The Queens of England

ISBN: 9781334720352 出版年：2016 页码：287 Sydney Wilmot Forgotten Books

Hile Anne Boleyn is popularly regarded as a bad woman who supplanted her mistress and brought about her own well-merited misfortunes, the lady whom Henry chose as his third queen is venerated as the Protestant mother of saintly Edward VI. And the unhappy victim of a savage tyrant. For this error it is easy to account. Clever, high-spirited Anne, intending only to amuse her friends, had made many enemies with her unbridled tongue; for to be held up to ridicule before the whole court is an injury few would lightly forgive. Jane, on the other hand, gave offence to no one; she was a model of discretion, a fair, placid beauty who sought to enchain her royal lord by yielding implicit obedience to his will, and during the eighteen months she shared his throne never uttered a single sentence which historians have considered worthy of record. Nevertheless Jane was in some ways more culpable than Anne. The gay young Boleyn long resisted the King's advances, and had she been allowed to wed the man she loved would willingly have relinquished the crown held out to her; but Jane eagerly accepted Henry's attentions, though she knew that in stealing the King's heart she would practically be the murderer of her mistress; and as her wedding took place the day after Anne's execution, must have been preparing for marriage with the wife-killer at the moment of her rival's death. Jane Seymour was not (as is generally supposed) a Protestant, but continued to her death a member of the Romish Church, though her son was brought up in the Reformed faith; and she pleased the Catholics by showing kindness to the Princess Mary and inducing her father to take notice of her, whilst Anne had given offence by the contrary conduct.