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40 Facts About the Tudor Era’s Awful Courtier, Thomas Seymour

Khalid Elhassan March 22, 2019 24 min

39. The Seymours Got Their First Big Break Thanks to King Henry VIII’s Libido

Edward Seymour, Thomas Seymour’s older brother. Wikimedia

In the 1530s, the greatest issue roiling English politics was king Henry VIII’s quest for a male heir. His first wife, Katherine of Aragon, had only borne him a daughter, princess Mary, but the king wanted a male heir to feel secure in the continuity of his dynasty. So Henry sought to divorce Katherine and marry Anne Boleyn. After a years-long song and dance between the king and the Pope, who refused to grant a divorce, Henry VIII took England out of the Catholic camp, made the country Protestant, and married Anne. After all that, however, she failed to produce a male heir, only a daughter, princess Elizabeth. Henry VIII soured on Anne, and his wandering eye fell upon Jane Seymour – Thomas Seymour’s sister.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.