Tudor Queens of England by David Loades

Author:David Loades [M., Loades, D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: non-fiction, Tudor England, Mary I, Jane Seymour, Great Britain, biography, Europe, 16th century, tudor history, 15th century, Lady Jane Grey, Catherine Parr, Royalty, Women, monarchy, European History, British, Historical, Elizabeth Woodville, British History, England, General, Thomas Cromwell, Mary Stewart, Biography & Autobiography, Elizabeth of York, history
ISBN: 9780826434388
Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group
Published: 2010-06-29T05:00:00+00:00

T U D O R Q U E E N S O F E N G L A N D

apart from a son, was a spot of peace and quiet. Anne had been a challenge in every sense of the word. She had been sexy, edgy and opinionated; a stormy and emotional companion but a shrewd and well-informed adviser. She had had her own supporters, her own networks, even her own policies. Jane was none of these things. What she did have was a good natured and imperturbable common sense. As Henry told Chapuys soon after his marriage, ‘her nature was gentle and inclined to peace’ – in short, Jane was everything that A

nne had not been.35 When she urged Henry to take his elder daughter into his grace – which must have been within a few weeks of their wedding and before Mary’s surrender – the King told her effectively to mind her own business. Anne would have sulked furiously at such a rebuff but Jane took it all in her stride. She probably did not have any share in Mary’s submission, which came towards the end of July, but was on hand to make sure that Henry took it in good part and that the younger woman’s household was fully and sensitively restored. She was more like an elder sister than a stepmother to Henry’s daughter, who was now 21 and the two became fi rm friends. Jane clearly did not have any religious opinions, which grated on Mary’s sensitive conscience. Conservatives like the Marquis of Exeter regarded her as a friend but it is an open question whether she had any opinions of her own at all.

In the latter part of 1536, Henry had need of as much domestic peace as he could get. On 18 July his son Henry had died at the age of about 18. He may, or may not, have ever entertained ideas of legitimating him, but he was fond of the boy and felt his loss keenly. Fitzroy’s widow, Mary Howard, we are told ‘handled herself very discreetly’ but she was only 17 and they had never lived together. The young Duke’s main legacy, apart from his father’s grief, was a large tidying-up operation of people, lands and jobs because he had no direct successor in any of his functions. More importantly, the north of England was swept by rebellion. This had a number of specifi c causes, which have been exhaustively discussed, but the timing seems to have been mainly occasioned by the discovery that Anne’s death had made not the slightest difference to the main thrust of the King’s policies. She had been cast as the evil infl uence from which all his errors and abuses had stemmed and when she fell her enemies waited expectantly for everything to change. Mary had been the fi rst to be disillusioned in this respect and she had submitted and come to terms with Thomas Cromwell. The conservative leaders (or some of them),

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