“I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first” 

anneeboleyns:

my historical bby’s - tudor era | jane seymour

about: jane was born sometime between 1508-1510. she was king henry viii’s thrid wife (and also his fifth cousin lol). jane was very different from henry’s previous wives in several ways. first, she was not as well educated as either katherine or anne, although she could read and write. she was very different from anne especially, because she has always been seen as more modest and was more of an example of the stereotypical woman in the 1500s. this contrasted with anne, who is often seen as much more independent than jane. many contemporary sources say that jane was also very plain-looking, although at least one source says that she was “a woman of the utmost charm in both character and appearance.” (qutoe from polydore vergil)*. henry and jane were married on 30 may 1536, only 11 days after the death of henry’s previous wife, anne boleyn. unlike her predecessor, jane was never actually crowned queen because a plague broke out on the day of her coronation. jane was said to be very strict as queen. she also formed a very close relationship with mary. jane put a lot of effort into trying to get henry to put mary back in the line of succession, as well as letting her return to court. although she was not able to achieve all of this, she did help improve the relationship between father and daughter. there is no evidence that jane was very politically active, although this could have been because of the impact of henry’s previous marriage. jane became pregnant with her son, edward vi in early 1537. edward was born on 24 october 1537 and jane died shortly after giving birth to her son. it is now believed that she died from either an infection or puerperal fever.

why i like her: i feel like it’s an unpopular opinion to like both jane and anne, but i do (although my liking jane is more recent than my love for anne). i don’t know as much about jane but i think she’s interesting because she’s so different from anne. that’s why it annoys me when people compare them or say that you can only like one or the other because they’re so different it doesn’t make sense (and this actually has a point, i promise). so that’s what interests me most about jane because her and anne were like total opposites. i would love to know what her relationship with henry was like compared to anne’s. i don’t know maybe that’s weird. another thing is that i feel like with jane there’s all these stereotypes about her and i just want to know if they’re true. like if she were still alive would she really be like what people say she’s like? i mean because we can’t know exactly what her personality is like, even from contemporary sources because that’s still someones opinion and it might not even be accurate, y’know? and i mean these are generally thoughts i have about most of my historical obsessions, but there’s some people, like jane, that i feel like it would be more interesting to find out about just because of all the stereotypes surrounding her.

(i use wikipedia for things like facts and dates when writing this. i know wikipedia is sometimes wrong, though, so please let me know if anything i said was incorrect. *this is a quote taken from jane seymour’s wiki article. PLEASE DO NOT ERASE THE TEXT THANK YOU.)

z0ya:

Trevor Morris - A Howling Wilderness/The Death of Jane Seymour (Tudors Soundtrack)

Dressed in an ermine-trimmed, grey damask robe, with an English style gable hood and a crimson kirtle underneath, the slight, dark-haired woman took her final walk. She went out of the Queen’s Lodgings, past the Great Hall, through Cole Harbour Gate, and along the western side of the White Tower to the black-draped scaffold. The Constable of the Tower of London, Sir William Kingston, helped her up the scaffold steps and she stepped forward to address the waiting crowd. Her coal-black eyes flitted over the crowd. As her gaze met those of her enemies – Thomas Cromwell, Charles Brandon, Henry Fitzroy and Thomas Audley – she didn’t so much as flinch. The people fell silent as they gazed at their queen, Anne Boleyn, who one witness described as being “never so beautiful”. The Queen took a deep breath and spoke:

“Good Christian people, I have not come here to preach a sermon; I have come here to die. For according to the law and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak of that whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the King and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never, and to me he was ever a good, a gentle, and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me.”

Her ladies stepped forward to remove Anne’s mantle and Anne doffed her hood, loosening those famous lustrous dark locks before tucking them into a cloth cap to keep them off her neck – that “little neck”. As her ladies sobbed silently, Anne paid the executioner, the famous Sword of Calais, who begged her forgiveness for the deed he was about to commit. Even he was moved by the dignity of the woman who stood before him. She showed no fear. Then the eyes that Anne had always used so powerfully were hidden by a blindfold and she knelt, in the straw, praying all the while: “O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul.”

One by one, the crowd too sank to their knees out of respect for this woman whose courage and dignity spoke of her innocence. The Dukes of Suffolk and Richmond, stunned, watched the reaction of the crowd and refused to follow suit. Anne deserved this, in their opinion.

