Thursday, June 14, 2007

Question from Chad - Jane Seymour miscarriage?

I read once that Jane Seymour suffured a miscarriage before giving birth to Edward VI. Is this true?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, Jane's only pregnancy was with Edward VI.

Anonymous said...

As far as I know Jane seymour had no miscarrage.
she was only pregnant once and that was with Edward who survived.

Anonymous said...

Jane did not suffer a miscarriage; although the story was later briefly incorporated into Cynthia Harrod Eagles's novel "The Dark Rose," which chronicled the life of a fictitious aristocrat, Nanette Morland, who served as a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn and later, Katharine Parr.

Anonymous said...

She wasn't married to Henry long enough to have miscarried and then become pregnant again.

Anonymous said...

They were married for about eight months before she conceived Edward, so it is possible, but if so it is likely to have been very early on as I have seen no record of it.

Foose said...

Antonia Fraser mentioned in her book, "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" that Jane was rumored to have suffered a miscarriage early in her marriage.

However, Henry VIII had married Anne Boleyn when she was pregnant, and Fraser alleges that Kathryn Howard was thought to be possibly pregnant when Henry married her. Jane is usually as painted as having beaten Anne Boleyn at her own game -- "Your wife I cannot be, your mistress I will not be, etc." - but I often wonder: Did Jane have relations with Henry during Anne's queenship, and did she tell Henry she was pregnant, thus propelling him and Cromwell into action in getting rid of Anne? Afterwards, she could have claimed a miscarriage ...

Jane's virtue is built on rather thin grounds: kindness to Princess Mary, a prejudice against French clothes, and some ostentatious declarations of virginity. Her brother was the sexiest man at court, her mother was "Mistress Margery Wentworth," a maiden singled out for celebration by the poet Skelton, and her father got into a sex scandal with his daughter-in-law, allegedly. Perhaps it's not unlikely that she allowed Henry a certain freedom while Anne was still alive? And if Henry thought she was pregnant after Anne miscarried, he might have made every effort to free himself ...

Holly said...

That is an interesting idea.