Quotes from Leslie Carroll

Queen Jane Seymour's epitaph, inscribed in Latin, translated roughly to: Here lies Jane, a phoenix Who died in giving another phoenix birth, Let her be mourned, for birds like these Are rare indeed.

It was a popular theory at the time that death didn't automatically end a marriage because the spouses would eventually be reunited in heaven. The most pragmatic reason for the Church's view was that England was a land-based society and property was inherited upon the death of a spouse, so a remarriage threatened the inheritance of any issue from the previous union.

During her childhood, Jane had been "placed out," the term for children from middle-income families who were sent to live with members of the nobility, or the offspring of an aristocrat who were sent to the palace to learn the manners and customs of royalty, to better cement the family's social connections and pave the way for a spectacular marriage.

Jane did believe she was all that,

Napoleon would always be extremely fastidious when it came to other people's morals, although his own were frequently questionable.

It only increased Margaret's dislike of her name when young Elizabeth, whom the family called Lilibet, insisted on referring to her baby sister as "Bud". "She's not a real rose yet, is she? She's only a bud." Elizabeth, who was four years Margaret's senior, pertly told Lady Cynthia Asquith.

It was psychologically natural for the lively younger sister to become the royal equivalent of the enfant terrible.

Altering the rules of succession and coups d'état is all fun and games until the crown actually hits the hairline. Then somebody's gonna get hurt.

The following day, the Lord Treasurer demanded all of the jewels and finery he had so obsequiously bestowed upon Jane not ten days earlier, then went through Jane and Guildford's possessions like a repo man.

Victoria was, at the time, far more empathetic and forgiving, chiding Albert for his narrow view of humanity. 'I always think that one ought always to be indulgent towards other people, as I always think, if we had not been well brought up and well taken care of, we might also have gone astray.

Under the English common law doctrine known as jure uxoris, upon her marriage a woman's property and titles held in her own right became her husband's as well. Therefore, it was not a stretch of the imagination to fear that any man Mary married would become king of England in fact as well as in name.