The silence was deafening as the crowd waited for the executioner to strike. The only sound was Anne whispering her prayers. The executioner, visibly shaken by the atmosphere and by Anne’s courage, noticed that the Queen kept turning her head slightly, anticipating the blow, so he called out to his assistant to pass him his sword. As Anne moved her head to follow what the assistant was doing, the executioner came up behind her unnoticed and beheaded her with one stroke. Her ordeal was over. Her head may have been in the straw, her blood flowing freely across the scaffold, but Anne’s soul was with her Father in Heaven.

Anne Boleyn was denied a proper burial with Christian service. Instead, her sobbing ladies gathered up her head and body, wrapped them in white cloth and took them to the Tower chapel, St Peter ad Vincula. Here, the Star of the Court was placed inside an old elm chest which had once contained bow staves. Anne Boleyn, the mother of the future Elizabeth I, was then laid to rest in an unmarked grave, buried as a traitor to the Crown.

It was the 19th May 1536 and a Queen of England had been executed.

Taken from the preface of The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown by Claire Ridgway.

Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me.

O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.

marchionessofpembroke:

On the night of 17th May 1536, while the carpenters built her scaffold within the grounds of the Tower of London, Anne Boleyn prepared herself for her execution, which was scheduled for 9am on the 18th. At 2am, her almoner, John Skip (some say her confessor Father Thirwell), arrived to pray with her. She was still in prayer when Archbishop Cranmer arrived just after dawn to hear her final confession and to celebrate the Mass.

Anne Boleyn asked Sir William Kingston to be present while she took the sacrament. She swore on it twice, before and after receiving it, that she had not been unfaithful to the King, acts which Kingston reported back to the King. Anne then made arrangements for the customary distribution of alms using the £20 given to her by the King for this purpose, and then she waited for 9am, the moment she thought she would take her final walk. She went back to her prayers.

When nothing happened at 9am, Anne sent for Kingston. She had heard that her execution had been postponed until noon. This was correct. Kingston had received orders to clear the Tower of foreigners that day in preparation for the execution the next day. He kept Anne in suspense a bit longer, but tried to comfort her by explaining that her execution would not be painful and that the blow was “so subtle”. To this, Anne replied with characteristic black humour, “I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck”, after which she put her hands around her throat and laughed heartily. She also joked with her ladies that the people would be able to give her the nickname “la Royne Anne Sans Tete” or Queen Anne Lackhead. Kingston was impressed with Anne Boleyn’s composure in those dark hours of waiting, commenting to Cromwell that “thys lady hasse mech joy and plesure in dethe”. Her faith must have sustained her.

Anne was finally put out of her misery when noon passed and Kingston informed her that her execution had been postponed until the next day, the 19th. Anne was obviously distressed but all she could do was return to prayer and seek spiritual comfort.

givemehistory:

       I agree. Though burning people at the stake is terrible, and believe me when I say I do not support it, but she was a woman of her time. An extreme Catholic Europe, and the sudden emergence of a ‘heresy’ seen as a threat to her people, and their eternal souls, would not have left a very pro-active Mary sitting on her butt and letting it (from her point of view) damn and ruin England. If Mary is to be judged as a bad leader simply for her heresy laws, and their impending punishment, then all of the worlds leaders are bad, ESPECIALLY in Europe. Charles V was known to burn around 89 Protestants a month, not to mention, you know, the Inquisition?? The Crusades? Jihads? Mary was the leader of a very powerful Catholic Counter-Reformation in England. Though gruesome, in the burnings, it was working. There was nothing backwards about Mary’s religious plan, and the results do matter. Because despite what most uneducated people think, her Religious settlement was not just on the basis of burning heretics at the stake, there was a whole Catholic Reformation, from education, to the churches lands. 

       So yes, misjudged on the fact that the only basis for a ‘Bloody Mary’ is propaganda spawning from Mary’s younger sister and successor Elizabeth, and her successors. Mary was known for her kindness by all the people of England (even the protestants knew of her graciousness, but they of course hated her religious settlement, and as a result, rarely if ever brought her up in a kind light). Mary unfortunately has been dragged through history unkindly however, and is known as ‘Bloody Mary’ by most contemporaries, a name, that is extremely undeserved.