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Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour

Queen Jane, Jane Seymour (c. 1508 or 1509 – October 24, 1537) was the third wife of King Henry VIII of England. She gave him his only male heir, later Edward VI, but she died shortly after his birth.

Biography

Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wiltshire and Margaret Wentworth. Her birth date is problematic; 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, Weir 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 made him eager to believe the false accusations of adultery against Anne. Henry married Jane on May 30, 1536 only eleven days after Anne's execution, and she quickly became pregnant. As Queen, Jane was strict and formal. She was close only to her female relations, Anne Stanhope (her brother's wife) and her sister, Elizabeth Seymour. The glittering social life and extravagance of the Queen's Household, which had been masterminded by Anne Boleyn, was replaced by a strict, almost oppressive, atmosphere in Jane's time. Desperate to appear like a queen, Jane became obsessed with tiny details, such as how many pearls were sewn into each lady's skirt, and she banned the elegant French fashions introduced by Anne Boleyn. Politically, Jane was a conservative, but her only intervention into the realm of government in 1536 ended when the king brutally told her to remember the last queen, who had lost her head because she meddled in politics. During her pregnancy, Jane developed a craving for quail, which the King ordered for her from Calais and Flanders. She grew incredibly fat and her dresses had to be unlaced as much as possible. Jane went into seclusion in September 1537, and gave birth to a male heir, the future King Edward VI of England on October 12, 1537. However, she contracted puerperal fever and died on October 24 1537 at Hampton Court Palace. She was buried at Windsor Castle. Upon her tombstone there was for a time the following inscription: :Here lieth a Phoenix, by whose death :Another Phoenix life gave breath: :It is to be lamented much :The world at once ne'er knew too such. Jane's two ambitious brothers, Thomas and Edward, used her memory to improve their own fortunes. After Henry's death, Thomas married Henry's widow, Catherine Parr, and also had designs on the future Elizabeth I. In the reign of the young King Edward VI, Edward Seymour set himself up as protector and effective ruler of the Kingdom. Both brothers eventually fell from power, and were disgraced and executed.

In film

Jane was first portrayed in film in the 1920 German film Anne Boleyn by actress Aud Edege Nissen. Thirteen years later, Wendy Barrie played a delightfully dim version of Jane opposite Charles Laughton's Henry VIII in Alexander Korda's highly-acclaimed masterpiece The Private Life of Henry VIII. It was not until 1969 that Jane Seymour appeared in the screen again, and it was this time only for a few minutes in Hal B. Wallis' Oscar-winning Anne of the Thousand Days. Jane was played by Lesley Paterson, opposite screen legend Richard Burton as Henry VIII. Towards the movie's end, Anne Boleyn (played by Genevieve Bujold) dismisses her as a woman with "the face of a simpering sheep and the manners--but not the morals." A year later, a 90 minute BBC television drama, "Jane Seymour" presented Jane as a sweet, painfully shy, introvert devoted to her husband, Henry VIII. Henry was played by Australian actor Keith Michell, and Jane by British actress, Anne Stallybrass. In 1973 this interpretation of Jane was repeated in Henry VIII and His Six Wives, in which Keith Michell reprised his role from the BBC drama but Jane Seymour was played by Jane Asher. Jane was played by Charlotte Roach in Dr. David Starkey's documentary series on Henry's queens in 2001 and by Naomi Benson in the BBC television drama "The Other Boleyn Girl," opposite Jared Harris as Henry VIII and Jodhi May as Anne Boleyn. In this drama, Jane's part was minimal. In October 2003, in the 2-part ITV drama, "Henry VIII" Ray Winstone starred as the king. Part 2 charted the king's life from his marriage to Jane Seymour (played by British beauty, Emilia Fox) until his funeral in 1547. Jane was presented as a woman of moral courage and integrity, although some historians took issue with the suggestion that Henry hit her.

Historiography

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 beauty and much-praised 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. Hester W. Chapman and Professor E.W. Ives resurrected Strickland's view of Jane Seymour, and believe she played a crucial and conscious role in the cold-blooded plot to bring Anne Boleyn to the scaffold. Dr. David Starkey and Karen Lindsey are both relatively dismissive of Jane's importance in comparison to Henry's other queens--particularly Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr. Joanna Denny, Marie Louise Bruce and Carolly Erickson also refrain from giving overly-sympathetic accounts of Jane's life and career.

External links


- [http://tudorhistory.org/seymour/ A quick over-view of Jane's life, with a good portrait gallery as well]
- [http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/seymour.html A more in-depth historical look at Jane's life and times]
- [http://www.publications.bham.ac.uk/birmingham_magazine/b_magazine1996-99/pg22_96.htm A 1996 interview with Anne Boleyn's most respected academic biographer, E.W. Ives] in which he offers his interpretations of Anne Boleyn but also speculates on the role Jane played in Anne's downfall Seymour, Jane Seymour, Jane Seymour, Jane ja:ジェーン・シーモア simple:Jane Seymour

1508

Events


- February - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor attacks Venice
- June 6 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three year truce and cede several territories to Venice
- December 10 - League of Cambrai formed as an alliance against Venice between Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon.
- December - Michelangelo Buonarroti begins work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
- Lebna Dengel succeeds his father Na'od as Emperor of Ethiopia. Due to his young age, his grandmother Eleni acts as regent.

Births


- June 9 - Primoz Trubar, Slovenian protestant reformer (died 1586)
- November 30 - Andrea Palladio, Italian architect (died 1580)
- December 9 - Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (died 1555)
- December 24 - Pietro Carnesecchi, Italian humanist (died 1567)
- Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, Spanish general and governor of the Spanish Netherlands (died 1583)
- Jean Daurat, French poet (died 1588)
- Marin Drzic, Croatian playwright (died 1567)

Deaths


- May 27 - Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (born 1452)
- July 31 - Na'od, Emperor of Ethiopia (killed in battle)
- October 13 - Edmund de Ros, 11th Baron de Ros, English politician (born 1446)
- December 10 - René II, Duke of Lorraine (born 1451)
- Isaac Abravanel, Portuguese statesman, philosopher, and theologian (born 1437)
- Conrad Celtes, German humanist Category:1508 ko:1508년

October 24

October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 68 days remaining.

