Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen is the third book in Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series and follows the life of Henry VII’s third wife Jane Seymour. Jane starts off living with her parents and siblings before a place is secured for Jane as one of Katherine of Aragon’s Maids of Honour. At this stage, these are the second or third time we’re encountering the same events particularly during Jane’s younger years. This is because she was a maid of honour for both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Jane is one of the maids that stays with Katherine after her divorce from Henry until her father secures her a spot as one of Anne’s maids instead, much against Jane’s wishes.
As Anne and others push through with religious reforms, Jane is quietly holding on to the true faith and, very treasonously, holding that Katherine is Henry’s true wife and Queen of England while Katherine and Henry’s daughter Mary is Henry’s true heir. Her brothers, however, are ambitious and eager for reform. When it becomes clear that Anne has lost favour with Henry and that Henry is beginning to take an interest in Jane, her brothers and father suggest that Jane makes like Anne and draw him towards her. Anne knows that Jane is Henry’s new love but unlike Katherine does not take it on the chin that her maid has surpassed her. Jane resigns from Anne’s service, but stays at court with her brother.
As it becomes clearer to many at court that Anne’s time as queen is coming to an end, a small faction appears to support Jane as queen amongst those who hold that the Lady Mary should be returned to the succession. And while disagreeing with many of her brothers’ ambitions for reform in the church, Jane is willing to take part in the politicking it takes to get Henry to get rid of Anne. While Anne’s eventual beheading is not what Jane intended, it does have the effect that she and the others in her sect want. Jane and Henry are married soon after.
You can tell that the events of Anne Boleyn’s reign as queen weighs heavily on Jane. Even though Jane really wants for Mary to be restored to the succession, she worries about pushing Henry too far and angering him for meddling in politics like Anne did. While Henry had been willing to listen to Anne’s ideas when she was his mistress, the idea that a wife, no matter her status, should be able to rule her husband was not one that Henry and others liked. Jane knows this, so while she is able to convince Henry of small issues, she doesn’t push for bigger changes. Another part of Anne’s reign that overshadows’ Jane’s marriage is the birth of a son. With Katherine and Anne, Henry only had daughters. He did have a bastard son, whom he made Duke of Richmond, but Richmond would never be able to be king. So Jane feels the pressure to not only have children but in particular to have a son. Jane goes through much the same pain that Anne does, worrying what will happen if she miscarries or if she has a daughter. Jane, after two miscarriages, finally gives birth to a son.
Jane is sometimes referred to as the only one of Henry’s wives he truly loved. This idea mostly comes from the fact that Jane is the only one to give him a son that he so desperately wanted. Weir doesn’t seem to buy into this idea. In both Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen and Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obessession, Katherine and Anne experience Henry’s love. Until something else happened - Katherine is no longer able to have children, Anne pushes too far and those who oppose Anne use that to get rid of her. Maybe if Jane had lived longer than she did, maybe there would be a similar story - that of a love that is later destroyed whether by natural causes or whispers of politics.