
Jane was Henry VIIIs third Queen & she was described by him as his first true wife both his first two marriages having been annulled. She was twenty-seven when he married her & came of a solid gentry family with good court connections. She had served both Catherine of Aragon & Anne Boleyn as a Lady of the Privy Chamber & her failure to find a suitable marriage is something of a mystery. He was forty-four & desperate for the male heir who had so far eluded him but which Janes placid disposition & sexual availability seemed to promise. She was no great beauty but came of a good breeding stock & therein lay his hope. They married at the end of May 1536 & she became pregnant at about the end of the year a condition which advanced normally but which caused the King acute anxiety as the summer of 1537 advanced. Then in October 1537 Jane performed the great miracle & bore Henry a son who lived & flourished. Tragically she died of puerperal fever a few days later leaving the court in mourning & the king devastated. Her obsequies were elaborate & prolonged & Henry stayed in mourning for many weeks. The kings son Prince Edward was carefully nurtured & probably did not miss the mother he had never known. When the time came his education was overseen by Henrys sixth Queen Catherine Parr & he seems not to have had much of the Seymour in his make up. He was very much his fathers boy.