Events


- 69 - Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to Vespasian, defeat the forces of Emperor Vitellius.
- 1260 - The spectacular Cathedral of Chartres is dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France; the cathedral is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- 1260 - Saif ad-Din Qutuz, Mamluk sultan of Egypt, is assassinated by Baibars, who seizes power for himself.
- 1360 - The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War.
- 1648 - The Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years' War.
- 1795 - Partitions of Poland: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is completely divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia
- 1812 - Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Maloyaroslavets takes place near Moscow.
- 1861 - The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed, spelling the end for the 18-month-old Pony Express.
- 1903 - General Order (GO) 167 authorized the formation of the "Canadian Signalling Corps (Militia)" (CSC) - the first independently organized Signal Corps in the British Empire.
- 1917 - Battle of Caporetto starts on the Austro-Italian front of World War I
- 1929 - "Black Thursday" stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange.
- 1930 - A bloodless coup d'état in Brazil ousts Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last President of the First Republic. Getúlio Dornelles Vargas is then installed as "provisional president."
- 1935 - Italy invades Ethiopia
- 1944 - World War II: The Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku is sunk.
- 1945 - Founding of the United Nations
- 1947 - Walt Disney testifies to the House Unamerican Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.
- 1954 - Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam
- 1955 - The body of Manolo Just, a probable bisexual, is found in the Mexico apartment of Mary Rogers, daughter of Will Rogers. Homicide is suspected, but never proven.
- 1956 - Soviet Union invades Hungary
- 1957 - the USAF starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.
- 1960 - Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing 165. Among the dead is Field Marshall Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash.
- 1964 - Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes the Republic of Zambia (Southern Rhodesia remained a colony)
- 1970 - Salvador Allende elected President of Chile
- 1973 - Yom Kippur War ends
- 1980 - Government of Poland legalizes Solidarity trade union
- 1989 - Televangelist Jim Bakker is sentenced to 45 years in prison and a 500,000 USD fine for defrauding investors of 3.7 million USD.
- 1992 - The Toronto Blue Jays become the first non-US team to win the World Series. This is also known as the first real "World" Series.
- 1998 - Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission
- 1998 - Tropical Storm Mitch reaches hurricane strength.
- 2002 - Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, DC.
- 2003 - Concorde makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of airliner supersonic transport to a close, at least for the time being.
- 2004 - A plane carrying ten members of the NASCAR Hendrick Motorsports team crashes en route to the race held at Martinsville Speedway. There were no survivors.
- 2005 - Cream begins a series of three shows at Madison Square Garden. These shows are similar to the reunion shows held in May at the Royal Albert Hall.
- 2005 - Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in South Florida.

Births


- 51 - Domitian, Roman Emperor (d. 96)
- 1402 - David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, heir to the throne of Scotland (b. 1378)
- 1632 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch microbiologist (d. 1723)
- 1675 - Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, English soldier and politician (d. 1749)
- 1710 - Alban Butler, English Catholic priest and writer (d. 1773)
- 1788 - Sarah Hale, American poet (d. 1879)
- 1804 - Wilhelm Eduard Weber, German physicist (d. 1891)
- 1811 - Ferdinand Hiller, German composer (d. 1885)
- 1855 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States (d. 1912)
- 1868 - Alexandra David-Néel, French explorer and writer (d. 1969)
- 1891 - Rafael Molina-Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic
- 1901 - Gilda Gray, Polish-born actress and dancer (d. 1959)
- 1903 - Melvin Purvis, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 1960)
- 1904 - Moss Hart, American dramatist (d. 1961)
- 1909 - Bill Carr, American athlete (d. 1966)
- 1915 - Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d. 1984)
- 1915 - Bob Kane, cartoonist (d. 1998)
- 1915 - Roger Milliken, textile heir
- 1923 - Denise Levertov, English-born poet (d 1997)
- 1925 - Luciano Berio, Italian composer (d. 2003)
- 1926 - Y. A. Tittle, American football player
- 1927 - Jean-Claude Pascal, French singer (d.1992)
- 1929 - George Crumb, American composer
- 1929 - Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer
- 1930 - The Big Bopper, American singer (d. 1959)
- 1930 - Johan Galtung, Norwegian scientist
- 1930 - Sultan Ahmad Shah, King of Malaysia
- 1931 - Sofia Gubaidulina, Russian composer
- 1932 - Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1932 - Robert Mundell, Canadian economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1936 - Bill Wyman, English musician (The Rolling Stones)
- 1939 - F. Murray Abraham, American actor
- 1945 - Anthony Christian, English Artist
- 1946 - Jerry Edmonton, Canadian drummer (Steppenwolf)
- 1947 - Kevin Kline, American actor
- 1948 - Kweisi Mfume, American civil rights activist, U.S. Congressman from Maryland
- 1954 - Mike Rounds, Governor of South Dakota
- 1957 - Ron Gardenhire, baseball manager
- 1960 - Ian Baker-Finch, Australian golf player
- 1960 - Jaime Garzón, Colombian journalist and comedian (d. 1999)
- 1961 - Mary Bono, U.S. Congresswoman from California
- 1962 - B.D. Wong, American actor
- 1966 - Roman Abramovich, Russian oil magnate
- 1971 - Dervla Kirwan, Irish actress
- 1972 - Scott Peterson, American murderer
- 1972 - Pat Williams, American football player
- 1973 - Levi Leipheimer, American professional cyclist
- 1974 - Caprice Bourret, American model and actress
- 1975 - Juan Pablo Ángel, Columbian footballer
- 1979 - Ben Gillies, Australian musician (Silverchair)
- 1980 - James Killian, American football player
- 1980 - Monica, American singer
- 1981 - Tila Nguyen, American model
- 1985 - Wayne Rooney, English footballer
- 1991 - Edmund Townend, Author of Scorpius Diamond

