On the 1st April 1536, Chapuys reported to his master, Emperor Charles V, that King Henry VIII had sent Jane Seymour “a purse full of sovereigns.” He also reported Jane’s reaction, writing that on receiving the purse, Jane had kissed the letter and begged the messenger to tell the King that she could not take the purse because “she was a gentlewoman of good and honorable parents, without reproach, and that she had no greater riches in the world than her honor, which she would not injure for a thousand deaths, and that if he wished to make her some present in money she begged it might be when God enabled her to make some honorable match.”
According to Chapuys, Jane was being coached by Sir Nicholas Carew and the Catholic faction in how to appeal to the King and also to tell him how much the people of England “detested” his marriage to Anne Boleyn.
Also, on the 1st April 1536, Chapuys reported that he had heard that Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell were “on bad terms.”
Posted originally on the interactive timeline of the events of Spring 1536 at www.thefallofanneboleyn.com.
Notes and Sources
- Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 5 Part 2: 1536-1538, note 43
