This book kind of reminds me of a biography of King Tut I once read. We know more about Jane Seymour than we do about King Tut -- but not that much more. Thus both books were mainly a series of educated guesses.

Compared to the other five wives -- especially Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn -- Jane is a shadow. She married Henry VIII immediately after Anne Boleyn's execution. A year and a half later she gave birth to Henry's only legitimate male heir, and then a few days later she died of childbed fever. And as it turned out, her son, by virtue of his own short life, turned out to be nearly as insignificant as his mother was.

Gross spends a great deal of time on the apparel in the Queen's household, both her Majesty's and those of her staff, simply because that's about the only aspect of her queenship that we have details of. Jane disdained her predecessor Anne Boleyn's Frenchified fashions and dressed more like Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife, in old-fashioned gable hoods. She preferred lots of embroidery, jewels and pearls on her clothes, perhaps to compensate for her dumpy figure and plain appearance. That is all.

Quoting another author, Gross notes of Jane, "She passed eighteen months of regal life without uttering a sentence significant enough to bear preservation."

"In essence," Gross says, "that is exactly what this work has been about."

I understand that Jane Seymour was the only queen of Henry VIII that no one had written about at length (Elizabeth Norton has written a book since then, Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's True Love) but there was kind of a reason for that. This book bored me stiff. Plus, the copyediting was terrible. ( )

Jane, The Quene: Third Consort of King Henry VIII by Dr. Pamela Gross is not one of the most accessible biographies of the elusive Jane Seymour. Most internet outlets list the biography as selling for more than two-hundred dollars. I obtained a copy through my state's centralized library union catalog and, as someone who has always been fascinated by Jane Seymour, I'm glad that I did.

Dr. Gross's biography was the first of its kind published about Jane Seymour. As Dr. Gross notes, a number of works published about King Henry VIII's wives only include cursory information about his third wife, and much of it based on myth. Granted, little is actually known about Jane. Very few records remain offering any insight concerning her birth and childhood, her arrival at court, and her life with Henry VIII. This lack of information results in a short biographical sketch, less than two-hundred pages long. However, the information Dr. Gross was able to piece together results in an interesting image of a figure who has long been shrouded in mystery.

The thesis Dr. Gross presents in Jane: The Quene is not that Jane Seymour was passive and submissive, submitting to the command of either Henry VIII or her family, but rather a clever, deceptively shrewd, and demanding woman. A woman who actively capitalizes on Anne Boylen's waning position in King Henry VIII's court. A woman clever enough to know not to push her luck with Henry VIII. And a woman who paid the ultimate price to be queen. I didn't feel that Dr. Gross's characterization of Jane was in any way demonizing or biased (in contrast to Agnes Strickland's grossly biased characterization of Jane in her biography of Anne Boylen), but is rather an indication of the quality of her research. In fact I think her characterization gives Jane more depth than the pious and meek figure that is recognizable today.

While Dr. Gross presents a very well researched and informative biography, the editing detracts from the scholarly nature of the work. The spelling errors and incomplete sentences should have been corrected before publication. Furthermore, I felt that she used brackets excessively. The scholarly quality of Jane, The Quene, however, more than makes up for any editorial issues present.

Anyone interested, as I was, in reading a scholarly account of Jane Seymour's life should consider making an attempt to locate this book at a library in their state (or buy it if you have an extra two-hundred dollars lying around).

Dr. Pamela Gross was an associate professor of history at Adams State College (now Adams State University). She received her PhD from University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, where she specialized in Tudor-Stuart England. ( )

Pamela M. Gross has attempted to gather all the information available on Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII of England, and mother of his only legitimate son to outlive infancy (and Henry). It seems to be extremely thorough, but it still makes for a rather short book. Gross first gives us a biography of Jane, carefully checking the available details and presenting them with precision. She then examines life in the Queen's chambers: how her household was established and run. She then considers Jane's "afterlife", how she has been portrayed in history, literature and movies. There is a selection of representations of Jane, including contemporary portraits, wax images in museums, Henry and his wife as Christmas ornaments, clothing design elements, and figurines.



In her appendices, Gross includes surviving letters, lists of her household members, the lands that formed her jointure, and a note on the survival of needlework said to have been done by her.



Gross thinks that Jane's image as a gentle, pious innocent has been overdone. She points out that Jane was courting with another woman's husband, and was willing to accept the spoils of closed monasteries. Gross thinks that Jane was probably actually a shrewd woman, who would have liked to exert more influence over Henry. In the first few months of her marriage, she did attempt, usually unsuccessfully, to persuade him to various actions. After about five months, he told her to reflect on the fate of Anne Boleyn. Jane took the hint and confined her decisions to her own household, where Gross believe she was probably a demanding mistress.



The book could have done with more editing. At one point, she says that the chief mourner for Catherine of Aragon was one of Henry's nieces, and a few lines later says that Mrs. Bedingfield was principal mourner. If there is a distinction between being chief and principal mourner, I'd like to know what it is. The photographs are also something of a disappointment: some are rather unclear, although others are very good.



On the whole, I found the book very interesting, very vivid, and it should be a starting point for anyone writing seriously on Jane. ( )