Deaths


- 996 - King Hugh Capet of France (b. 938)
- 1260 - Saif ad-Din Qutuz, Mamluk sultan of Egypt
- 1375 - King Valdemar IV of Denmark
- 1537 - Jane Seymour, queen of Henry VIII of England
- 1572 - Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, English politician
- 1601 - Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (b. 1546)
- 1655 - Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (b. 1592)
- 1669 - William Prynne, English Puritan leader (b. 1600)
- 1672 - John Webb, English architect (b. 1611)
- 1708 - Kowa Seki, Japanese mathematician
- 1725 - Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (b. 1660)
- 1799 - Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Austrian composer (b. 1739)
- 1821 - Elias Boudinot, American President of the Continental Congress (b. 1740)
- 1852 - Daniel Webster, American lawyer and politician (b. 1782)
- 1898 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter (b. 1824)
- 1912 - Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (b. 1842)
- 1915 - Désiré Charnay, French archaeologist (b. 1828)
- 1938 - Ernst Barlach, German sculptor
- 1944 - Louis Renault, French automobile manufacturer (b. 1877)
- 1945 - Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian traitor (executed) (b. 1887)
- 1948 - Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (b. 1870)
- 1957 - Christian Dior, French fashion designer (b. 1905)
- 1971 - Carl Ruggles, American composer (b. 1876)
- 1972 - Jackie Robinson, baseball player (b. 1919)
- 1972 - Claire Windsor, American actress (b. 1897)
- 1974 - David Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1908)
- 1979 - Park Chung Hee, South-Korean president (b. 1917).
- 1991 - Gene Roddenberry, American television producer (b. 1921)
- 1997 - Don Messick, voice actor (b. 1926)
- 2001 - Wolf Rüdiger Hess, German neo-Nazi (b. 1937)
- 2002 - Winton M. Blount, United States Postmaster General (b. 1921)
- 2002 - Adolph Green, American lyricist and playwright (b. 1914)
- 2002 - Harry Hay, American activist (b. 1912)
- 2004 - Randy Dorton, NASCAR crew member (b. 1954)
- 2004 - Ricky Hendrick, NASCAR team owner (b. 1980)
- 2004 - James Cardinal Hickey, American Catholic archbishop (b. 1920)
- 2005 - José Azcona del Hoyo, President of Honduras (b. 1926)
- 2005 - Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (b. 1913)

Holidays and observances


- R.C. Saints - optional memorial of Antonio Maria Claret
- Also see October 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- New Zealand -Labour Day (2005, 4th Monday in October).
- Zambia - Independence Day (1964)
- United Nations Day (charter 1945)
- Discordianism - Maladay

References


- In The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien, the date is mentioned to Frodo Baggins by Gandalf upon his waking in Rivendell.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/24 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://pddod.byethost15.com/ a site made by a kid born on this day... 1988] ---- October 23 - October 25 - November 24 - September 24 - more historical anniversaries ko:10월 24일 ms:24 Oktober ja:10月24日 simple:October 24 th:24 ตุลาคม

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. He was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding his father, Henry VII. He is famous for having been married six times and for wielding the most untrammelled power of any British monarch. Notable events during his reign included the break with Rome and the subsequent establishment of the independent Church of England, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the union of England and Wales. Several significant pieces of legislation were enacted during Henry VIII's reign. They included the several Acts which severed the English Church from the Roman Catholic Church and established Henry as the supreme head of the Church in England, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 (which united England and Wales into one nation), the Buggery Act 1533, the first anti-sodomy enactment in England; and the Witchcraft Act 1542, which punished 'invoking or conjuring an evil spirit' with death. Henry is known to have been an avid gambler and dice player. He excelled at sport, especially royal tennis, during his youth. He was also an accomplished musician, author, and poet; according to legend, he wrote the popular folk song Greensleeves, along with the lesser-known Past Time With Good Company. He was also involved in the construction and improvement of several buildings, including King's College Chapel, Christ Church, Oxford, Hampton Court Palace, Nonsuch Palace and Westminster Abbey.

Early life

Westminster Abbey Born at the Palace of Placentia at Greenwich, Henry was the third child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Only three of Henry's six siblings, Arthur (the Prince of Wales), Margaret and Mary, survived infancy. His Lancastrian father acquired the throne by right of conquest, his army defeating and killing the last Plantagenet king Richard III, but further solidified his hold by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of the Yorkist king Edward IV. In 1493, the young Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. In 1494, he was created Duke of York. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, though still a child. In 1501 he attended the wedding of his elder brother Arthur and Catherine of Aragon, who were at the time only about fifteen and sixteen years old, respectively. The two were sent to spend time in Wales, as was customary for the heir-apparent and his wife, but Arthur caught an infection and died. Consequently, at the age of eleven, Henry, Duke of York, found himself heir-apparent to the Throne. Soon thereafter, he was created Prince of Wales. Henry VII was still eager to maintain the marital alliance between England and Spain through a marriage between Henry, Prince of Wales, and Catherine. Since the Prince of Wales sought to marry his brother's widow, he first had to obtain a dispensation from the Pope from the impediment of affinity. Catherine maintained that her first marriage was never consummated, if she were correct, no papal dispensation would have been necessary, but merely a dissolution of ratified marriage. Nonetheless, both the English and Spanish parties agreed on the necessity of a papal dispensation for the removal of all doubts regarding the legitimacy of the marriage. Due to the impatience of Catherine's mother, Queen Isabella, the Pope hastily granted his dispensation in a Papal Bull. Thus, fourteen months after her husband's death, Catherine found herself engaged to his brother, the Prince of Wales. By 1505, however, Henry VII lost interest in an alliance with Spain, and the young Prince of Wales was forced to declare that his betrothal had been arranged without his assent.

Early reign

1505 Henry ascended the throne in 1509 upon his father's death. Catherine's father, the Aragonese King Ferdinand II, sought to control England through his daughter, and consequently insisted on her marriage to the new English King. Henry wed Catherine of Aragon about nine weeks after his accession on June 11 1509 at Greenwich, despite the concerns of Pope Julius II and William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, regarding the marriage's validity. They were both crowned at Westminster Abbey on 24 June 1509. Queen Catherine's first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in 1510. She gave birth to a son, Henry, on 1 January 1511, but he only lived until February 22. For two years after Henry's accession, Richard Fox, the Bishop of Winchester and Lord Privy Seal, and William Warham controlled matters of state. From 1511 onwards, however, power was held by the ecclesiastic Thomas Wolsey. In 1511, Henry joined the Holy League, a body of European rulers opposed to the French King Louis XII. The League also included such European rulers as Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Ferdinand II, with whom Henry also signed the Treaty of Westminster. Henry personally joined the English Army as they crossed the English Channel into France, and took part in sieges and battles. In 1514, however, Ferdinand left the alliance, and the other parties made peace with the French. Irritation towards Spain led to discussion of a divorce with Queen Catherine. However, upon the accession of the French King Francis I in 1515, England and France grew antagonistic, and Henry became reconciled with Ferdinand. In 1516, Queen Catherine gave birth to a girl, Mary, encouraging Henry in the belief that he could still have a male heir despite his wife's previous failed pregnancies (one stillbirth, one miscarriage and two short-lived infants). Ferdinand died in 1516, to be succeeded by his grandson (Queen Catherine's nephew) Charles V. By October 1518, Wolsey had engineered the Papacy-led Treaty of London to resemble an English triumph of foreign diplomacy, placing England at the centre of a new European alliance with the ostensible aim of repelling Moorish invasions through Spain, which was the Pope's original aim. In 1519, when Maximilian also died, Wolsey, who was by that time a Cardinal, secretly proposed Henry as a candidate for the post of Holy Roman Emperor, though supporting the French King Francis in public. In the end, however, the prince-electors settled on Charles. The subsequent rivalry between Francis and Charles allowed Henry to act as a mediator between them. Henry came to hold the balance of power in Europe. Both Francis and Charles sought Henry's favour, the former in a dazzling and spectacular manner at the Field of Cloth of Gold, and the latter more solemnly at Kent. After 1521, however, England's influence in Europe began to wane. Henry entered into an alliance with Charles V, and Francis I was quickly defeated. Charles' reliance on Henry subsided, as did England's power in Europe. Henry's interest in European affairs extended to the attack on Luther's German revolution. In 1521, he dedicated his Defence of the Seven Sacraments, which earned him the title of "Defender of the Faith" (Defensor Fidei. Prior to this, his title had been "inclitissmus", meaning "most illustrious". The later title was maintained even after his break with Rome, and is still used by the British monarch today.

