May 14 – Jane Seymour is relocated closer to Henry VIII, and Henry VIII’s leg problems

Henry V111 certainly did not believe in hanging about, and there was Sir Nicholas Carew a long associate of the Boleyn’s now in the Seymours camp, give Jane residence in his house and now escorting her to Chelsea not far up the river from where Anne was in the Tower and Henry V111 in Whitehall, Henry V111’s treatment of his second queen really has earned him little sympathy not withstanding the awful allegations thrown at her, and the way she was publicly put to death when banishment would have sufficed, but his consorting with her lady in waiting with whom he became engaged the day after her death, and eventual marriage, two weeks later, any wonder this notorious king has been compared to Bluebeard and the sympathy Anne Boleyn attracted during this dreadful time and which continued after her death, proves that Henry’s and Cromwell’s campaign to dishonour her, had in fact the opposite effect, as usual when a husband replaces one wife with another there is curiosity and with Jane Seymour many wondered what on earth the king saw in her, Chapyus was quite critical and her portrait by Holbein is not flattering, her shoulders are rather narrow for her large head and the richness of her apparel only serves to make her look more plainer by comparison, but Henry was not looking for beauty or excitement nor ready wit, he had had enough of them, he was older now he needed a son urgently and here was Jane a product of a large family, she had several brothers as well as sisters, also she was not a nag she treated him with deference as was his due, he was eager to marry Jane and no matter if the world disproved, his wife imprisoned in the tower had shown she was not worthy to be his consort, Cromwell slandered Anne Boleyn in his dispatches by condemning her incontinent living, she was simply the most evil depraved creature that ever existed and what Henry’s new love Jane Seymour thought of it all is a mystery, Jane was a cousin to Anne of the half blood but there was no friendship between them, Jane was loyal to Henry’s first queen and sympathised with her and her daughter Mary, also Catholic she was upset by the reform and the way it had unsettled the country, she wept for the ruination of the religious houses and pleaded their cause with Henry when she was queen, we can see Jane must have felt it was gods calling for her to bring England back to Catholicism, and with this belief and the chance she saw to help Mary all we can assume is she chose to distance herself from the allegations concerning her former mistress, and believed she was guilty as charged, her son years later in direct contrast to her religious beliefs, became the most ardent supporter of Protestantism something which is interesting to consider what Jane would have made of that, had she lived, for now she was being wined and dined and her family just like the Boleyn’s before them saw this as providence, their quiet plain little Jane had caught the eye of the king and was going to be queen, but with their excitement surely must have come some trepidation it was not easy being a Queen of England, and Henry V111 was not exactly a constant husband, it fills the heart with revulsion knowing that he was planning to murder six innocent people in his quest to validate this third marriage, and Jane herself came in for criticism now Anne was the object of sympathy, and a ballad was being circulated around the city it’s a pity it did not survive, but we can imagine it was full of ribaldry and detriment to the king and Jane, it also angered Henry when he heard of it, and wrote to Jane the fellow will be punished when he’s caught, of course he never was it was after all a sentiment which must have echoed most of the city, so whilst Henry V111 carried on wining and dining his beloved, his forsaken queen languished up the river in the Tower of London with her alleged lovers, they had no glittering future unlike England’s fickle king and his fortunate new bride to be.