To commemorate the death of Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII, MedievalCourses.com are offering everyone the chance to listen to module 3 of their new seven-unit course, “The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Monarchy and Matrimony in Tudor England” for free just for today.
The module is just over 26 minutes long and is from the course written and narrated by historian Gareth Russell, author of A History of the English Monarchy: From Boadicea to Elizabeth I and the forthcoming Young and Damned and Fair: The Life and Tragedy of Catherine Howard at the Court of Henry VIII.
Click here to head over to the course website to enjoy this module. I hope you enjoy it and it would be wonderful to hear what you think about it and what you think about Jane Seymour too.
Hi Claire, thank you for the link – I was looking forward to giving it a listen but it appears that the audio won’t play when I click on it. I tried exiting the page and reloading, but nothing. 🙁
Hi Denise,
I’m sorry you’re having problems listening to it. What browser are you using?
Thanks,
Claire
I thank you for the chance to listen to this interesting module. I enjoyed hearing Gareth Russell’s point of view about Jane Seymour which confirmed my own thoughts about the plight of women during that time period. Women have come a long way but still have a long way to go!
Very true!
Thank You Claire for the link! I thought this module was excellent although it does leave one with many more questions regarding the “true” Jane Seymour than what has been conjectured over the years. I thought Mr. Russell raised very important points regarding Jane and her personality, and like he says, unless we find some long hidden papers never before discovered we will never really know her. In my own family, we have often wondered if our 20th Great Grandmother Margaret Bourchier Bryan, the Governess to Henry and Jane’s son Edward may have witnessed any incidents or comments from Henry while doing her tasks and perhaps left any papers regarding her time of service to Henry’s son. One can only hope, like winning the lottery! that one day we may find more information on Jane.
Yes, the more I learn about Jane the more questions I have about her.
Very interesting! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much Claire for the free module about Jane Seymour. I truly enjoyed it. Time well spent with Gareth Russell and his viewpoint. Personally, I think Jane was intelligent enough to see what went before her and her husband’s personality. She was very different than his two former wives no question about that. But that is what we see or read about in her very short time as Queen. Had she lived longer she may have proved very interesting. Thanks again.
I could listen to Gareth forever, he’s got a brilliant way of putting things and he’s so knowledgeable about these women. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Whilst I thought it was a very thoughtful and considered account of Jane (after all there is only so much we know about her as fact) I do wish he would have balanced the perceptions of her. It seemed he went out of his way to humanise her from being a saint to a 3 dimensional woman with a personality, but at the same time it’s very frustrating for me to not hear anything defending her character when there are certainly those out there who portray her as a villain due to her rivalry with Anne Boleyn (e.g Agnes Strickland) which I think is equally preposterous and insulting as making her into a saint.
Also referring to my above comment, I remember that Claire did a brilliant balanced article on the different interpretations and stereotypes of the wives in which she addressed the fact that Jane was neither Saint nor sinner but a woman with a personality and ambitions who tried to shine but was not allowed to. I’d love to see another article about that with an up to date perspective, both on Jane, Anne B and Catherine Howard. It’s amazing how ones view can change dramatically over the course of a few years from new research and books Can’t you tell I’m fishing here haha!