On this day in 1537, church bells pealed, Te Deumss were sung, bonfires lit, fruit and wine given out, and two thousand rounds were fired into the sky from the Tower of London.
A prince had been born and London celebrated.
Yes, on 12th October 1537 at two o’clock in the morning, Jane Seymour gave birth to a healthy baby boy, the future Edward VI. Her labour had been long, around thirty hours, and there had been a solemn procession at St Paul’s on 10th October to pray for the Queen. The prayers worked and both mother and baby seemed fine, that is until Jane started showing signs of childbed fever. She died on the night of 24th October 1537.
You can read more about Edward in my article Happy Birthday Edward VI.
30 hours, that poor woman! I can’t imagine being pregnant during that time much less giving birth when the doctors were all male and had no knowledge of the female reproductive system (or sanitation).
I absolutely adore that painting of the little Prince, he looks so cute with those chubby cheeks, so healthy and robust, all angelic with a hint of mischief… Bet it was hard work getting him to sit still 🙂
Happy Birthday Edward.
Dawn 1st, I too adore that painting of baby Edward. He was a real cutee. Most historians have ignored him, treating him like he was irrelevant when he was not. In his short reign as a boy king, on of his number 1 goals was that his country men and women worshipped God truthfully unlike his father whose only interest in the protestant faith was for selfish reasons. He also established schools and hospitals for the poor. If this young had ruled for a longer period he too would have been a great monarch.
beautiful portrait of edward vI.
Poor Jane, I too feel sorry for her, 30hrs is a long time to be in labour. With my first it was 26hrs . The pain coupled with the fear of not knowing if you can survive the ordeal. But at the of it all she was presented with a beautiful baby boy. She gave Henry his hearts desire, a son.
It is a lovely painting it’s a pity we havnt one of Mary or Elizabeth as well when they were babies, or Henry V111, there is a bust of him as a toddler and he looks so cheeky, his mouth is open and he’s grinning away, hard to imagine he grew up to be the tyrant we know and most love to hate, it’s such a shame poor Edward never lived along enough to be king, it’s strange wondering how he would have turned out, some historians have described him as cold hearted like when his uncle The Lord Protector went to the block and he didn’t appear to be bothered about that, both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were sacrificed for this longed for son and yet he never became the King Henry dreamed of, that was left to his two daughters whom he later had bastardised, yet he had to acknowledge them later as his heirs after Edward, I wonder if he had doubts that would die young, it isn’t improbable after Henry Fitzroy died.