Did Anne Boleyn Attack Jane Seymour? Tudor History

From History Calling

Did Anne Boleyn ATTACK Jane Seymour while Jane was a lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII’s second queen? There is a story that while Jane was Henry’s mistress, Anne seized a necklace the King had gifted Mistress Seymour from around her throat, which contained a portrait of the monarch and wounded her own hand in the process. This story was even depicted in the Showtime series, The Tudors. Did this Tudor royal catfight ever occur though? In this Tudor history documentary from History Calling, we look at the tumultuous period of time during early 1536 when Anne Boleyn was falling from favour and Jane Seymour was on the rise and at the source for this story (which I will quote to you in full). I’ll discuss why that source (which is a book written by an Englishman called Thomas Fuller called The Worthies of England and published after his death in 1662) is not to be trusted and look at errors within its contents (including Jane Seymour’s dates of death) and at the supposed provenance of the story about these two Tudor queens. This video will also include details about the life of Jane Seymour, such as what we know about her court career, the start of her relationship with Henry VIII and at how we know she responded to receiving gifts from the King at other times. It will look at stories of tensions between her and Anne reported by Nicholas Sander and Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria and at how trustworthy those people are as source. It will consider too the dangers of trusting traditions surrounding famous historical figures, when there are no contemporary sources to support them. So let’s take a look at the royal love triangle between Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.