Jane Seymour Seymour, Jane Author Kristi Nemelka Supervising Editor Kate McPherson Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.

Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Kristi Nemelka, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Daily Life Childbirth Gender Obedience Published file. Updated metadata proofed Review of article finished. updated author respStmt. Created File. Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 Kristi Nemelka Kristi Nemelka

Kristi Nemelka was a student at Utah Valley University.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
Jane Seymour at Court

Jane Seymour was born in 1508 to Sir John Seymour and Lady Margery Wentworth, members of the English gentry. Her parents had important connections to the English court, which earned Jane a place in the service of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife. When Anne Boleyn married Henry VIII and replaced Catherine as Queen, Jane moved to Anne’s service by the end of 1533.

It was unusual for a young woman of Jane’s social class to be unmarried still at the age of 26, when Henry first became attracted to her in 1535. Jane was known for her quiet calmness and propriety at court, more than for her physical beauty. She was quite the opposite of the demanding and volatile Anne Boleyn, who had thus far only borne Henry a girl, Elizabeth, in 1533 shortly after their long-awaited marriage. Anne’s position hinged on her carrying Henry’s male heir to the throne. However, in January of 1535, Anne miscarried for the second time, a male fetus.

King Henry’s Attraction

After Anne’s miscarriage, King Henry began to show interest in Jane Seymour. But Jane would do nothing to compromise her virtue or harm her honor. Starting in April 1535, the king visited Jane regularly with her brother Edward and his wife present. Henry appreciated Jane’s modesty, and, as their relationship became more well known, it became obvious that he thought of her as a potential bride.

On May 2, 1536, Anne was arrested on charges of adultery and incest and was swiftly executed on May 19. On May 20, Henry and Jane were officially betrothed and were wed on May 30, 1536.

Jane as Queen

Jane’s motto while serving as queen was bound to serve and obey. This expresses the emphasis Jane put on being the model early modern Englishwoman: chaste, silent, and obedient. She wanted a devout and dignified court and insisted the ladies in her service dress modestly and conduct themselves virtuously.

Jane knew her main purpose as queen was to provide a male heir, but she also had other tasks she wanted to accomplish. While waiting to bear a son, Jane worked to reconcile the King and his eldest daughter Mary, who would go on to become the future Queen Mary I. Jane persuaded Mary to submit to her father’s authority after years of resenting him for divorcing her mother. Jane also convinced Henry to accept Mary’s submission and to restore her to her proper position at court by the end of that year.

Henry was delighted when Jane became pregnant in 1536 and did everything he could to make his wife comfortable and happy, including keeping her well-supplied with the quail she craved, no matter the trouble or expense. Jane made no public appearances and prayers were said throughout England for her and the unborn child.

Jane Gives Birth and Dies

King Henry finally got his long awaited son on October 12, 1537, after Jane endured three days of labor. The boy was named Edward and was christened in a ceremony on October 15. Jane seemed to have endured the difficult birth well and was receiving visitors after the christening. The day following the christening, however, she began to decline, potentially due to blood loss or childbed fever (caused usually by streptococcus bacteria). On October 24, 1537, Jane Seymour died. She was buried in St. George’s chapel, Windsor. In 1547, Henry was laid to rest beside his sweet Jane.

The Controversy over Jane’s Death

Some controversy persists about the type of delivery Jane endured and the exact cause of her death. Some have proposed that a cesarean delivery was performed and this caused Jane’s death; however, research shows for many reasons this could not have taken place. In the 1500s, cesarean delivery was only performed as a last resort, most likely scenario being that either the mother or the infant had already died. Henry reportedly said, the child by all means, for other wives can easily be found when asked by the midwives and physicians, whether to save the child or the mother if it came to that. Evidence indicates that Jane survived the birth for 12 days. If a cesarean section had taken place, she would have died almost immediately due to hemorrhage. An infection or other type of postpartum hemorrhage are more likely cause of her untimely death.

Key Print Sources Beer, Barrett L. Jane <supplied>Née Jane Seymour</supplied> (1508/9–1537), Queen of England, Third Consort of Henry VIII. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 13. Oxford University Press. 23 Sep. 2004. Fraser, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Gross, Pamela M. Jane, the Quene, Third Consort of King Henry VIII. Edwin Mellen Press, 1999.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. Jane Seymour. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/history/henry%20VIII/seymour.html. Accessed 12 Sep. 2018. Lurie, Samuel. Was Queen Jane Seymour (1509–1537) Delivered by a Cesarean Section? Endeavour, vol. 41, no. 1, 2017, pp. 23–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.10.002. Jane Seymour. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Seymour. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.