What did Jane Seymour really look like?
Re-creation of the face of Jane Seymour from her 1536/37 portrait by Hans Holbein.
Jane Seymour is one of Henry VIII’s most enigmatic wives. Despite being the one to give birth to a son, Henry’s greatest desire, she died not long after the birth. We know very little about her - lost to history are her personal thoughts, motivations, and feelings.
Henry’s choice of Jane Seymour as his next Queen puzzled the Tudor court. Jane was from a family whose ties to English royalty reached far back, but the Seymour’s had recently fallen on harder times.
Jane was entirely different from her predecessor, Anne Boleyn. Where Anne was hot tempered, Jane was demure and obedient. Where Anne was witty and charming, Jane was hardly educated and quiet. But these very qualities might have been what attracted King Henry to her in the first place - they represented a return to peace, and to the status quo.
In addition to few portraits, we also have very few descriptions of Jane from her own time. This is what we know:
Jane was considered quite plain, even for the standards of the time. She was 27 when she married the King, old by Tudor standards, with very fair skin, dark blue or grey eyes, and was a medium height.
Ambassador Chapuys wrote that she was of “no great beauty”, and Sir John Russell remarked that she needed a lot of adornment, like fine fabrics and jewelry, to shine, whereas her predecessor Anne Boleyn needed very little.
However, as we know, her unassuming appearance and demeanor helped her greatly in her marriage to the king.
In terms of portraiture, we have a stunning life portrait of Jane by Hans Holbein, and very little else. Her time as Queen was so short that there simply wasn’t time to make multiple portraits.
Life portrait of Queen Jane Seymour, by Hans Holbein. 1536 or 1537.
Anne Boleyn in her favorite style of headdress, called the French Hood.
This detailed portrait shows her clothing beautifully - apparently Jane had an enormous wardrobe. She particularly loved embroidery; we can see her sleeves beautifully embroidered in the style called Blackwork, originally introduced to England by Catherine of Aragon.
Jane would also only wear the gable hood - this style of frankly, not very flattering headdress. However, this was more of a political statement than a fashion one - it was meant to be a departure from Anne Boleyn and her love of the - admittedly prettier - French Hood. The French Hood revealed some hair, and was daintier and generally considered prettier than the blocky Gable Hood.
