King (unless the loss of the child had been added to that of the mother) than the death of Jane Seymour. Although she makes no figure in history, though she took small part in State questions, and we know little either of her sympathies or opinions, her name is mentioned by both Protestant and Catholic with unreserved respect. She married the King under circumstances peculiarly agitating. Her uprightness of character and sweetness of disposition had earned her husband's esteem, and with his esteem an affection deeper than he had perhaps anticipated. At her side, at his own death, he desired that his body might be laid.
When he knew that she was gone, he held a single interview with the council, and then retired to the palace at Westminster, where 'he mourned and kept himself close a great while.'[1]
In the country the rejoicings were turned to sorrow.[2]
- ↑ Hall, p. 825.
- ↑ Leland wrote an ode on the occasion, which is not without some beauty:—
Spes erat ampla quidem numerosâ prole Joanna
Henricum ut faceret regem fecunda parentem.
Sed Superis aliter visum est, cruciatus acerbus
Distorsit vacuum lethali tormine ventrem.
Frigora crediderim temere contracta fuisse
In causâ, superat vis morbi; jamque salute
Desperatâ omni, nymphis hæc rettulit almis.
Non mihi mors curæ est, perituram agnosco creavit
Omnipotens—Moriar—terram tibi debeo terra:
At pius Elysiis animus spatiabitur hortis.
Deprecor hoc unum. Maturos filius annos
