(_For the Mirror_.)
Every hint, every ray of light, which tends, in the most distant manner,
to illustrate an obscure passage in the history of our country, cannot we
presume, while it affords great pleasure and satisfaction to the student
attentively employed in such researches, be deemed either insignificant or
uninteresting by the general reader.
The birth of Edward the Sixth must always be regarded as a bright star in
the horizon of the Reformation, and one, which tended greatly to blast the
prospects of those who were inimical to that glorious change in our
religious constitution.
The marriage of Henry the Eighth, with the Lady Jane Seymour,[3]
immediately after the death of his former Queen, Anne Boleyn, is so well
known as to render it superfluous, if not presuming in us to enlarge upon
it in this place: suffice it to say, that the nuptials were celebrated on
the day following the execution of Anne, the twentieth of May, 1536, the
King "not thinking it fit to mourn long, or much, for one the law had
declared criminall."[4] Old Fuller says, "it is currantly traditioned,
that at her [Jane's] first coming to court, Queen _Anne Bolen_ espying a
jewell pendant about her neck, snatched thereat, (desirous to see, the
other unwilling to show it,) and casually hurt her _hand_ with her own
violence; but it grieved her _heart_ more, when she perceived it the
King's picture by himself bestowed upon her, who from this day forward
dated her own _declining_ and the other's _ascending_ in her husband's
affection."[5] About seventeen months after her marriage at the Palace of
Hampton Court, Queen Jane gave birth to a son, Edward the Sixth.
The precise period of the birth of this prince has been variously stated
by historians. Sir John Hayward,[6] who bestowed considerable labour upon
writing his life, places it on the seventeenth of October, 1537; while
Sanders,[7] on the other hand, fixes it on the tenth. Herbert, Godwin,[8]
and Stow, whom, all[9] his more modern biographers have followed, agree
that it happened on the twelfth of the same month, and their testimony is
fully corroborated by the following official letter, addressed to Cromwell,
Lord Privy Seal, informing him of the birth of a prince:--
_By the Quene_.
"Right trustie and right welbeloved, wee grete you well; and, forasmuche
as by the inestimable goodnes and grace of Almighty God wee be delivered
and brought in childbed of a Prince, conceived in most lawfull matrimonie
between my Lord the King's Majestie and us; doubtinge not but, for the
love and affection which ye beare unto us, and to the commonwealth of this
realme, the knowledge thereof should be joyous and glad tydeings unto you,
we have thought good to certifie you of the same, to th' intent you might
not onely render unto God condigne thanks and praise for soe greate a
benefit but alsoe continuallie praie for the longe continuance and
preservacion of the same here in this life, to the honour of God, joy and
pleasure of my Lord the Kinge and us, and the universall weale, quiett,
and tranquillitie of this hole realm."
"Given under our Signet, att my Lord's Mannor of Hampton Courte, the xii
daie of October."[10]
Edward was christened with great state, on the Monday following, in the
chapel at Hampton Court, Archbishop Cranmer, and the Duke of Norfolk being
the godfathers, and his sister, the Princess Mary, godmother.[11] "At his
birth," says Hall, "was great fires made through the whole realme, and
great joye made with thankesgeuyng to Almightie God which had sent so
noble a prince to succeed to the crowne of this realme."[12]
The joy, however, which the birth of a son and heir to the throne, excited
in the mind of Henry was soon dispelled by the death of his queen. It was
deemed necessary, both for the preservation of her life, and that of her
offspring, to bring the latter into the world by means of the Caesarian
operation, a mode which in the greater number of cases proves fatal to the
mother. It has been maliciously, and without the least appearance of truth,
asserted by Sanders,[13] one of the most bitter writers of the opposite
party, that the question was put to the King by the physicians, whether
the life of the Queen or the child should be saved, for it was judged
impossible to preserve both? "The child's," he replied, "for I shall be
able to find wives enough." Whether, however, her death originated from
that terrible cause, we cannot, at this distant period, pretend to affirm,
but from the report to the Privy Council of the birth of Edward the Sixth,
still extant, it would appear not, as it informs us she was "happily"
delivered, and died afterwards of a distemper incidental to women in that
condition.
The death of Jane Seymour, like the birth of her son, is involved in
considerable obscurity. Most of the chroniclers who appear to have
followed Herbert[14] in this particular, fix it on the fourteenth of
October, two days after the birth of Edward; Hayward, on the contrary,
states that "shee dyed of the incision on the fourth day following," while
Edward the Sixth, in his journal, written by himself, informs us, but
without stating any precise period, that it happened "within a few dayes
after the birth of her soone."[15] We shall, however, see from the
following letter, that this event did not take place on either of the
abovementioned days, nor until "duodecimo post die," as George Lilly truly
informs us, the day also mentioned in the journal of Cecil.[16] This
original document respecting the health of the Queen, which is still
extant, is signed by Thomas Rutland, and five other medical men, is dated
on a Wednesday, which if it were only the following Wednesday, and we
shall presently prove that it was not, would, at least, make it five days
afterwards.
"These shal be to advertise yor lordship of the Quenes estate. Yesterdaie
afternonne she had an naturall laxe, by reason whereof she beganne sumwhat
to lyghten, and (as it appeared,) to amende; and so contynued till towards
night. All this night she hath bene very syck, and doth rather appaire
than amend. Her Confessor hath bene with her grace this morning, and hath
done [all] that to his office apperteyneth, and even now is preparing to
minister to her grace the sacrament of unction. At Hampton Court, this
Wednesday mornyng, at viii of the clock."[17]
As a further and additional proof of the date of her decease, we shall
refer our readers to a manuscript, preserved in the Herald's College, the
preamble of which runs as follows:--"An ordre taken and made for the
interrement of the most high, most excellent, and most Chrysten Pryncess,
Jane, Quene of England, and of France, Lady of Ireland, and mother of the
most noble and puyssant Prynce Edward; which deceasyd at Hampton Courte,
the xxixth yere of the reigne of our most dread Soveraigne Lord Kyng Henry
the eight, her most dearest husband, the xxiiiith day of Octobre, beyng
Wedynsday, at nyght, xii of the clock; which departyng was the twelf day
after the byrthe of the said Prynce her Grace beying in childbed." By this
document it is fixed on the second Wednesday after the birth of the prince,
on the morning of which day, the abovementioned letter of her physicians
was undoubtedly written, as the ministering of the holy unction would show
that her death was fast approaching.
The remains of Jane Seymour were conveyed with great solemnity to Windsor,
and interred in the choir of St. George's Chapel, on the 12th of November.
The following epitaph was inscribed to her memory:--
Phoenix Jana iacet, nato Phoenice dolendum,
Secala Phoenices nulla tulisse duas.