Had the Queen Lived:

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Had the Queen Lived: Page 6

by Raven A. Nuckols


  Meanwhile, as the doctors, friends, and the King himself desperately tried to revive Brandon, Henry prayed to God to save his friend and not to let him die. He kept repeating his prayers until finally Charles opened his eyes and asked what had happened. The King was the first to hug him and shout happily “he’s alive! Thank God man, he’s alive!” through tears of joy.

  Brandon had no recollection of what had happened to him and later told his physicians that the last thing he remembered was that wind had blown dust into his eye and he could not see his lance once the call to run had been made. After that, everything went black. The King asked for how long Brandon had been unconscious and how severely he had been hurt. Dr. Butts answered that Brandon would be fine, but that large amounts of wooden splinters had broken off and speared themselves into his shoulder, perhaps causing permanent damage. It was very well possible that he might never joust again, but only time would tell. He put Brandon on a strict regimen of a marigold and wheat extract that he would take twice daily while the physician would continue to visit him to work on his shoulder. One of Brandon’s groomsmen ran over to notify his hysterical wife Catherine and to have her head back to the preparing tent to see her husband and that he was finally awake.

  Queen Anne’s father, Lord Rochford, was the greatest source of comfort for the King that day, and assisted in all of the doctors’ and King’s requests to help Brandon, putting aside his personal feelings. His behavior was a politically shrewd move ensuring his relationship to the King. Dr. Butts ordered Brandon back to his chambers in the palace where he could be watched around the clock and ordered he not be moved for any reason. He then advised Henry that nothing more could be done but to monitor Brandon’s vitals and ease his pain, and that the King should rejoin the Queen in the palace and await news of the Duke’s return to health. He vowed to keep Henry apprised of Brandon’s progress on a daily basis, and if the Duke’s condition should change, but he was optimistic that in a few months he would make a full recovery with only slight—albeit permanent—damage to his right shoulder.

  Henry returned to the palace immediately notifying Anne, who outwardly comforted her husband as he wept for his friend. Inwardly, the Queen could not have been more overjoyed. Although Charles Brandon had been co-conspirators with her family during the opposition to their mutual enemy Cardinal Wolsey, the Boleyns and Brandon had never been true allies. Regardless, Henry was genuinely shaken by what he had witnessed his friend go through; Anne played the caring and loving wife. She held him and listened to him talk about how devastating it was watching Charles nearly die and advised him to visit Charles every day. Despite her jealousy over others with the King’s ear, she loved her husband and wanted to see him happy. Henry stayed with Anne as they both awaited news.

  Shortly thereafter, a groom of Dr. Butts notified Henry and Anne that Brandon was asking for him. Anne encouraged him to be with his friend. He kissed her, told her how much he loved her, and that he would return soon. Anne and her ladies prayed for Brandon’s safe return to health and the Queen read parts of the English Bible to her ladies for the remainder of the afternoon. She remained in excellent spirits. Although Brandon had been seriously injured, it was an excellent sign that Henry ran first to her, instead of to his mistress, one of Anne’s own ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. He kept his promise and later that evening Henry and Anne fell asleep holding one another.

  2.2 Jane

  Jane Seymour came to court as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine of Aragon sometime between 1527 and 1532. She was described as pale, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and of little mirth. While her general features were favored by the beauty standards of the day, as hers were manifest she was considered to be of no great mention. Her initial appearance at court was probably due largely to her brother Edward having received distinguishing service marks at military affairs, earning him a knighthood in 1528. Serving Henry’s first Queen brought continued honor to the Seymour family and solidified them in the King’s good graces.

