Editing Henry VIII (section)

=== Marriage to Jane Seymour; domestic and foreign affairs ===
{{Multiple image
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| image1 = Hans Holbein the Younger - Jane Seymour, Queen of England - Google Art Project.jpg
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| footer = [[Jane Seymour]] (left) was Henry's third wife. She is pictured (right) with Henry and the young [[Edward VI|Prince Edward]] in a painting by an unknown artist; by the time this painting was completed, {{circa|1545}}, Henry was already married to his sixth wife, [[Catherine Parr]].
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The day after Anne's execution, the 45-year-old Henry became engaged to Seymour, who had been one of the Queen's [[ladies-in-waiting]]. They were married ten days later{{Sfn|Scarisbrick|1997|p=350}} at the [[Palace of Whitehall]], [[Whitehall]], London, in Anne's closet, by [[Stephen Gardiner]], [[Bishop of Winchester]].{{Sfn|Weir|2002|p=344}}

With Charles V distracted by the internal politics of his many kingdoms and external threats, and Henry and Francis on relatively good terms, domestic and not foreign policy issues had been Henry's priority in the first half of the 1530s. In 1536, for example, Henry granted his assent to the [[Laws in Wales Act 1535]], which legally annexed [[Wales]], uniting England and Wales into a single nation. This was followed by the [[Second Succession Act]] (the Succession to the Crown Act 1536), which declared Henry's children by Jane to be next in the line of succession and declared both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate, thus excluding them from the throne. The King was granted the power to further determine the line of succession in his will, should he have no further issue.{{Sfn|Scarisbrick|1997|pp=350–351}}

On 12 October 1537, Jane gave birth to a son, Prince Edward, the future [[Edward VI]].{{Sfn|Scarisbrick|1997|p=353}} The birth was difficult, and Queen Jane died on 24 October 1537 from an infection and was buried in Windsor.{{Sfn|Scarisbrick|1997|p=355}} The euphoria that had accompanied Edward's birth became sorrow, but it was only over time that Henry came to long for his wife. At the time, Henry recovered quickly from the shock.{{Sfn|Elton|1977|page=275}} Measures were immediately put in place to find another wife for Henry, which, at the insistence of Cromwell and the Privy Council, were focused on the European continent.{{Sfn|Scarisbrick|1997|pp=355–256}}

In 1538, as part of the negotiation of a secret treaty by Cromwell with Charles V, a series of dynastic marriages were proposed: Mary would marry a son of King [[John III of Portugal]], Elizabeth would marry one of the sons of King [[Ferdinand I of Hungary]] and the infant Edward would marry one of Charles's daughters. It was suggested the widowed Henry might marry [[Christina, Dowager Duchess of Milan]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry VIII: February 1538, 11–15 Pages 88–100 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 1, January–July 1538 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol13/no1/pp88-100 |access-date=11 December 2022 |website=British History Online |publisher=HMSO 1892}}</ref> However, when Charles and Francis made peace in January 1539, Henry became increasingly paranoid, perhaps as a result of receiving a constant list of threats to the kingdom (real or imaginary, minor or serious) supplied by Cromwell in his role as spymaster.{{Sfn|Loades|2009|pp=72–73}} Enriched by the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry used some of his financial reserves to build a [[Device Forts|series of coastal defences]] and set some aside for use in the event of a Franco-German invasion.{{Sfn|Loades|2009|pp=74–75}}