The King's Great Matter

Henry VIII's accession was the first peaceful one England had witnessed in many years; however, the new Tudor dynasty's legitimacy could yet be tested. The English people seemed distrustful of female rulers, and Henry felt that only a male heir could secure the throne. Although Queen Catherine had been pregnant at least seven times (for the last time in 1518), only one child, the Princess Mary, had survived beyond infancy. Henry had previously been happy with mistresses, including Mary Boleyn and Elizabeth Blount, with whom he had had a bastard son, Henry Fitzroy. In 1526, when it became clear that Queen Catherine could have no further children, he began to pursue Mary Boleyn's sister, Anne. Although it was almost certainly Henry's desire for a male heir that made him determined to divorce Catherine, he was very infatuated with Anne, despite her child-bearing inexperience and famously plain looks. Henry's long and arduous attempt to end his marriage to Queen Catherine became known as "The King's Great Matter". Cardinal Wolsey and William Warham quietly began an inquiry into the validity of her marriage to Henry. Queen Catherine, however, testified that her marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales had never been consummated, and that there was therefore no impediment to her subsequent marriage to Henry. The inquiry could proceed no further, and was dropped. Without informing Cardinal Wolsey, Henry directly appealed to the Holy See. He sent his secretary William Knight to Rome to argue that Julius II's Bull was obtained by trickery, and consequently void. In addition, he requested Pope Clement VII to grant a dispensation allowing him to marry any woman, even in the first degree of affinity; such a dispensation was necessary because Henry had previously had intercourse with Anne Boleyn's sister Mary. Knight found that Pope Clement VII was practically the prisoner of the Emperor Charles V. He had difficulty gaining access to the Pope, and when he finally did, he could accomplish little. Clement VII did not agree to annul the marriage, but he did grant the desired dispensation, probably presuming that the dispensation would be of no effect as long as Henry remained married to Catherine. Being advised of the King's predicament, Cardinal Wolsey sent Stephen Gardiner and Edward Fox to Rome. Perhaps fearing Queen Catherine's nephew, Charles V, Pope Clement VII initially demurred. Fox was sent back with a commission authorising the commencement of proceedings, but the restrictions imposed made it practically meaningless. Gardiner strove for a "decretal commission", which decided the points of law beforehand, and left only questions of fact to be decided. Clement VII was persuaded to accept Gardiner's proposal, and permitted Cardinal Wolsey and Lorenzo Cardinal Campeggio to try the case jointly. His decretal commission was issued in secret; it was not to be shown to anybody, and was to always remain in Cardinal Campeggio's possession. Points of law were already settled in the commission; the Papal Bull authorising Henry's marriage to Catherine was to be declared void if the grounds alleged therein were false. For instance, the Bull would be void if it falsely asserted that the marriage was absolutely necessary to maintain the Anglo-Spanish alliance. Cardinal Campeggio arrived in England in 1528. Proceedings, however, were brought to a halt when the Spanish produced a second document allegedly granting the necessary dispensation. It was asserted that, a few months before he had granted papal dispensation in a public Bull, Pope Julius II had secretly granted the same in a private Brief sent to Spain. The decretal commission, however, only made mention of the Bull; it did not authorise Cardinal Campeggio and Cardinal Wolsey to determine the validity of the Brief. For eight months, the parties wrangled over the authenticity of the Brief. Meanwhile, Queen Catherine appealed to her nephew, Charles V, who pressured the Pope into recalling Cardinal Campeggio to Rome in 1529. Angered with Cardinal Wolsey for the delay, Henry stripped him of his wealth and power. He was charged with præmunire — undermining the King's authority by agreeing to represent the Pope — but died on his way to trial. With Cardinal Wolsey fell other powerful ecclesiastics in England; laymen were appointed to offices such as those of Lord Chancellor and Lord Privy Seal, which were formerly confined to clergymen. Power then passed to Sir Thomas More (the new Lord Chancellor), Thomas Cranmer (the Archbishop of Canterbury), and Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (the Chancellor of the Exchequer). On 25 January 1533, Cranmer participated in the wedding of Henry and Anne Boleyn. In May, Cranmer pronounced Henry's marriage to Catherine void, and shortly thereafter declared the marriage to Anne valid. The Princess Mary was deemed illegitimate, and was replaced as heiress-presumptive by Queen Anne's new daughter, the Princess Elizabeth. Catherine lost the title "Queen", and became the Dowager Princess of Wales; Mary was no longer a "Princess", but a mere "Lady". The Dowager Princess of Wales would die of cancer in 1536. Sir Thomas More, who had left office in 1532, accepted that Parliament could make Anne Queen, but refused to acknowledge its religious authority. Instead, he held that the Pope remained the head of the Church. As a result, he was charged with high treason, and beheaded in 1535. Judging him to be a martyr, the Catholic Church later made him a saint.