  As a lady-in-waiting she spent tireless hours on needlepoint, which Katherine had insisted her ladies do for distribution to the poor. Jane was an expert needlewoman and some of her works were passed down generations later and retained with the Seymour family until the late 18th century. Her meek demeanor served well with Katherine’s natural disposition. As she came to know Queen Katherine, Jane grew to admire the Queen’s grace, dignity, and poise. To Jane, Katherine was everything a Queen should be. Her own ambitions certainly could not dream to reach so high, and it can be reasoned that Katherine’s virtues greatly influenced Jane’s development at court. Jane had always envisioned herself marrying a fellow courtier and living a comfortable but modest life, one befitting her current station. That was as far as Jane’s ambitions went. It is unclear if Jane and Anne would have served under Katherine at the same time, but they certainly were aware of one another.

  Jane is estimated to have been born in 1508 at the family residence at Wolf Hall in Wiltshire. Born to Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth, she was the first girl and the fifth of ten children. Her father, Sir John, had long been an ally of the King, and a noted courtier. They had served together in military campaigns in the early part of Henry’s reign. Through her mother’s grandmother, Anne Say, Jane was the second cousin to Anne Boleyn and related to Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk. Their family estate was also a working farm that the family used to gain additional income by selling their crops, and employed plenty of tenants to work the fields. The family managed the property of close to 130 acres. It was a steady job for hundreds of local commoners. While the family was certainly glad to have a daughter in their line of sons, daughters also required a dowry before they could be married off to a family of means that could adequately care for her in the lifestyle she was accustomed to. That would require quite a lot of money.

  Her education was lacking and left room to be desired if she were to be placed at court as a lady of distinction, in hopes of making a match with a suitable husband. She was educated only in the minimal standards of domestic duties. The curriculum consisted of a lady’s duties in running a household, managing servants, and basic medical cures for common ailments. She was raised as a Catholic and held very strong beliefs towards the papacy that did not falter with the Reformation.

  In May 1528, a heavy case of “the sweating sickness” broke out in London and spread throughout the realm. This was the fourth bout of the sweat that had hit the city since the late 1400’s. The sweat spread quickly and was highly acute in nature. It began with a sense of anxiety and fear, followed by cold chills and pain in the upper body, especially the neck. Its symptoms resembled the flu. After the cold chills had passed, a severe case of sweating started, with the body attempting to rid itself of the virus by burning it with fever, but climbing to a dangerous temperature range. Ultimately, as a result of probably heat exhaustion, the victims would have a strong desire to sleep, and often times did not wake up.

  Anne had caught the sweat in 1528 while courting with the King, but she managed to survive, to Henry’s great relief. She fully recovered at her family estate at Hever and was reunited with Henry upon her remarkable recovery. She is one of the few documented cases on record of a person becoming sick with the sweat and making a full recovery; as a result she had the antibodies to fight off the next bout should it come around and not mutate to a different strain. The cause was most certainly the filthy and vile living conditions of the day, as there were few sanitary measures taken in large cities, or indeed, anywhere. It was common for “piss pots” containing feces and urine to be thrown into the same street as merchants selling food. This direct cross-contamination of deadly pathogens was responsible for the illness; which scientists now believe was a deadly form of the Hantavirus; a biohazard level four virus isolated and identified during the Korean War in the 1950’s when soldiers began coming down with similar symptoms as the sweating sickness. Hanta is spread by the feces of animals
and it is believed that this could be a possible vector for the virus, mixed in with that of humans in areas of poor sanitation. In the pre-modern age, the disease proved disastrous.

  While it killed far fewer than the Black Plague in the Middle Ages, it still took with it hundreds of thousands of lives. Most citizens viewed these plagues as punishment from God for sins, instead of the reality of the unsanitary conditions around them. As a result of the many deaths it caused, the court was dispersed when the sickness arose, with the King taking refuge in seclusion with only a few servants, in a desperate attempt to flee from its grasp. When the sweat came it took several of Jane’s siblings. Perhaps the hardest death for her parents was that of her eldest brother, John, in whom the family had been placing their highest ambitions. Instead, it would be the younger brother, Edward, who would achieve the station toward which the Seymour’s had aimed for John. As tragic as this sweating sickness was, it removed thousands of people, bringing with it openings and opportunities for those still alive and ambitious enough to exploit them.

