Weir, Alison "Six Tudor Queens: Jane Seymour"

Weir, Alison "Six Tudor Queens: Jane Seymour. The Haunted Queen" - 2018

This was a book about Queen #3 in the series "Six Tudor Queens".

We meet Jane Seymour while Anne Boleyn is still alive, follow her through King Henry's courtship and everything involved, her family wanting her to encourage the King to fall in love with her so they can move higher in society, the other ladies observing what's going on, her own feelings. Alison Weir calls her the "Haunted Queen" and you can understand why this is a good description.

Jane Seymour had initially served Katharine of Aragon whom she loved and always regarded as the "True Queen". When she was forced to leave that household and serve under the new wife of Henry VIII, she did not do that voluntarily. That must have been so hard since those women shared everything.

We know that nobody is certain how those women lived their lives exactly but Alison Weir has a great talent to make us understand how it might have been. We learn so much about the life in their time and we can imagine how it all came to pass.

While reading this, I kept wondering what would have happened, if Jane Seymour had lived, if she hadn't died after giving birth to her first child. Maybe she would have had more male children who would have taken over after Edward died? Maybe Henry VIII would only have had three wives? After all, he is buried beside her.

I also liked how the author explained at the end, why she wrote the book the way she did, why she described Jane Seymour this way and not in a different way.

I'm looking forward to the next book about Henry the VIIIth  fourth wife: Ann of Cleve: "Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets"

From the back cover:

"The Woman Haunted By The Fate Of Her Predecessor

Eleven days after the death of Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour is to marry the King.

She has witnessed the danger and deceit that lie behind courtly play, and knows she must bear a son . . . or face ruin. 

Queen Jane must step out of the shadows cast by Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, but, in doing so, can she expose a gentler side to the brutal King?

Jane Seymour
The Third Of Henry's Queens

Her Story

History tells us how she died.

This spellbinding novel explores the life she lived."

Find my reviews of Alison Weir's other books here.

Alison Weir has also written a book about all the wives: "The Six Wives of Henry VIII".