Introduction
Jane Seymour, sister of the Duke of Somerset, was maid of honour to Queen Catherine, wife of King Henry VIII, and later to Queen Anne, who took Catherine’s place and crown in 1533. To Anne’s consternation, and apparently to her surprise, Jane supplanted her in Henry’s affections and within a fortnight of Anne’s execution in 1536, Henry and Jane were married.
JANE SEYMOUR, daughter to Sir John Seymour, knight, (honourably descended from the lords Beauchamps),* was (as by all concurring probabilities is collected) born at Wulf-hall in this county,* and after was married to king Henry the Eighth.*
It is currently traditioned, that at her first coming to court, queen Anne Boleyn, espying a jewel pendant about her neck, snatched thereat (desirous to see, the other unwilling to show it,) and casually hurt her hand with her own violence;* but it grieved her heart more, when she perceived it the king’s picture by himself bestowed upon her, who from this day forward dated her own declining, and the other’s ascending, in her husband’s affection.
* In English, the surname Beauchamp (originally French) is pronounced ‘Beecham’, and Fuller’s phrase ‘the lords Beauchamps’ should be read as ‘the lords Beecham’. When Roger Seymour (-?1361) married Cecily Beauchamp (?-1393), heiress of John IV de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp (1330-1361), the Seymours inherited the Beauchamp family seat of Hatch Beauchamp, and on Jane’s marriage to Henry in 1536 her brother Edward was created Earl of Beauchamp.
* Wulfhall or Wolfhall was a manor house in Burbage, Wiltshire, owned by the Seymour family. After Jane died the family fell from favour and her brother Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, was executed in 1552. By 1571 the house had been abandoned, and barely a trace of it remains visible.
* Henry was betrothed to Jane on May 20th, 1536, the day after Anne Boleyn was beheaded. They were married ten days later and she was publicly proclaimed Queen on June 4th.
* Jane was appointed maid of honour to Catherine of Aragon, Henry’s first wife, in 1532. After Anne became Queen in Catherine’s place in 1533, Jane served her in the same capacity, so new jewellery would be instantly seen and remarked upon.
Précis
In 1536, Jane Seymour became Henry VIII’s third wife. Anne Boleyn, the second of the six, had the first inklings of it when she found Jane, her maid of honour, wearing a locket that proved to be an intimate gift from the king. She wrenched it from her rival’s neck but gained no more than a cut hand. (58 / 60 words)
In 1536, Jane Seymour became Henry VIII’s third wife. Anne Boleyn, the second of the six, had the first inklings of it when she found Jane, her maid of honour, wearing a locket that proved to be an intimate gift from the king. She wrenched it from her rival’s neck but gained no more than a cut hand.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, besides, despite, or, ought, since, who.
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