IT appeareth plainly by a passage in the act of parliament, that the king was not only invited to his marriage by his own affections, but by the humble petition and intercession of most of the nobles of his realm, moved thereunto, as well by the conveniency of her years, as in respect that by her excellent beauty and pureness of flesh and blood (I speak the very words of the act itself) she was apt (God willing) to conceive issue.* And so it proved accordingly.
This queen died some days after the birth of prince Edward her son.* Of all the wives of king Henry, she only had the happiness to die in his full favour,* the 24th of October, 1537; and is buried in the choir of Windsor chapel; the king continuing in real mourning for her, even all the festival of Christmas.
abridged and emended
* Fuller is quoting from the Second Succession Act (1536), 28 Henry VIII c.7.. In a series of lengthy provisions, the Act proclaimed Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn illegal, labelled as treason any criticism of the King or sympathy for his opponents, and disqualified Anne’s daughter Elizabeth and Catherine’s daughter Mary from the succession. Courageously, Jane argued against these disqualifications, but was overruled.
* Edward was born on October 12th, 1537, and Jane died on October 24th owing to complications following the birth. She was twenty-nine.
* Her successor as Queen was Anne of Cleves, who was divorced almost at once in 1540, followed by Catherine Howard, executed in 1542, and Catherine Parr, who survived him. When his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, died in 1536, Henry would not even attend her funeral.
* Later King Edward VI, who reigned from the death of his father in 1547 until his own death in 1553.