Religious upheaval

The Pope responded to these events by excommunicating Henry in July 1533. Considerable religious upheaval followed. Urged by Thomas Cromwell, Parliament passed several Acts that sealed the breach with Rome in the spring of 1534. The Statute in Restraint of Appeals prohibited appeals from English ecclesiastical courts to the Pope. It also prevented the Church from making any regulations without the King's consent. The Ecclesiastical Appointments Act 1534 required the clergy to elect Bishops nominated by the Sovereign. The Act of Supremacy 1534 declared that the King was "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England"; the Treasons Act 1534 made it high treason, punishable by death, to refuse to acknowledge the King as such. The Pope was denied sources of revenue such as Peter's Pence. Rejecting the decisions of the Pope, Parliament validated the marriage between Henry and Anne with the Act of Succession 1534. Catherine's daughter, the Lady Mary, was declared illegitimate, and Anne's issue were declared next in the line of succession. All adults were required to acknowledge the Act's provisions; those who refused to do so were liable to imprisonment for life. The publisher or printer of any literature alleging that Henry's marriage to Anne was invalid was automatically guilty of high treason, and could be punished by death. Opposition to Henry's religious policies was quickly suppressed. Several dissenting monks were tortured and executed. Cromwell, for whom was created the post of "Vicegerent in Spirituals", was authorised to visit monasteries, ostensibly to ensure that they followed royal instructions, but in reality to assess their wealth. In 1536, an Act of Parliament allowed Henry to seize the possessions of the lesser monasteries (those with annual incomes of £200 or less). In 1536, Queen Anne began to lose Henry's favour. After the Princess Elizabeth's birth, Queen Anne had two pregnancies that ended in either miscarriage or stillbirth. Henry VIII, meanwhile, had begun to turn his attentions to another lady of his court, Jane Seymour. Perhaps encouraged by Thomas Cromwell, Henry had Anne arrested on charges of using witchcraft to trap Henry into marrying her, of having adulterous relationships with five other men, of incest with her brother George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, of injuring the King and of conspiring to kill him, which amounted to treason; the charges were most likely fabricated. The court trying the case was presided over by Anne's own uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. In May 1536, the Court condemned Anne and her brother to death, either by burning at the stake or by decapitation, whichever the King pleased. The other four men Queen Anne had allegedly been involved with were to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Lord Rochford was beheaded soon after the trial ended; the four others implicated had their sentences commuted from hanging, drawing and quartering to decapitation. Anne was also beheaded soon thereafter.

Birth of a Prince

Only days after Anne's execution in 1536, Henry married Jane Seymour. The Act of Succession 1536 declared Henry's children by Queen Jane to be next in the line of succession, and declared both the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth illegitimate, thus excluding them. The King was granted the power to further determine the line of succession in his will. Jane gave birth to a son, the Prince Edward, in 1537, and died two weeks thereafter. After Jane's death, the entire court mourned with Henry for some time. Henry also considered her to be his only "true" wife, being the only one who had given him the male heir he so desperately sought.

Major Acts

At about the same time as his marriage to Jane Seymour, Henry granted his assent to the Laws in Wales Act 1535, which legally annexed Wales, uniting England and Wales into one nation. The Act provided for the sole use of English in official proceedings in Wales, inconveniencing the numerous speakers of the Welsh language. Henry continued with his persecution of his religious opponents. In 1536, an uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace broke out in Northern England. To appease the rebellious Roman Catholics, Henry agreed to allow Parliament to address their concerns. Furthermore, he agreed to grant a general pardon to all those involved. He kept neither promise, and a second uprising occurred in 1537. As a result, the leaders of the rebellion were convicted of treason and executed. In 1538, Henry sanctioned the destruction of shrines to Roman Catholic Saints. In 1539, England's remaining monasteries were all dissolved, and their property transferred to the Crown. As a reward for his role, Thomas Cromwell was created Earl of Essex. Abbots and priors lost their seats in the House of Lords; only archbishops and bishops came to comprise the ecclesiastical element of the body. The Lords Spiritual, as members of the clergy with seats in the House of Lords were known, were for the first time outnumbered by the Lords Temporal.

Later years

Lords Temporal Henry's only surviving son, the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall, was not a healthy child. Therefore, Henry desired to marry once again to ensure that a male could succeed him. Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex suggested Anne, the sister of the Protestant Duke of Cleves, who was seen as an important ally in case of a Roman Catholic attack on England. Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne for the King. After regarding Holbein's flattering portrayal, and urged by the complimentary description of Anne given by his courtiers, Henry agreed to wed Anne. On Anne's arrival in England, Henry is said to have found her utterly unattractive, privately calling her a "Flanders Mare". She was painted totally without any signs of her pockmarked face. Nevertheless, he married her on 6 January 1540. Soon thereafter, however, Henry desired to end the marriage, not only because of his personal feelings but also because of political considerations. The Duke of Cleves had become engaged in a dispute with the Holy Roman Emperor, with whom Henry had no desire to quarrel. Queen Anne was intelligent enough not to impede Henry's quest for an annulment. She testified that her marriage was never consummated. Henry was said to have came into the room each night and merely kissed his new bride on the forehead before sleeping. The marriage was subsequently annulled on the grounds that Anne had previously been contracted to marry another European nobleman. She received the title of "The King's Sister", and was granted Hever Castle, the former residence of Anne Boleyn's family. The Earl of Essex, meanwhile, fell out of favour for his role in arranging the marriage, and was subsequently attainted and beheaded. The office of Vicegerent in Spirituals, which had been specifically created for him, was not filled, and still remains vacant. On 28 July 1540 (the same day Lord Essex was executed) Henry married the young Catherine Howard, Anne Boleyn's first cousin. Soon after her marriage, however, Queen Catherine may have had an affair with the courtier, Thomas Culpeper. She also employed Francis Dereham, who was previously informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary. Thomas Cranmer, who was opposed to the powerful Catholic Howard family, brought evidence of Queen Catherine's activities to the King's notice. Though Henry originally refused to believe the allegations, he allowed Cranmer to conduct an investigation, which resulted in Queen Catherine's implication. When questioned, the Queen could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would have made her subsequent marriage to Henry invalid, but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter into an adulterous relationship. Dereham, meanwhile, exposed Queen Catherine's relationship with Thomas Culpeper. In December 1541, Culpeper and Dereham were executed. Catherine was condemned not by a trial, but by an Act of Attainder passed by Parliament. The Act recited the evidence against the Queen, and Henry would have been obliged to listen to the entire text before granting the Royal Assent. Because "the repetition of so grievous a Story and the recital of so infamous a crime" in the King's presence "might reopen a Wound already closing in the Royal Bosom", a special clause permitting Commissioners to grant the Royal Assent on the King's behalf was inserted in the Act. This method of granting the Royal Assent had never been used before, but, in later reigns, it came to replace the traditional personal appearance of the Sovereign in Parliament. Catherine's marriage was annulled shortly before her execution. As was the case with Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard could not have technically been guilty of adultery, as the marriage was officially null and void from the beginning. Again, this point was ignored, and Catherine was executed on 13 February 1542. She was only about eighteen years old at the time. Henry married his last wife, the wealthy widow Catherine Parr, in 1543. She argued with Henry over religion; she was a Protestant, but Henry remained a Catholic. This behaviour almost led to her undoing, but she saved herself by a show of submissiveness. She helped reconcile Henry with his first two daughters, the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth. In 1544, an Act of Parliament put them back in the line of succession after the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall, though they were still deemed illegitimate. The same Act allowed Henry to determine further succession to the throne in his will. A mnemonic for the fates of Henry's wives is "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived". An alternative version is "King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded: One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded". The doggerel, however, may be misleading. Firstly, Henry was never divorced from any of his wives; rather, his marriages to them were annulled. Secondly, four marriages — not two — ended in annulments. The marriages to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were annulled shortly before their executions. Ironically the annulments undermined the process under which Boleyn and Howard were executed: annulments operate on the basis that there had never been a marriage. If they had never been married to him, they could not have committed adultery, one of the central charges brought against them. However this technicality did not stop their execution.

