

31:48

that's not good for Jane, not good for any

31:51

children she might have, particularly if she only has

31:53

a daughter. If you have a son, fine, the

31:55

boy will always take precedence in the world.

32:00

over the daughters, but if you only have a

32:02

daughter and you've got the

32:04

really popular princess who has reached the

32:06

age of majority, can inherit the throne,

32:08

I think it is very much

32:11

in Jane's interest to have Mary

32:13

not only her kind of position

32:15

at court clarified, but to have

32:17

her at court so you can

32:19

keep an eye on her. If

32:21

she's off doing her own thing, okay you

32:24

can keep an eye on her, you can

32:26

reduce the number of staff and

32:28

kind of keep tabs on her,

32:30

that's very different to having them

32:33

in front of you, having sight of

32:35

them. She must have liked Mary, had

32:37

some kind of affection for her, you

32:39

don't do this if you hate the

32:42

person, but lots of

32:44

things about the early modern period, it

32:46

can be more than one thing. It

32:48

can be both selfish in a I

32:50

want her position sorted, but

32:53

it can also be in that

32:55

acknowledgement of both the Catholicism that

32:57

she represents, they probably had very

33:00

similar views of their faith, but

33:03

in a lot of ways Jane was

33:05

a pragmatist, a realist, and

33:07

she was the one married to Henry

33:10

VIII if Mary had have been executed,

33:12

which was not impossible. If the

33:14

trial had have gone ahead, which

33:17

it almost did, you're not going to find

33:19

her guilty, and of course the punishment

33:21

for his reason is death. We'd seen what

33:24

happened with the pilgrimage of grace, you

33:26

can only imagine the tumult that

33:29

would have ensued following the execution of the

33:31

king's daughter, surely it would

33:33

not have gone well, and

33:35

you can almost imagine Jane

33:37

thinking about that and

33:40

realising that it's better to

33:42

have this sorted because it solidifies

33:44

all of our positions. The

33:47

desire to have her own child may

33:49

have been pressing. She

33:51

gets married at the end of May 1536,

33:54

just in June, and then she's not pregnant

33:56

until around the end of January, start of

33:58

February, she gives birth to Mary. in October.

34:01

So she probably was somewhat worried. And

34:03

there are rumours that her coronation was

34:05

being postponed until Henry could determine whether

34:07

or not she could bear him a

34:09

child. She probably starts

34:11

to realise she's pregnant around Easter

34:13

in 1537. And

34:16

I think her abiding emotion would have been

34:18

relief that she's finally pregnant. We know that

34:20

Henry has had some problems. Obviously,

34:22

he admits to impotency in the Anna Cleves

34:24

marriage. There are rumours dating back to his

34:26

marriage to Abilene that he's perhaps having trouble

34:28

in the marriage bed. So the

34:31

problem probably lies with him. But

34:33

of course, in the 16th century, it would always be

34:35

blaming the woman. So she realises

34:37

she's pregnant and suddenly Henry can't do

34:39

enough for her. So he's sending to

34:41

France to Calais for quails, which he

34:44

seems to have desired to eat in

34:46

her pregnancy. Princess Mary also buys her

34:48

quails and also a cucumber during her

34:51

pregnancy. There's celebrations when the

34:53

baby quickens when she feels the baby

34:55

move. And also Henry's very solicitous. So

34:57

actually, he says he's not going to

34:59

travel too far from her in case

35:01

she hears some rumour that might upset

35:03

her. She's concerned as well. In fact,

35:05

and we can see this as plague

35:07

in London towards the end of her

35:09

pregnancy. And actually one of Cromwell's servants

35:11

notes to Cromwell saying that actually Jane

35:13

seemed very frightened when there's talk of

35:15

plague and thought Henry's quite relaxed about

35:17

it, which is somewhat surprising for Henry

35:19

because he doesn't like disease. But actually,

35:21

really, it's Jane who is really frightened

35:23

by the fact that there seems to

35:25

be plague coming closer to the court

35:27

and actually it's agreed that she'll be

35:30

somewhat closer to the way people won't

35:32

be able to come into contact with

35:34

her too much. So she's clearly very

35:36

worried about the outcome of her pregnancy.

35:38

Understandably so because the entire focus of

35:40

the country is on this baby. And

35:42

Henry didn't give Anne Boleyn that many

35:44

chances to bear him a son, probably

35:46

three pregnancies, which isn't that many chances

35:48

in the 16th century. Jane's

35:50

pregnancy came to term, but her

35:52

delivery would be no easy matter.

35:55

Jane goes into labour on the 10th

35:57

of October and it's clearly a very

35:59

difficult labour. It takes two days. In

36:01

fact, they have processions through London to

36:03

pray for her safe delivery. So there's

36:05

clearly concern. On the 12th

36:07

of October, she gives birth to a son,

36:09

Edward VI, and the country erupts in celebration.

36:12

And, I mean, she must have been exhausted.

36:14

She's been in labour for two days, but she

36:16

seems to be okay. The baptism

36:19

is on the 15th of October and she's

36:21

well enough to attend some of the ceremonies.

36:23

So she appears lying on a kind of

36:25

day bed wrapped in furs and you wouldn't

36:28

expect the mother to attend the christening anyway.

36:30

So actually there's nothing out of the ordinary

36:32

in the fact that she's able to attend.

36:34

She's clearly considered to be well enough. In

36:38

the hours after the birth, Jane

36:40

dictated a letter to Thomas Cromwell

36:43

informing him by the inestable goodness

36:45

and grace of almighty God we

36:47

be delivered and brought in child

36:49

bed of a prince. The

36:52

letter suggests to Aidan Norrie that Jane did not

36:54

imagine she was about to die. Obviously

36:57

the birth was traumatic.

36:59

Three nights, even by our standards,

37:01

is a horrific labour. But

37:04

she doesn't die for

37:06

almost two weeks. It's

37:10

unlikely that she was imagining herself

37:13

dying when she wrote this letter.

37:16

So this isn't a I'm going

37:18

to die, I need to create a

37:20

legacy for Edward. I need

37:22

to provide for him when I'm no longer

37:24

going to be here. She

37:27

is very much kind of thinking about

37:29

she is queen, she has just given

37:31

birth to a boy. She

37:33

is almost imagining her role

37:36

and how it will continue.

37:38

She is the queen and then

37:41

she will be the king's mother

37:43

and she's very much trying to

37:45

most secure her position. The fact

37:47

that she was well enough to

37:50

be welcoming guests to Edward's baptism.

37:52

She clearly wasn't bedridden and unable

37:54

to walk. So she must have

37:57

been well enough to do that.