It isn't easy to write compelling fiction about Jane Seymour. She lacked the stubborn nobility of Catherine of Aragon and the fiery beauty of Anne Boleyn. Her marriage to Henry VIII lasted only about a year and a half, from May of 1536 to October of 1537 when she died of childbed fever. Her motto was, "Bound to Obey and Serve"--hardly fodder for poetic imagination.
And while she did give Henry VIII the son he so desperately longed for, the reign of her child, Edward VI, lasted only a few years. It was Anne Boleyn's daughter Elizabeth who saw England through her golden age.
Finally, the details of Jane Seymour's early life are sketchy at best.
All of these factors make writing fiction about Jane Seymour a daunting task for a novelist, but Laurien Gardner more than lives up to the challenge in her novel Plain Jane.
Jane Seymour as an Ugly Duckling
The novel opens with Jane as a young girl, overhearing a whispered conversation about herself between her mother and her father. She listens in shock as her parents lament her lack of beauty and charm and decide that, since her marriage prospects are bleak, she will simply have to go to a convent when she is of age.
When Jane is a teenager, she asks a family friend, Sir Francis Bryan, to arrange a marriage between her and the eldest son of a nearby wealthy family. The other family roundly rejects her, and to make it up to her, Sir Frances arranges for her to go to court as a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon.
A Royal Court Divided
When Jane arrives at court, she discovers that there are actually two courts and two queens. The new love of the king's life, Anne Boleyn, is queen in everything but title. Jane finds Anne rude and intimidating and is content to serve the pious Catherine of Aragon.
Eventually, however, her family orders her to switch her allegiance to Anne Boleyn, who is clearly the rising star in the Tudor constellation. Jane reluctantly obeys. As she waits on Anne, however, she notices several times when Anne's temper alienates the king. In fact, when he is around Anne, Henry VIII behaves more like a henpecked husband than an ardent lover.
The Fall of Anne Boleyn and the Rise of Jane Seymour
Meanwhile, Henry takes notice of Jane's gentle manners and starts to pay attention to her. At first Jane can hardly believe that the king has any romantic interest in her, but as his praises grow ever more glowing and his gifts ever more extravagant, there can be little doubt as to his intentions.
Meanwhile, Anne Boleyn, who is now Henry's wife, has given birth to one daughter and two dead sons. Henry declares that his marriage is cursed, the product of witchcraft, and sends Anne to the block on numerous charges of adultery and treason.
He then marries Jane. But Jane knows all too well that her position is precarious. The wrong word or the wrong look could send her following on the tail of Anne Boleyn. And above all, she must produce a male heir...
Plain Jane Makes for an Interesting and Intriguing Read
Author Laurien Gardner deftly plucks Jane Seymour from the pages of history and turns her into a living, breathing woman with hopes, dreams and fears. The reader is privy to Jane's innermost thoughts as she struggles to maintain her position with England's volatile and dangerous king.
In one passage, for instance, Henry jokingly asks Jane if she is jealous of his attraction to a young lady-in-waiting. Jane quickly thinks through what Catherine and what Anne might have said in similar circumstances and tries to craft a different response that will ease the tension and please the king. In another passage, Jane pleads with Henry for more just treatment of the convents and monasteries that are being destroyed. Henry's response is a chilling, "Remember, milady, the fate of your predecessor."
Even as Jane's story draws to its sad close, the author engages the reader with one burning question--was it all worth it?
Plain Jane Critique
Plain Jane does take a few missteps, the most annoying one being how long it takes Jane to realize the king has a romantic interest in her. She is portrayed as a woman who is incredibly intuitive about human psychology, yet she stumbles through chapter after chapter without realizing the king is nursing a knockout of a royal crush.
But that's a small complaint about an otherwise stellar book. If Tudor history is your thing, run, do not walk, to find a copy of Plain Jane.
Title: Plain Jane: A Novel of Jane Seymour
Author: Laurien Gardner
Publisher: Jove
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 344
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