  Thanks to Edward placing her at court, Jane was able to watch Henry and Anne’s affair grow. Jane was rather plain and dull, with such a reserved manner that it was unlikely that she would stand out at court. Due to her demure nature, she was able to observe many illicit activities, including forbidden love. Jane hated Anne for everything she represented, mainly due to the direct pain she had caused her mistress, Queen Katherine. She witnessed the devastating effects that the breakdown of the royal marriage had caused but she also learned how to land a King with games of emotional and physical torment. She watched how Queen Katherine had, for the most part, handled Henry’s affair her own ladies-in-waiting, while still holding her head high with remarkable dignity and poise.

  Life at court under Katherine had been one of comfort, but Jane did watch as her fellow ladies-in-waiting were matched off for marriages, or even minor dalliances with lovers at court, while she had no serious prospects. With none coming her way, on her brother’s advice, she returned home to Wolf Hall at some point between 1532 and 1533 to contemplate her future and resign herself to a quaint life in the country. Jane was graciously granted leave from her post to attend to her affairs and by the time she retired back home she would have been around 25, typically an older age for receiving marriage proposals. It was now becoming critical to marry her off as quickly as possible or she might risk becoming a spinster and burden to her aging parents; worst of all, she may have become too old to bear children. Jane’s future at this point in her life was incredibly grim.

  The late 1520’s and early 1530’s saw few accomplishments for Jane in courtship, social climbing, or any other aspect of life for a woman at court. Because she was shy she failed to use the time at court to seek a potential mate. It is believed she stayed in residence at Wolf Hall, practicing her needlepoint and other activities to pass the time. Certainly she must have pondered her own fate. Even back at home she watched as those around her were married off, only this time, instead of fellow courtiers, those being wed were her own siblings. Her brother Edward was married to Anne Stanhope and the two ladies became fast friends. Edward and his family were rarely at Wolf Hall for visits but when they did appear they brought with them news of the court. Thomas Seymour, Edward’s younger brother, also had ambition and used Edward’s connections to place himself at court, albeit in a low ranking position.

  The only marriage prospect Jane had was a match with William Dormer. The Dormers were a successful family from Buckinghamshire. The head of the house was Sir Robert, a Member of Parliament. The family had built their wealth through generations of wool trading and careful social climbing. The match came to the Seymour family through the dealings of Sir Francis Bryan, a good friend of the family and cousin to the King. While Sir Francis’ motives for working so diligently on finding Jane a suitable husband are unclear, his efforts were nearly successful and negotiations on a pre-marriage contract were underway. Unfortunately for Jane, the Dormers could not see their son married to her. They felt the Seymour’s were too low socially.

  Instead, the Lady Dormer visited the residence of the Sidney’s, neighboring, higher-ranking courtiers, to ask for their daughter Mary’s hand in marriage to William. This contract with the Sidney family ensured that Jane was removed completely from any future negotiations with the family. William and Mary were promptly married on January 11th, 1535. Mary Sidney brought with her the social comfort and handsome dowry that the Dormers expected.

  Jane was embarrassed at the loss of her only prospect. Edward, Thomas, her father, and Sir Francis Bryan did their best to support and reassure her that another match would be coming. It did little to assuage her concerns. It is believed that Sir Francis once again attempted to help Jane by recommending her for placement in Anne’s household. It took some serious convincing on his part, being that Jane was not fond of Anne at all. She wanted nothing to do with “the King’s whore” and was not certain she saw a point in returning back to the same court where she saw no prospects. She was also concerned at all the rumors her brother had been telling her about how loosely Anne ran the court. Sir Francis overcame her fears by telling her this may be the only way she would find a suitable match. He warned her that if she stayed home it would be near impossible to find one. Through some very carefully crafted persuasion, Jane finally agreed. When Sir Francis returned to the court he appealed directly to the King on this matter and it was a matter of weeks before Jane was placed in Anne’s service as her new lady-in-waiting. Despite her personal feelings to the contrary, in January 1535 she had returned to court and was attending Queen Anne.

