Sharon said: The marriage would have lasted as long as Henry saw her as a good Mother.  As long as she continued to remind him of his Mother she would have been okay. I still think he would have wanted more sons. If she could give him more that would give her a better edge.  I do not think it would have been a fun marriage, but one that Jane certainly wouldn't complain about.  Now Henry is a different matter.  I don't care how good a wife she was, he'd cheat on her. More than likely he would have made Catherine Howard his mistress and she may have kept her head.  Poor Anne of Cleves would have had to spend her life with that brother of hers.  Perhaps Catherine and Culpepper would have been able to have a real relationship after the affair with Henry ended. Catherine Parr could have married Thomas Seymour after Latimer died.

Wow, Sharon! You have a way of making me think about things that wouldn't have otherwise occurred to me. I like it!  But you're right, things would have been very different if Jane had been able to hang in there. We probably never would have heard of Anne of Cleves without her involvement with ole Henry. Possibly the same with Katherine Parr. Or Kathryn Howard OR Culpeper. And Elizabeth would have had a very different life. Would the world be different with those changes? And would it be better or worse?

If Jane had more children, Elizabeth would not have been Queen.  If she did not, I think history would have played out exactly as it did.  King Edward, Queen Mary, then Queen Elizabeth. Life would have been difficult for the 'Concubine's Daughter,' Elizabeth, whether Jane had lived or died. I don't see Thomas Seymour being any different than he was.  Just married to Catherine a bit longer. I don't think she could have toned down his lust for power and greed.  I would hope that Anne of Cleves would have found a way to escape her brother and would have had a happy life.

But would Elizabeth have been the same woman with a different upbringing? If Jane had survived, would Edward (and Elizabeth) been raised in a Church of England less reformed than it was with Katherine Parr and Archbishop Cranmer's influences? I guess I'm assuming that Jane would have countered Cranmer's influence, and Henry wouldn't have been exposed to KP's ideas at all. Without the trial by fire that was Elizabeth's life before the throne, would she have learned discretion, stalling tactics, how important reputation and public relations were, and would she have been as adamantly opposed to marriage, etc.? And how would that have affected her reign?

When first started reading into Henry and his wives I grew a dislike for Jane…But as the yeas pass,I seem to grow fonder of her…I think her gratest misfortune was that she is labelled as the stupid,bland,uneducated wive.But in reality,I see Jane very similar to Anne.She was in fact a very smart woman,who out of necessity and ambition,hid herself underneath a coat of submission and sweetness.Although many regard her as a cheap imitation of Anne,one should recognise that she was smart enough to play the same game(very risky) and get away with it.Sure,she was not as educated or cultured as Katherine,Anne or Catherine Parr but I think she knew how to handle her place better than others.Afterall,we should consider the fact that Henry,apart from his 1st and 4th marriage,made ill-fitting matches.His second wive,even though she was highly educated,cultured and had a royal attitude,had a nasty,un-fitting temper,a terrible reputation and was snobbed by the majority of Europe.His third was an uneducated,shy woman,of no title,status or even beauty.His fifth was an unfitting,uneducated,low noble teenager and his final wive was an English widow,also of no title.Royals back then didn't marry courtiers but other royals,princesses like KoA or Duchesses.Henry married at least 3 times beneath his standing as a King(Anne was elevated to a Marchioness and had the education,culture and standing for a Queen Consort).

Back to Jane,I grew to find her really interesting.She was indeed a gamer,enough charming to make up to the luck of good looks(many say that Anne was plain but make it up with her wit and style but since Anne was considered pretty enough I find this theory applying more to Jane),a keen observer.She had to reinvent herself in order to keep,not only the king but her head as well.I am not sure about her role in Anne's downfall but I think that it was mostly the fact that she worked hard enough till then and fear…With Anne at his mercy,she knew that denying anything to him would destroy her…She was not stupid,she could see that if Anne,for whom he brought the country apart and danced in her tune for ten years,followed this path because of his displeasure it was much easier for her to lose her head if she did as much as to displease him…After all,if I am going to judge her harshly for Anne than I fear I must judge Anne harshly too.Both were ambitious enough but neither made Henry act the way he did 

In the end,one should feel bad for Jane…Jane became a pleasing wife ten days before she died.Her greatest achievement,giving Henry a son,was something she didn't enjoy.Henry grew to love not Jane but an idea of who he wanted Jane to be.She was the most loved of his wives but she had no use of it.In the end,Henry's affection was so useless……..It is tragic for someone,anyone being more loved while dead than while alive

I agree with you.Anne was loved for who she was,just like Katherine of Aragone,Catherine Parr and Katheryn Howard.But poor Jane had another task:to prove that the King was not a sinner or a man guided by his carnal desires(his Great Matter)but someone in need of an heir and tranquility,thus he marries a quiet,nonchalant woman,a living antithesis to Anne.Jane had to play a role which Henry himself gave her to play…And it is very tragic that he esteemed her only dead,because she gave him a son and by leaving so quietly,she allowed him to make her the woman he wanted her to be…What we know of Jane is mostly what Henry wanted Jane to be.It is kind of sick to think that he made the perfect wife standard with a dead woman who while she lived,she lived constantly under fear and his disaproval(he called her ugly,that he was rushed into marriage(dangerous acussation),stated his displeasure for her still empty womb,threatened her that she would make company to Anne if she mendled in his business and many things we 'll never know).Yes,it is indeed very tragic how he said he loved her when while she lived she was always critisized,that she was not loved for  herself and that she was his beloved wife while dead