Review | Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen

The Book: Jane Seymour: the Haunted Queen by Alison Weir

Date Published: May 15, 2018

Dates Read: July 19-23, 2018

Current Goodreads Rating: 4.16/5

You all know me by now. Sometimes it seems like I live and breathe Henry VIII and his six wives. Knowing this, it should be no surprise that I devour books about them as much as I can. Alison Weir is one of the authors I come across the most when looking for more Tudor books to read. She's written all kinds of things both non-fiction and fiction regarding the crazy king.

According to Alison Weir's website she was commissioned by a company called Headline to write a series of books each told in the point of view of one of Henry's wives. She plans on writing a book a year - "six wives, six years."

You all also probably know that my favorite wife is Anne Boleyn (thanks to the beautiful and talented Natalie Dormer), but reading from Jane's point of view was unexpectedly fascinating. Sure, some reviewers see Jane as the boring queen and, therefore, find fault with the book, but I think they are totally wrong.

Sure, Jane was a quiet queen who didn't push back against Henry VIII, but after a queen like Anne who pushed and prodded him and swayed most of his decisions of course he was going to look for a woman who was willing to keep her head down and produce heirs.

I think the reason I enjoyed reading from Jane's perspective was because of her hypocrisies. She served both prior queens and was incredibly loyal to Queen Katherine. Until Katherine's death Jane referred to her as the Queen even though she had been stripped from that title many years before. She was a chaste woman who condemned Anne's supposed adultery with Henry VIII, but didn't have any second thoughts when it came to luring Henry VIII away from Anne. This is because Jane believed that Henry and Katherine's marriage was true and his and Anne's marriage was a sham. So it was not a sin to seduce the king because he was not lawfully married.

Like, what kind of hypocrisy is that? I get that it's a different time, but the entire time Jane justified her feelings for the king (which that is a whole other story. How any sane woman could be in love with a fat bastard like Henry VIII is beyond me) I felt like I embodied that "oh honey what is you doing?" gif. In the end I felt bad for Jane because she was a pawn used in multiple games. She was used by her father and brothers in order to boost her family's reputation and she was used by her husband as a means to an end. Once she produced an heir and a spare she was basically useless.

One final thing: Another thing I'm morbidly fascinated with are old illnesses. What the hell was the sweating sickness? Personally I think it was the flu and everyone just needed to learn how to take care of themselves better. What the hell did Queen Katherine die from? Was it a tumor? Was it poison? We will never know!

Reading Anne's death was somewhat predictable. We got to be in the mind of a woman who was getting her head chopped of which was definitely something I'd never read before, but - I mean - you know how Anne died.

How did Jane die? Most historians believe she died from an infection after childbirth. Everything I've read regarding the third queen (though admittedly I haven't read much on her) states that Jane died from complications from childbirth. However, Weir believes something different.

According to Weir's research she believes that Jane died from the effects of two different illnesses. First, she believes that Jane suffered from food poisoning in the days after her labor and, the times being what they were, her doctors did not properly treat her dehydration afterwards. Weir claims that Jane's downfall comes down to a bad piece of fish and the fact that ale was given to replenish her fluids instead of water.

See? Fascinating.

What's Next? I know even less about Henry VIII's fourth, fifth, and sixth wife, but especially Anne of Kleve. From what little I do know, I know that she basically catfished the fat bastard (though I doubt that was really her fault. She didn't paint the original cameo Henry recieved and immediately fell in love with) and I know that he eventually divorced her and condemned Thomas Cromwell for treason.

If there was a "boring" queen I feel like Anne of Kleve would be the one to take that title, but I think Weir has different ideas. From her website,

"Most people think of Anna of Cleves – or Anna of Kleve, as she should be known – as the luckiest of Henry VIII’s wives. Having re-researched her story in depth for Anna of Kleve: Queens of Secrets, the fourth novel in my Six Tudor Queens series, I am not so sure that is true."

I never thought I'd be interested in any other wife than Anne Boleyn, but Weir does a great job at looking into the women who propped Henry VIII up.

Long Story Short:

• Medieval illnesses are pretty fascinating

• Henry VIII is an actual pig. Fuck that guy.

• All the Tudor queens are actually pretty rad.

My Rating: 4/5