The Irish standard., 1898-04-30

Which was considered to render her
marriage null and void and Elizabeth il
legitimate.
while her husband waited, with the
huntsmen and the hounds around him,
for the signal to tell him that she was
dead; and then he was off to marry
Jane Seymour.
Mistress Seymour had more than a
mixture OF very plebeian blood. BY his
marriage to her Henry gained one BROTH
er- in-law who was grandson to a black
smith and another whose name was
Smith. Jane was sc and by no means
q beauty, nor, If VIC may judge Of her
actions before her marriage. particularly
discreet. While Anne was in the Tower
awaiting the day of her death Jane Scy-
mour was at her fathers home Wolf
Hall, making ready for her marriage,
which could not take place until her
predecessor was dead. She has been called
the fair, discreet and humble queen but
it seems hardly good description Of the
woman who could make ready for q mcr
ry wedding for which another woman S
blood was to flow. This was no girl
taken captive by love. but a willy woman,
approaching middle age, influencing a
man who by over-indulgcnce had be-
come almost insane.
'They still point out the oak tree at
Richmond under which Henry stood to
hear the signal, and from which he
started post haste to his third wedding
Both of Henry's daughters had been
declared illegitimate, and Jane Sey-
mours children were expected to reign.
When the young Prince Edward was
born, his mother almost died, and the
surgeons asked Henry which they should
save, mother or child. The child by
all means,' the king answered. There
are other wives
But it was the christening festivities
which rioted through Hampton Court
that killed Jane Seymour. She was the
only one Of Henry's wives who died a
that she died when she did. Henry re-
spectcd her as the mother of his Success
sor, and ordered in his will that she
should bo buried in his tomb. When
sor for the remains Of Charles H., he
found her coffin by the side of Henrv's
gigantic frame.
England was now divided by the old
, and new religions, and each was deter
mined to find Henry a wife, because 1t
would probably depend upon her to say
whether or not tine nation should go
back to Rome. II was suggested that a
Lutheran princess, Anne Of Cleves,
should be wed. 1t began to appear that
any queen Of Henry's was only expert
mental.
ITO further this marriage, Holbein was
instructed to paint the princess portrait
for tho king. He succeeded so well that
Henry was quite taken with the likeness.
When poor Anne came over, 1t was seen
that terrible mistake had been made,
Henry had been accustomed to the most
accomplished beauties Of the time, and
| here was a plain, thick -waisted, stupid
girl, whose dull face was pitted with
smallpox, who knew no language cx-
cept her own, and could neither dance,
dress nor sing. She was minded,
good woman, but good women without
NF
ry.
when she came to England he ell
tered her presence quite unannounccl.
expecting to find woman as beautiful
as Anne Boleyn and as stately as Catha-
| rine of Aragon. His couricrs said that
| it was the only time they ever saw the
king abashed. 1t is probable that Anne
was no less revolted than he, for Henry
! had lost all his beauty, and was a corpu-
| lent, unWieldy old man; but he could
| express his fury and she could not. He
| brought to disgrace and the block those
who had forced this marriage upon him,
and then one day his eye chanccd upon
another maid of honor, Catharinc, dallgh-
! ter Of Lord Edmund Howard, and Anne
was invited to go to Richmond for a
change Of air. When told she was to be
| divorced, she expressed pleasure for the
| first time since she had ocmc to Eng
land, and thereby still more bitterly Of
Tended Henry, who imagined that every
body loved him.
"But he gave her $4,000 year and a
palace, and Anne, called now the king
adopted sister, led a fair, merry life.
! She was the friend Of her stcpdaughters,
Mary and Elizabeth, and when she, who
had como to fix England in the Protest
ant faith, came to die, it was as a Catho-
lie. Her monument, erected in West
minister Abbey by Mary, is the only one
that any of Henry's wives ever had.
Catherine Howard's story would
make a plot for @ modern novel of the
sort beloved of the morbid. 1t was tl:'
| fashion in that day to send girls Of noble
families to some friend to be educated
Catharine, daughter OF one OF the
greatest houses in England, was sent to
| the old Duchess of Norfolk, who was a
woman of the most vulgar character.
] Here the child fell into the worst COM