Death and succession

doggerel Later in life, Henry was grossly overweight, with a waist measurement of 54 inches (137 cm), and possibly suffered from gout. The well known theory that he suffered from syphilis was first promoted approximately 100 years after his death. Henry's increased size dates from a jousting accident in 1536. He suffered a thigh wound which not only prevented him from taking exercise, but also gradually became ulcerated and may have indirectly led to his death, which occurred on 28 January 1547 at the Palace of Whitehall. He died on what would have been his father's 90th birthday. Henry VIII was buried in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, next to his wife Jane Seymour. Within a little more than a decade after his death, all three of his children sat on the English throne. Under the Act of Succession 1544, Henry's only surviving son, Edward, inherited the Crown, becoming Edward VI. Edward was the first Protestant monarch to rule England. Since Edward was only nine years old at the time, he could not exercise actual power. Henry's will designated sixteen executors to serve on a council of regency until Edward reached the age of eighteen. The executors chose Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, Jane Seymour's elder brother, to be Lord Protector of the Realm. They required, however, that Lord Hertford "not do any act but with the advice and consent of the rest of the co-executors". Nonetheless, Lord Hertford seized power to become the sole Regent. He was overthrown by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and executed for treason. The Duke of Northumberland, however, did not make himself Lord Protector; instead, he urged Edward to declare his majority before becoming eighteen years old, thereby transgressing Henry VIII's will. Under the Act of Succession 1544 and under Henry VIII's will, Edward was to be succeeded (in default of his issue) by Henry VIII's daughter by Catherine of Aragon, the Lady Mary. If the Lady Mary did not have children, she was to be succeeded by his daughter by Anne Boleyn, the Lady Elizabeth. Finally, if the Lady Elizabeth also did not have children, she was to be followed by the descendants of Henry VIII's deceased sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk. Edward VI and his advisors, however, had different designs. As he lay on his deathbed, Edward created a will that purported to contradict the provisions of Henry's will. The Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth were excluded from the line of succession as illegitimate. Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk (daughter of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk) was laid aside because Edward feared that her husband Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk might claim the Crown for himself. Edward finally settled on the Lady Jane Grey, the daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk and the daughter-in-law of the powerful Duke of Northumberland. Upon Edward's decease in 1553, the Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen. Under the law, however, she should not have succeeded; an Act of Parliament specifically permitted Henry to devise the Crown in his will, but no similar legislation had been passed for Edward. With this justification, Mary deposed and executed Jane, taking the Crown for herself. When Mary I died without issue in 1558, she was succeeded by her sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth I did not marry or name an heir, causing a succession crisis. To prevent the Scottish from becoming the dynastic family of Europe, Elizabeth I ordered the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots to try to prevent her from taking the throne. Under Henry VIII's will, Elizabeth was supposed to be succeeded by the heir of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk (the Lady Anne Stanley). Elizabeth was actually succeeded, however, by James VI, King of Scots. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was already a powerful ruler in Scotland, and was Elizabeth's closest living relative. He argued that his hereditary right to succeed was greater than the statutory right of Lady Anne. James was sufficiently powerful, and his opponents weak; thus, his succession faced little opposition. James VI became James I, the first Stuart King of England.

Legacy

In modern times, Henry VIII has become one of the most popular historical kings of the English monarchy. This is mainly based on the common perception of his larger than life character as an over-eating, womanising bon vivant, which in turn is based on somewhat exaggerated or apocryphal stories of his life. In 2002, Henry VIII placed 40th in a BBC-sponsored poll on the 100 Greatest Britons. Henry VIII was the subject of William Shakespeare's historical play, Henry VIII: All Is True. The play, however, has never been one of Shakespeare's more popular plays. Curiously, it was Henry VIII that was playing on June 29 1613 when the Globe Theatre burnt down. There have been many films about Henry and his court. Two that bear mention are The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), starring Charles Laughton, whose performance earned him an Academy Award, and The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1972), starring Keith Michell. Richard Burton and Genevieve Bujold were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress for their roles as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). Henry, played by Robert Shaw, also appears as one of the main characters in the multiple-Oscar-winning movie about Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons (1966), based upon Robert Bolt's play of the same name. Henry was almost certainly the inspiration for the title of the popular song "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" (1911), recorded by Harry Champion and later by Herman's Hermits; the actual song, however, is about a man named Henry whose wife has been married to seven different individuals, all named Henry. An episode of the 1960s American sitcom Bewitched had Samantha Stevens staving off a lustful Henry's intentions to make her his next wife. Sid James played Henry in the movie Carry On Henry (1970), which portrayed the relationship between the King and two fictitious wives ("Marie of Normandy" and "Bettina", a mistress). In 1973, Rick Wakeman released a rock concept album on The Six Wives of Henry VIII, his first solo album after splitting from Yes. Henry's life was the subject of a famous but inaccurate Simpsons television episode in 2004, in which Homer Simpson played the King.

Style and arms

Henry VIII was the first English monarch to regularly use the style "Majesty", though the alternatives "Highness" and "Grace" were also used from time to time. Several changes were made to the royal style during his reign. Henry originally used the style "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Lord of Ireland". In 1521, pursuant to a grant from Pope Leo X rewarding a book by Henry attacking Martin Luther and defending Catholicism, the royal style became "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith and Lord of Ireland". After the breach with Rome, Pope Paul III rescinded the grant of the title "Defender of the Faith", but an Act of Parliament declared that it remained valid. In 1535, Henry added the "supremacy phrase" to the royal style, which became "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, Lord of Ireland and of the Church of England in Earth Supreme Head". In 1536, the phrase "of the Church of England" changed to "of the Church of England and also of Ireland". In 1542, Henry changed the title "Lord of Ireland" to "King of Ireland" after being advised that many Irish people regarded the Pope as the true head of their country, with the Lord acting as a mere representative. The style "Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head" remained in use until the end of Henry's reign. Henry's motto was Coure Loyall (true heart) and he had this embroidered on his clothes in the form of a heart symbol and with the word 'loyall'. His emblem was the Tudor rose and the Beaufort portcullis. Henry VIII's arms were the same as those used by his predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England).

