on the neck of rural
England. To the party that had hoped to make use of her, Jane Seymour was
thus, to some extent, a disappointment;[177] but her placid
submissiveness, which made her a bad political instrument, exactly suited
a husband so imperious as Henry; and from a domestic point of view the
union was successful. During the summer Jane shared in her husband's
progresses and recreations, but as the months rolled on and no hope came
of offspring, ominous rumours ran that Jane's coronation would be deferred
until it was proved that she might bear children to the King; and some
said that if she proved barren a pretext would be found for displacing her
in favour of another. Indeed, only a few days after the public marriage,
Henry noticed two very beautiful girls at Court, and showed his annoyance
that he had not seen them before taking Jane.

After six months of marriage without sign of issue, Henry began to take
fright. The Duke of Richmond was dead, and both the King's daughters were
acknowledged by the law of England to be illegitimate. He was already
forty-six years of age, and had lately grown very obese; and his death
without further issue or a resettlement of the succession would inevitably
lead to a dynastic dispute, with the probable result of the return of the
House of York to the throne in the person of one of the Poles under the
aegis of Rome. Whenever possible, Jane had said a good word for the
Princess Mary, and Henry began to listen more kindly than before to his
wife's well-meant attempts to soften him in favour of his daughter. The
Catholic party was all alert with new hopes that the King, convinced that
he could father no more sons, would cause his elder daughter to be
acknowledged his heir;[178] but the reformers, who had grown up
numerously, especially in and about London, during Henry's defiance of
Rome, looked askance at a policy which in time they feared might bring
back the old order of things. The mainstay of this party at Court, apart
from the professed Lutherans and the new bishops, were those who, having
received grants of ecclesiastical property, despaired of any return to the
Roman communion and the imperial alliance without the restoration of the
Church property. Amongst these courtiers was Jane's brother, Edward
Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp, who had received large grants of
ecclesiastical lands at intervals since 1528. He was a personal friend of
the King, and had taken no active part in