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“Since marrying into the royal family, Jane Seymour had always been magnificently dressed. Even the dolls which Queen Jane liked to collect were expensively clothed, one in ‘gown of white doth of silver and a kirtle of green velvet ... [and] two little [doll] Babies, one in crimson satin and one in white velvet’, although when Katharine and Anne Bassett curtseyed before her in September 1537, the Queen had made a concession to her comfort and her health, with her stomacher unlaced as she entered the final month of pregnancy. On the subject of clothes, at the sisters first audience with her, Queen Jane made clear her disapproval at the Gallic cut of French-educated Anne's gown. The remark was subsequently exaggerated into a claim that, as queen, Jane Seymour waged a sartorial campaign against the French fashions favoured by her predecessor who, like Anne Bassett, had been educated in France. Specifically, Jane allegedly banned the French hood - a round headdress that curved around the back of the head with a veil flowing down behind it - which an unverifiable tradition holds was popularised in England by Anne Boleyn. According to the traditional story, Jane pettily insisted that the ladies of the court favour the more conservative English gable hood, the style of headdress worn by Queen Jane in all her known portraits. Henry VIlI's surviving inventories, however, list French hoods owned by Queen Jane, including one decorated with emeralds. It therefore seems unlikely that Oueen Jane ever banned the French hood at court, but some other unspecified element of Anne Bassett's outfit seemed inappropriate to the Queen. On such a detail, Katharine Bassett might have emerged as the Queen's new maid of honour, but it was not to be; once again, Anne proved the favourite. Jane wanted the younger Bassett to serve her. Katharine would have to be found a place elsewhere or go home. Conscious of how expensive new clothes were, the Queen said that Anne could wear out her current dresses - only afterwards should her mother commission clothes for her in the English style.”

“It is not at all clear that Jane Seymour was the bait carefully prepared by an alleged conservative faction. It is more likely that Henry met her when on progress in Hampshire. Maybe once the king’s interest in her was known, courtiers then attempted to exploit the situation, but more for reasons of patronage than policy. It may simply be that Henry entrusted Carew, as a loyal and long-serving courtier, with the responsibility of looking after Jane as she was becoming the king’s mistress. After Anne’s fall, Jane would be lodged at Carew’s house at Beddington. Maybe Carew had already earlier seized the opportunity to encourage Jane to criticise Anne, as Chapuys reported at the beginning of April; or perhaps Carew, whatever he actually did or did not do, boasted to Chapuys that he was coaching Jane to do down Anne, but we should be cautious about believing him. For Jane to tell Henry that Anne was abominated and that his marriage was thought illegitimate would be highly risky. Only someone absolutely certain that the king had already decided to repudiate Anne could confidently say that to him. Yet as late as 18 April Henry was insisting that Chapuys should publicly recognise Anne Boleyn. If Jane Seymour had spoken the words at the end of March that Chapuys says she was being coached to speak, it is likely that the king would have given her short shrift. A few days after Anne’s execution Chapuys reported that Jane had suggested to the king that Princess Mary should be restored to her former position: Henry had called her a fool and said that she should look rather to the advancement of their children. How credible is that report? Chapuys could not have overheard any such remarks. Perhaps Jane told Carew what she had told the king—though the king’s riposte would hardly have comforted the conservatives. Perhaps it was the king who let the story slip with the aim of putting further pressure, through Chapuys, on Princess Mary.”

“Practical items owned by Jane Seymour included […] ‘a litle coffer of golde with iij King of Collen’ – the Three Kings of Cologne, better known as the Magi who presented gifts to Christ. The Magi had an important role to play in medieval pageantry, and they not only helped to explain ‘the roots of legitimate monarchy’ but also ‘reaffirmed the sense that monarchs’ high temporal status extended to some sort of precedence in spiritual matters’. This piece may therefore have been a further gift from Henry to Jane, and a reminder of his role as Head of the Church of England.“

“Yet this saccharine image of feminine perfection is as misleading as it is simplistic. Jane was neither silent nor a cipher. She was politically motivated enough to push those issues in which she had a real interest – religious change, the status of the King’s eldest daughter, Mary – and astute enough to know when to back down. Indeed, her very silence on certain political matters was a choice designed to ensure she could not be attacked for the outspokenness that had tainted Anne Boleyn. Nonetheless, Jane was also not as secure in her position as her posthumous reputation would have us believe. Despite her coronation being planned, it never took place, and the King’s eye wandered during her reign just as it had under Catherine and Anne. The fact that her fundamental duty – getting pregnant – was not fulfilled for eight months also made her vulnerable.”

“Her brother Edward Seymour, the future Protector Somerset in the reign of Jane’s son Edward, seems a somewhat unlikely ‘conservative’, even in the mid-1530s. If these conservatives were really dangling Jane in front of the king, could they be sure that she, and her family, would be their allies? Were there no young ladies from the families of those named by Chapuys? And how sound a scheme was it? How confident could Sir Nicholas Carew be first that Henry would be interested in Jane Seymour and secondly that if Jane became Henry’s mistress, that would lead on to political advantages for the conservatives, especially the downfall of Anne Boleyn?”

“Jane’s own career is difficult to pin down. Chronicler Charles Wriothesley later wrote that she had been in Catherine of Aragon’s service before Anne Boleyn’s, and she was definitely at court by 1534 when she is mentioned on a New Year gift list. It’s likely that her transfer to Queen Anne happened in 1533 when Catherine’s household was reduced, perhaps because the king had already noticed her from afar, or even because Queen Anne herself selected Jane. If the latter, Anne must soon have regretted this.“

“[…] in early spring 1537 Jane knew she was pregnant. Shortly afterwards, she travelled with a no doubt overjoyed Henry, making a pilgrimage at Canterbury. Here they gave thanks to God and laid their offerings at the shrine of the English saint Thomas Becket. It was the last time Henry would make such a gesture. As the dissolution of the monasteries continued apace, such devotions were ordered to be abandoned. Within a year Becket’s memory would be denounced, his shrine broken up and his bones scattered.”