  This court was very different from when she served under Katherine. For one thing, Anne had all her ladies dress in French fashions, which were far more revealing than previous English fashions had been. These gowns were outfitted with the finest textiles, pearls and jewels. Anne felt that her ladies were a direct representation of her and as such wanted to ensure that they dressed in the latest fashions, always looking their best, so when foreign dignitaries came to pay their respects they would regale their own courts with tales of how well her ladies were kept.

  Jane was uncomfortable with being so lavishly dressed, even under direct order; she was much more at ease in a plain servant’s outfit as she had worn under Katherine. Also, the attitudes of this court, instead of being somber and filled with continuous prayer and deep piety, featured nights spent dancing and reveling in good cheer. Perhaps the hardest thing for Jane to come to terms with was the enforced reading of the English Bible on a daily basis with its Protestant leanings, which Anne kept in her chambers and would often recite to her ladies. The Queen did attend mass and was very pious, but she also knew how to appreciate life to the fullest, a value which Katherine saw little use for.

  Jane was caught off guard by these radical changes, but like everyone else she was forced to adapt. The ladies played cards, learned new dances, prayed regularly from the new English Bible, and flirted as never before. Anne often taught her ladies new dances that she had learned in France, taught them how to speak French, played cards with them, listened to stories about their own lives, and treated them as both servants and dear friends. She was known to be overly generous to her ladies, which is one of the many reasons each year saw hundreds of applications for new positions in her household. The new maids and groomsmen of the Queen’s Privy Chamber swore their oath of office, which declared that they were to be gracious, virtuous, modest, humble, and above all obedient in the execution of their duties. Jane would represent these pledges honorably, at least mostly.

  It was common for Kings to take mistresses when their Queens were with child, and Henry was no exception. Two alleged mistresses were documented between 1533 and 1535, with neither causing serious risk to Queen Anne. The conservative factions to which Edward Seymour belonged were attentive to the ever shifting perceptions of Henry’s desires and eagerly awaited an opportunity to supplant Anne. Upon
her return to court, Jane had already been aware of and in contact with one alleged mistress nicknamed the Imperial Lady for her great support of the Lady Mary.

  Although documentation on the extent of Jane’s relationship with the mistress was not known, Eustace Chapuys, the long serving Spanish Ambassador to the English court, had written in his dispatches that Jane was in the favor of the new lady. The King had known of Jane a long time, but she had not made a serious impression beyond being a servant to the crown. Certainly she was given gifts on New Years, as were the other ladies-in-waiting, but she was shown no more favor than that. It was most likely at a visit to Wolf Hall by the King and Queen in September 1535, that Jane managed to capture the King’s interest. It is difficult to imagine that during this visit anything illicit in nature happened, with Anne present.

  During Christmastime 1535, Anne announced her pregnancy to Henry as his gift. Her conception date is estimated to have been sometime around October, perhaps occurring shortly after the couple’s visit to Wolf Hall. By this time the Queen was close to three months pregnant and just barely starting to show. Her slender frame allowed her to lose baby weight quickly and she went back to her original shape after the birth of Elizabeth two years earlier. The couple was seen as joyous with one another, laughing and affectionate. They even exchanged beautifully extravagant gifts with one another and enjoyed several dances together. For all their public joy, with Anne’s pregnancy, it was once again time for Henry to set about to find a temporary mistress.

  To Henry, Jane represented everything opposite of his wife. She was demure, where Anne was passionate; she was pale and blonde, where Anne was olive and dark; she was humble and modest, where Anne was boastful and ambitious; she was ill educated, where Anne was refined and sophisticated. The contrast between these two women could not have been greater, and it was in Jane’s different virtues that he found solace. For all the love he bore the Queen, something about Jane intrigued him. He found it appealing to engage with a woman so gentle natured and amenable to his every whim. While no contemporary evidence survives suggesting the exact date when the King began his pursuit of Jane, the first indication of his interest is a letter dated February 10th, 1536, in which Chapuys wrote that Henry had a new amour.

 

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