Issue



- Note: Of Henry VIII's reputedly illegitimate children, only the Duke of Richmond and Somerset was formally acknowledged by the King. The paternity of his other alleged illegitimate children is not fully established. There may also have been other illegitimate children born to short-term mistresses who we no longer know of.

See also


- List of British monarchs
- Church of England
- Annulment
- Divorce
- Protestant Reformation
- English Kings of France
- Erasmus' Correspondents
- I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am

References


- Bowle, John. (1964). Henry VIII: A Study of Power in Action Boston: Little, Brown.
- [http://tudorhistory.org/wives/ Eakins, L. E. (2004). "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".]
- "Henry VIII". (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
- [http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudor.htm Jokinen, A. (2004). "Henry VIII (1491–1547)".]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/sixwives/ Public Broadcasting Service. (2003). "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07222a.htm Thurston, H. (1910). "Henry VIII". The Catholic Encyclopedia. (Vol. VII). New York: Robert Appleton Company.]
- [http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/vallieres.htm Vallieres, S. (1999). "Tudor Succession Problems"]
- Weir, Alison; The Six Wives of Henry VIII (Bodley Head, London, 1991)
- Bryant, M. (2001). Private Lives London: Cassell

External links


- [http://www.badley.info/history/Henry-VIII-England.biog.html Henry VIII World History Database]
- [http://www.tudor-portraits.com Buehler, Edward. (2004). "Tudor and Elizabethan Portraits".]
- [http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/aboutHenryVIII.htm Castelli, Jorge H. (2004). "Henry VIII".]
- [http://www.archsoc.com/games/Henry.html Stevens, Garry. (2003). "Henry VIII: Intrigue in the Tudor Court".]
- [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~tperrott/sirjohn.htm Perrott, Terry. (2004). "Sir John Perrott".] Category:1491 births Category:1547 deaths Category:Londoners Category:House of Tudor Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones Category:English monarchs Category:Earls Marshal Category:Knights of the Garter Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece Category:History of Wales Category:Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports Category:Dukes in the Peerage of England ko:잉글랜드의 헨리 8세 ja:ヘンリー8世 (イングランド王) simple:Henry VIII of England

John Seymour (Tudor)

Sir John Seymour (c. 1474 - December 21, 1536). Member of the English gentry, servant to Henry VIII and best known for being the father of the king's third wife, Jane Seymour.

Family

He was born to John Seymour (c. 1450 - 1491) and Elizabeth Darrell. His paternal grandparents were John Seymour, Sheriff of Wiltshire (born c. 1425) and Elizabeth Croker (born c. 1436). His maternal grandparents were Sir George Darrell (born c. 1451) and Margaret Stourton (born 1433), daughter of Baron Stourton and Margery Wadham. John was married to the famous beauty, Margaret Wentworth, and by her had nine children:
- John Seymour (d. July 15, 1510).
- Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c. 1506 - 1552).
- Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley (c. 1508 - 1549).
- Jane Seymour (c. 1509 - 1537).
- Elizabeth Seymour (c. 1513 - 1563).
- Sir Henry Seymour ( c. 1514 - after 1568).
- Dorothy Seymour.
- Anthony Seymour.
- Margery Seymour.

Family activities and reputation

They lived in Wulfhall, outside Savernake Forest, in Wiltshire. Four of the Seymour children achieved prominence at the royal court - Edward, Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth. The Seymour family was not one of the greatest in the land, and their pedigree was significantly lower than the Howards, the Boleyns, the de la Poles or the Brandons. Edward Seymour was briefly married to Catharine Fillol, but John embarked on a love affair with his new daughter-in-law. When it was discovered, the marriage was annulled, their children declared bastards (since their legal grandfather might be their biological father!) and Catharine was imprisoned in a local convent. The scandal damaged the Seymour family's reputation for many years afterward. A proposed marriage between Jane Seymour and William Dormer was rejected by the Dormers partially due to the scandal and because of the family's less-than-perfect pedigree. Jane Seymour, the eldest daughter, was a maid in the household of Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and then later to his second queen, the brilliant and imperious Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII stayed at Wulfhall with Queen Anne in Summer of 1535 for a few days. Later, he embarked upon an affair with Jane as his marriage to Anne fell apart in early 1536. The entire Seymour family were party to the plot which brought Anne to the scaffold, and left her daughter Elizabeth disinherited. After Jane became queen on 30 May 1536, her family scaled the social ranks. Her brother, Edward Seymour, was later made an earl and briefly ruled England for his nephew Edward VI of England after 1547. John's other son, Thomas Seymour was made a baron and Lord High Admiral, he eloped with Henry VIII's widow Catherine Parr in 1547. Both the Seymour boys were beheaded for treason, only a few years apart from one another. John's other daughter, Elizabeth Seymour, was married to Gregory Cromwell, son of Henry's new chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. John died on December 21, 1536, but his royal daughter did not attend the funeral, nor did she (or any of the rest of his children) seem to have been greatly affected by his death.

External link


- [http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/SEYMOUR.htm#John%20SEYMOUR%20(Sir)1 A pedigree of the Seymour family] Seymour, John Seymour, John Seymour, John

Wiltshire

Wiltshire (abbreviated Wilts) is a large southern English county. Considered as a ceremonial county, it is landlocked and borders the counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and contains the unitary authority of Swindon. The county town is Trowbridge, situated in the west of the county at . The county covers 84,612,062 acres (3476 km²) The county is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys. Salisbury Plain is famous as the location of Stonehenge and other ancient landmarks. The city of Salisbury is notable for its cathedral. The county, formerly Wiltonshire or Wiltunscir (9th century), is named after the former county town of Wilton (itself named for the river Wylye, one of eight rivers that drain the county).

History

Wiltshire is particularly well-known for its pre-Roman archaeology. The mesolithic, neolithic and bronze age Celtic tribes that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous neolithic sites in the UK. In the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. In 878 the Danes invaded the county, and, following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country fell into the hands of the crown and the church. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian.

