Good question Jane
I think she believed that she could change him to be honest. He had obviously given her the usual spiel of “my wife doesn’t understand me” and charmed her into believing that Anne was to blame for everything that had gone wrong, and she had obviously believed it, and had said the soothing words such as “Your majesty is much troubled I wish I could help you” that he had wanted to hear.
Personally I think once Anne fell and he married her, she learnt the truth about H8, that the Golden God I mean SOD who wooed her and told her that everything was Anne’s fault, was the biggest liar on the planet, and basically he broke her heart, that she gave him the son he so wanted was perhaps her greatest plus, bt I believe she was very dis illusioned by the whole kit and caboodle that was Henry.
I read somewhere recently that she may have died from a retained placenta, or at least part of it.

I doubt she would have been given the angel/saint status if she had had yet another daughter, or if Eddy had died as K.O.A’s son had though Sharon.
You are right about him treating her shamefully, he betrayed in the cruelist way I think. He used her as a pawn to bring the pilgramage of grace riots to an end. Promising the northern Lords etc that Jane would be crowned as their Queen in York to lull them into a false sence of security, and then slaughter them all. She must have felt terrible that he had used her like a cat’s paw in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Jane if you get chance watch the Henry 8th and his 6 wives from 1970. Jane Seymour’s episode was very good.

Jane84 said

Boleyn said

I doubt she would have been given the angel/saint status if she had had yet another daughter, or if Eddy had died as K.O.A’s son had though Sharon.
You are right about him treating her shamefully, he betrayed in the cruelist way I think. He used her as a pawn to bring the pilgramage of grace riots to an end. Promising the northern Lords etc that Jane would be crowned as their Queen in York to lull them into a false sence of security, and then slaughter them all. She must have felt terrible that he had used her like a cat’s paw in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Jane if you get chance watch the Henry 8th and his 6 wives from 1970. Jane Seymour’s episode was very good.

Thanks for the reference, as soon as I can find on the subject, I am absorded. I recently seen Ann of the thousand days, and I was really suprised. It change of “Two sister for a King” or “The Tudors”. Moreover, in Ann of the thousand days, the personnage of Jane isn’t present.

That’s basically because the film was solely about Anne. Jane did feature once, when Henry asked her dance. I think he said something to her like “If I lead strongly will you follow softly” and she answers “I hope so your grace” as he’s dancing with her Anne points to Jane and tells her guards to get rid of her. Later when Henry and Anne are arguing he asks her where she has sent Jane and she answers “I have sent her to Northumberland the furthest I could send her since we don’t own Scotland.” Geneveive Bujold portrayal of Anne is superb, she plays her just as I picture Anne to be like.Richard Burton as Henry, need I say more, one of the finest actors Britain ever had.
Of course the only person who played Elizabeth with any conviction in my opinion was Glenda Jackson. Anne Marie Duff was good, but she lacked that spark that Glenda had.

Jane84 said

You’re right, after all, she stayed queen a very short time. And she didn’t have the possibility to explain her feeling with H8. I haven’t read books about her, but i’ve seen the serie The Tudors, and the events are similar to those you write. She was submissive, kind, and may be scared.

I think, that today we are shocked of their reaction because, we wouldn’t have accepted the execution of Ann Boleyn. We know that she was innocent. But, at that time, most people, including Jane, thought that she was guilty. I know that Ann wasn’t very popular. Jane wasn’t fervent of the reform, contrary to Ann who was the ennemy of Spain (and France, I think, at the end).

Jane wasn’t the only ennemy of Anne. She certainly had less culpability than the executioners like Cromwell or the King himself.

It is funny to see that, today, the scapegoats are rehabilited and the saints/angels are questioned.

There were people who thought Anne and the others were not guilty, too. Chapuys thought they were innocent. The whole affair was a tragedy. I think people were shocked by Henry’s actions, but no one was willing to say anything for fear they would end up as had Anne and the men accused with her. This must have been a very scary time to be at Henry’s court.
I do agree Jane was not culpable at all in Anne’s demise. I say saint/angel because that is what Henry raised her to after her death. I don’t question whether Jane was a good woman or not, I believe she was. I do not think she was the sly, cunning girl that many portray her as.
I don’t think Anne ever became the enemy of France. When her power started to wane, and the French backed out of a marriage contract with Elizabeth, she was scared and angry. Spain, yes. She wanted nothing to do with Spain, which was probably not the best opinion to have while Henry was trying to forge new relations.

Yes, Boleyn, I agree, had Jane delivered a girl and then died, she would be just another woman who failed her king.

In the 1972 film when Jane was in Labour, H8 was told that there was choice between either Jane’s life or the Baby’s life. H8 answered “let it be a son” That kind of sums up H8’s treatment of her, and to me at least I feel it was possible that H8 may have said something like that too if indeed that did happen.
You are right Olga about Jane being a enigma as she was Queen for such a short time, and before January of 1536 when it became known that H8 was paying court to her, she was simply an unseen and unknown entity. Yes she served as lady in waiting to both K.O.A and A.B but what do we known of her before then. The answer is not a lot.
How did she attract H8? Of all of H8’s wives I think Jane was quite possibly the plainest, and extremely dull, temprement wise.
Anne was all fire and brimstone as was H8 together they were a very dangerous combination. K.O.A well in her way she could be just a firey as H8, and she was certainly as stubborn as both H8 and Anne. H8 liked woman of spirit, when the Pilgramage of Grace riots kicked off Jane made a pathetic sort of attempt to plead for mercy, and was prompty told to shut her trap, which of course she did. H8 saw that a plus and used her to bring down Aske and the other leaders. If H8 had told either K.O.A or Anne to shut their traps both would have argued with him. A.O.C showed she too was someone to be reckoned with when he made it known that he wanted a divorce, as she insisted on seeing the arguements he had for the divorce, ultimetely although some saw her aquiencence to H8 as weakness she in fact argued enough to see that she got a bloody good deal/bargain out of it. K.H yeah she had a spirit, the spirit of youth and yeah she made H8 feel good about himself, and belief that he was the Golden Sod I mean God of his past again. K.H also tried to plead (unsuccessfully) for the life of Lady Salisbury. K.P well she managed to argue her way out of a very acute pain in the neck.
Although it’s a cruel thing to say, she did herself a big favour by dying, because if she hadn’t H8 (no doubt) would have divorced her son or no son, as he death would have been just as K.O.A’s had been. The abandoned and forgotten wife cruelly and heartlessly betrayed and left to die alone.