The shadowy side of Queen Jane Seymour's history, a woman often depicted as the obedient wife who gave King Henry VIII his coveted son. However, beneath the surface, she harbored a hidden dark side, and her life was marked by chilling tragedies that history rarely reveals.
Jane’s family was a magnet for drama from the beginning. Her brothers, Edward and Thomas, were troublingly meddlesome from the start, and coached their naïve sister in the most cunning ways of statecraft and seducing powerful men.
During her first years in service of the court, Jane watched as Henry VIII threw his wife Catherine of Aragon aside for Anne Boleyn—and the inevitable dark end to that twisted love story. As his dissatisfaction with Anne grew, he started to notice Jane and flirt with her.
This is where Jane’s sweet, subservient image ends. Jane flaunted the gifts Henry had given her right in front of Anne, infuriating her. Some say Anne even experienced a miscarriage after walking into a room and finding Jane in Henry’s lap. The wildest part? Henry and Jane went on to get engaged just one day after Anne’s execution.
Jane was in bed with the devil. But Jane also knew her duty as queen was to satisfy King Henry in the bedroom and then the maternity ward, and half a year after her royal wedding, she was pregnant with Henry’s child.
Jane went into labor in early October of 1537, but nothing happened the way she expected it. It was a grueling 2 days and 3 nights. At 2:00 in the wee hours of the morning on October 12, 1537, Jane finally had her child—the son the king had wished for.
Jane Seymour was in grave danger after childbirth. Her health was up and down for days, until she died on October 24, just 12 days after giving birth.
Jane had given Henry VIII an heir, but never got to see her son grow up. Instead, her grave pays heartbreaking tribute to him. The inscription on her final resting place reads: “Here lies Jane, a phoenix / Who died in giving another phoenix birth. / Let her be mourned, for birds like these / Are rare indeed.”
