|
|
|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg |
Date of Birth: February 15, 1951 |
| Status:
Married
|
Partner:
James Keach |
| Profession:
Actor |
| << Add Jane Seymour To Your Favorites |
|
Full Jane Seymour Biography
| Jane Seymour is an official spokesperson for UNICEF and an international ambassador for Childhelp USA. She has appeared in over 70 feature films, 15 television series and is the executive producer for 7 TV productions. She is tied with Patty Duke for the title of "The Queen of TV Movies". |
|
|
Additional Jane Seymour Biography
Jane Seymour (1507/1508 – 24 October 1537) was the third wife of Henry VIII. She died of post-natal complications following the birth of her only child, Edward VI. She was also King Henry VIII's fifth cousin three times removed.
Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wiltshire and Margaret Wentworth. Her exact birth date is debated; it is usually given as 1509; however, in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Alison Weir noted that at her funeral 29 women walked in succession. Since it was customary for the attendant company to mark every year of the deceased's life in numbers, this moved Jane's birth back by about eighteen months.
After serving as a lady-in-waiting to both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, Henry's first two queens, Jane caught the king's eye. His desire to marry her may have partly motivated him to believe (or pretend to believe) the false accusations of adultery and witchcraft against Anne. Henry became betrothed to Jane on 20 May 1536, and he married Jane on 30 May, only shortly after Anne's execution. Jane was publicly proclaimed queen on 4 June. She was never crowned because of an epidemic of plague in London where the coronation was to take place. Henry was afraid of contracting the plague and obviously had the same fears for his new bride. It is also said that Henry would not crown Jane until she had fulfilled her duty as a queen by bearing him a son and heir.
In early 1537, Jane became pregnant. During her pregnancy, she developed a craving for quail, which the King ordered for her from Calais and Flanders. Jane went into seclusion in September 1537 and gave birth to a male heir, the future King Edward VI of England on 12 October at Hampton Court Palace. After she participated in the prince's christening on October 15, it became clear that Jane was seriously ill. She had contracted puerperal fever and died on 24 October at Hampton Court. She was buried at Windsor Castle after a funeral in which her step-daughter, Princess Mary (later Queen Mary I), acted as chief mourner.
After her death, Henry wore black and did not remarry for two years. Henry fondly remembered her as his favourite wife, forgetting the youthful days he spent with Catherine of Aragon and years of being besotted with Anne Boleyn. Historians have speculated that it was Jane's "achievement" of securing Henry a male heir that made her so fondly remembered. When he died in 1547, Henry was buried beside her.
The English ballad The Death of Queen Jane (Child #170) is about the death of Jane Seymour following the birth of Prince Edward. The story as related in the ballad is historically inaccurate, but apparently reflects the popular view at the time of the events surrounding her death. The historical fact is that Prince Edward was born naturally, and that his mother succumbed to infection and died twelve days later.
In the ballad, during long labour, Queen Jane repeatedly asks that her side be opened to save the baby. In most versions, she is refused repeatedly until finally someone -- usually King Henry -- succumbs to her pleas and allows the surgery that results in her death.
Most versions of the song end with the contrast between the joy of the birth of the Prince and the grief of the death of the Queen.
The song Lady Jane by the Rolling Stones also holds some connection. The song can be interpreted as Henry's sadness over the loss of Jane, because she was the only wife who actually gave him a much-wanted son, and yet her life was the price of the achievement. The song also mentions a 'Lady Anne' and that fact that the narrator can't be expected to love her when he has, or had, Lady Jane. Anne of Cleves followed Jane Seymour, and Henry quickly divorced her (on the much more fickle ground that she was not attractive).
Rick Wakeman had a pipe-organ based instrumental with Seymour's name on the concept album The Six Wives of Henry VIII. It was made to sound mainly like a typical song from her lifetime, save for a synthesiser solo and drums.
Jane was widely praised as "the fairest, the discreetest, and the most meritous of all Henry VIII's wives" in the centuries after her death. One historian, however, took serious umbrage to this view in the 19th century. Victorian scholar Agnes Strickland, author of encyclopaedic studies of French, Scottish, and English royal women, said that the story of "Anne Boleyn's last agonised hours" and Henry VIII's swift remarriage to Jane Seymour "is repulsive enough, but it becomes tenfold more abhorrent when the woman who caused the whole tragedy is loaded with panegyric."
Modern historians, particularly Alison Weir and Lady Antonia Fraser, paint a favourable portrait of a woman of discretion and good-sense -- "a strong-minded matriarch in the making," says Weir. Others are not convinced.
8. John Seymour (before 1434-c. 1463)
2. John Seymour (c. 1474-1536)
6. Sir Henry Wentworth (before 1448-?)
26. Sir John de Clifford, 7th Lord Clifford (c. 1388-1421/22) |
|
| Add Jane Seymour Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
Jane Seymour Quote(s)
| You have to count on living every single day in a way you believe will make you feel good about your life - so that if it were over tomorrow, you'd be content with yourself. |
|
| Add Jane Seymour Review/Comment
|
HQ Jane Seymour Pictures (134) | Random Jane Seymour Picture
|
| << Back to the Jane Seymour Homepage |
|
