The Third Tudor Princess

Unfaithful

May 19, 1536

The King had proposed. His marriage to the Boleyn witch had been annulled, and he had proposed to her.  As her father and brothers excitedly discussed the new positions and titles they could expect after she was Queen, Jane stared out the window, imagining the grand jewels and fabrics she would wear for her coronation, how everyone at court- including Anne's former ladies, and even the King's former love herself, should she ever visit court- would be compelled to bow and address her as "Your Majesty." Soon, she would be Queen Jane of England, highest lady in the land, beloved of the greatest King in Christendom.

She was grateful that the King's eye had fallen upon her. From her childhood, to her time as a lady to Good Queen Katherine, she had never been viewed as anything special. She was often regarded as pretty enough, but plain, with no special qualities that may help her secure a husband when the time came. She was always overshadowed by the ladies who knew the court better than she, ladies who knew how to win a ma's attention and keep it.

Ladies like Anne Boleyn.

Anne Boleyn, for all her faults, had won the King's love and kept it for over a decade. During the many years when His Majesty had sought to dissolve his union with Queen Katherine, he had been faithful to Anne, taking no other mistress, and treating her as Queen in all but name after he had removed Queen Katherine from her rightful place.

At that time, it was believed that Anne would hold the King's heart for the rest of her days. His Majesty had even punished Suffolk, a man who had been his closest companion since boyhood, for daring to speak true allegations against the woman he loved. 

But no trick that Anne may have picked up in the French court could save Anne from her greatest failing. She had not given the King a male heir. Without a son, the King slowly began to see Anne's faults, until eventually he realized that she was entirely unfit to be his Queen. Jane understood why the King would not wish to execute a woman who carried a babe, as her child was innocent of its mothers heinous crimes, but nevertheless it worried her.

If Anne bore a son, there would certainly be people who would think it was the King's, rather than the far more reasonable explanation that it was one of her lovers'. If, God forbid, Jane had not given the King a son yet, the English people, desperate for a prince, may forget Anne's adultery and champion her son as heir to the throne.

And the King may agree. 

Despite her lack of formal education, Jane Seymour was no fool. Why had Henry placed Katherine of Aragon, a Princess of Spain, his wife of over two decades, and a Queen much beloved by his people, in a dark, damp castle while he placed the woman who had made him a cuckold, who was seen by his country and Europe as a whore, a witch, and a usurper, in a manor with a noble title? Why had he denied Katherine access to Princess Mary, while Anne Boleyn was allowed to keep both her bastards, Elizabeth and the one she carried, with her?

She knew that the King likely did not see the disparity in how he treated a loyal, devoted Queen and a knight's daughter who had bewitched and betrayed him. But she did.

It was clear to her that the King had not granted Anne mercy merely for the sake of her child. If that was the case, he would just execute her after the babe was born, and send it to a good family to be raised far from its mother's wickedness. But he had chosen to let her live, after executing good men like Fisher and More simply for disagreeing with his choice to guide England away from the light of the true church. 

The only reason Jane could see for this behavior, so out of character for a spiteful, emotional man like His Majesty, was continued feelings for Anne.