The May Bride
By Suzannah Dunn,
Pegasus, 352 pages, $25.95
My first reaction when I found this book on my review list was that of dismay. Not another book on the Tudors, I thought. I have been through a host of them, courtesy British historical novelist Philippa Gregory. I didn’t think I wanted to plough through a novel on Henry VIII and his many wives, the most famous being Anne Boleyn.
But Suzannah Dunn surprised me, especially as I wasn’t familiar with her earlier work. The book was from the perspective of the Tudor king’s third wife, the only one to have a male heir who survived infancy. Her son, Edward VI, reigned for a short while in the 16th century and died at the age of 15.
Jane Seymour was considered to be one of the more gentle wives of King Henry, with great skill in embroidery and other domestic duties. Her portraits don’t show her as a great beauty but historians say she scored with an alluring demeanour.
Seymour was married to Henry the day after the execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and reigned as queen for about a year. She died within two weeks of childbirth.
Interestingly, in the book, Boleyn comes across as a bit of an impostor and the first wife, Catherine of Aragon, as an epitome of grace under pressure. Past impressions have been of Catherine as a bit of a frightening paragon of the Catholic faith and of Anne as a charming victim of her family’s greed.
I guess, history often travels beyond the realm of fact, into perspectives, creating people and scenarios that alter based on inclinations.
Dunn’s Seymour is interesting and the book also focuses on a relatively less-discussed character of that period, Katherine Filliol, who was Seymour’s sister-in-law. Her husband is more read about — Edward Seymour, who was executed on charges of treason.
“The May Bride” is well written and brings to life a young woman who spent most of her years learning to be useful and invisible — skills that eventually helped her become queen.
What would have become of King Henry had she survived? Well, he apparently mourned her for more than three years and is buried next to her. The book gives you a glimpse of a young woman whose heart might have inspired fidelity in a king.