Geology, landscape and ecology

Wiltshire is a mostly rural landscape and about two thirds of the county lies on chalk, giving it a high chalk downland landscape. This chalk is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation that underlies large areas of Southern England from the Dorset Downs in the west to Dover in the east. The largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, a vast expanse of semi-wilderness used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point of the county is Mill Hill on Salisbury Plain, at 295m/968ft. As well as Salisbury Plain the chalk runs north east into Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and south-west into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much stone age and bronze age archaeology. The Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), a 1,730 sq km (668 square mile) conservation area. In the north west of the county, on the border with Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset, the underlying rock is the resistant oolite limestone of the Cotswolds. Part of the Cotswolds AONB is also in Wiltshire. Between the areas of chalk and limestone downland are clay valleys and vales. The largest of these vales is the Avon Vale. The Avon cuts diagonally through the north of the county, flowing through Bradford-upon-Avon and into Bath and Bristol. The Vale of Pewsey has been cut through the chalk into Greensand and Oxford Clay in the centre of the county. In the south west of the county is the Vale of Wardour. The south east of the county lies on the sandy soils of the New Forest. Chalk is a porous rock so the chalk hills have little surface water. The main settlements in the county are therefore situated at wet points. Notably, Salisbury is situated between the chalk of Salisbury Plain and marshy flood plains.

Demographics

The county registered a population of 613,024 in the Census 2001. The population density is low at 178 people / km². In 1991 there were 230,109 dwellings in the county. In 1991 98.3% of the population was indigenous and 17.9% of the population were over 65. A local name for a Wiltshire native is moonraker. Population of Wiltshire:
- 1801: 185,107
- 1851: 254,221
- 1901: 271,394
- 1951: 386,692
- 2001: 613,024

Politics

As of 2005, 28 Conservatives, 16 Liberal Democrats, three Labour Party and two independent councillors sit on Wiltshire County Council. Conservatives hold most of the more rural areas while Labour have the large towns of Salisbury and Devizes. Westbury and Warminster elected independent councillors. At the parliamentary level Wiltshire is represented entirely by Conservative MPs, except for the built up area around Swindon which is represented by Labour. Since 1992 Devizes has been represented by the front bencher Michael Ancram.

Settlements

Notable towns and cities in Wiltshire are:
- Calne
- Chippenham
- Devizes
- Marlborough
- Salisbury
- Swindon
- Trowbridge
- Warminster
- Westbury A full list of settlements is at List of places in Wiltshire.

In Fiction

In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, the Malfoy family lives in a mansion in Wiltshire.

Places of interest

Notable places of interest in Wiltshire are:
- Avebury, neolithic stone circle
- Country park Barbury Castle
- Bentley Wood
- Historic house Bowood House
- Burlington, city-sized nuclear bunker with accomodiation for 4000 people
- Castle Combe
- Accessible open space Castle Hill, Mere
- Chisbury Chapel
- Country park Coate Water, East Swindon
- Crofton Pumping Station
- National Trust Great Chalfield Manor
- Historic house Iford Manor and gardens
- Lacock Abbey
- Country parkHistoric house Longleat Safari Park
- Country parkHistoric house Lydiard Park and House, West Swindon.
- Old Sarum, the former cathedral
- Old Wardour Castle
- Salisbury Cathedral
- English Heritage Silbury Hill
- English Heritage Stonehenge
- National Trust Stourhead
- Accessible open space West Kennet Long Barrow
- National Trust Westwood Manor
- Accessible open space Woodhenge
- Historic house Wilton House
- Wilton Windmill
- Accessible open space National Trust Part of Win Green (shared with Dorset) Notable areas of countryside in Wiltshire are:
- Accessible open space Cranborne Chase
- Accessible open space Marlborough Downs
- Accessible open space Salisbury Plain
- Accessible open space Vale of Pewsey Notable routes through Wiltshire are:
- A303 trunk road
- Fosse Way old Roman road
- The Great Western Railway
- Kennet and Avon Canal
- Heritage Railway Swindon and Cricklade Railway
- The Thames Path, a long distance footpath
- Wiltshire Cycleway

See also


- List of photographs of Wiltshire

External links


- [http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/ Thisiswiltshire] Wiltshire news, sport & information
- [http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk Wiltshire County Council]
- [http://www.wiltshire.police.uk Wiltshire Constabulary Online]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/ BBC Wiltshire]
- [http://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/ Wiltshire Tourist Office]
- [http://www.iwiltshire.co.uk/ iWiltshire Directory]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04/nhwil10.txt John Aubrey's The Natural History of Wiltshire]
- [http://www.wiltshire-web.co.uk/history/horse.htm White horses of Wiltshire]

References


- Office for National Statistics, 1991. [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/SearchRes.asp?term=Wiltshire Census Data].
- [http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/macnn/mineralsplanfig1.pdf Geology map of Wiltshire] (PDF)
ja:ウィルトシャー

Alison Weir

Alison Weir (born 1951) is a popular British writer of history books for the general public, mostly in the form of biographies about British kings and queens. Before becoming an author, Weir worked as a teacher of children with special needs. She received her formal training in history at teacher training college. Alison Weir the historian is not to be confused with Alison Weir the American political activist. Weir retains a wide following of loyal readers. Most of her books are best-sellers in the UK. She has recently completed her first novel Innocent Traitor, based on the life of Lady Jane Grey (1537 - 1554) and she plans to follow this novel with another that deals with the life of Henry VIII's fifth queen, Catherine Howard (?1525 - 1542).
Image:weir_book.JPG

Bibliography

Nonfiction


- Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (latest edition, 2002)
- The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1991)
- The Princes in the Tower (1992)
- The Wars of the Roses (1995)
- The Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII (1996, later reissued as The Children of Henry VIII)
- The Life of Elizabeth I (1998)
- Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (1999)
- Henry VIII: The King and His Court (2001)
- Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley (2003)
- Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England (2005)
- The Private Life of Charles II (2007)

Fiction


- Innocent Traitor (2006)

External links


- Random House UK minisite [http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/alisonweir/home.htm]
- Random House US minisite [http://www.randomhouse.com/features/weir] Weir, Alison Weir, Alison Weir, Alison

Lady-in-waiting

A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a noble court, attending to a queen, a princess or other noblewoman. A lady-in-waiting is often a noblewoman of lower rank (i.e., a lesser noble) than the one she attends to, and is not considered a servant or other commoner. Their duties varied from monarchy to monarchy. In Tudor England they were divided into four separate caste systems - great ladies, ladies of the privy chamber, maids of honour and chamberers. The ladies of the privy chamber were the ones who were closest to the queen, but most of the other women were the maids of honour. Lady Margaret Lee was a Lady of the Privy Chamber to Queen Anne Boleyn, just as Lady Elizabeth Seymour-C