24th October 2015
On 24 October 1537 Jane Seymour died, probably of puerperal fever, twelve days after giving birth to the son her husband wanted so desperately. She was the only wife of Henry VIII to receive a queen’s funeral and was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Her stepdaughter Mary was the chief mourner. A little over two years later Henry married his fourth queen, Anne of Cleves.
Henry died in 1547, and was buried beside Jane, the mother of his heir Edward VI. He had planned a grand tomb, but after Edward's death the work wasn't completed – it would seem neither Elizabeth nor Mary were sufficiently interested. The burial place of England's most famous king is marked with a later slab.
I cover Jane's courtship and reign in The Other Boleyn Girl and The King's Curse – here's my description of Margaret Pole's reaction to Jane's death:
They say that the king is devastated, that he has lost the mother of his child and the only woman he truly loved. They say that he will never marry again, that Jane was matchless, perfect, the only true wife he ever had. I think that she has achieved in death the perfection that no woman could show in life. His own perfection is wholly imaginary, now he has an imaginary perfect wife.
Portrait: Jane Seymour by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1536/37, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
