The mystery of Mary Seymour

Dear Everyone,

I've been musing, somewhat inspired by last night's Lady Jane post...how can one not be inspired by such a tale of blood and thunder, betrayal and tragedy. I got to wondering what on earth happened to Mary Seymour, the daughter of Henry VIII's 6th and surviving wife, the Queen Dowager Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour (whom she married after Henry kicked the bucket - a very bad choice of husband. He was, in fact, her fourth, and brother of the late Jane Seymour), Baron of Sudeley and High Lord Admiral.

Mary was born at the end of August, 1548. Days after she entered the world, Catherine Parr died and Mary Seymour's life story began to fade into obscurity.

Within six months, her father was executed for sedition (he had been involved in a plan to kidnap his nephew King Edward VI and also had designs to marry the fifteen year old Princess Elizabeth) and his properties forfeited to the crown. Mary was sent to live with her mother's friend, the Duchess of Suffolk, for whom the financial burden of the tiny baby's household proved exorbitant. Her mother's fortune had all been left entirely to Thomas Seymour, thus all confiscated, leaving little Mary a destitute orphan. A year and a half later, most of Mary's property was restored to her by act of parliament, but, by all accounts, she did not live to enjoy it.

The last recorded mention of Mary is on the eve of her second birthday on August 30, 1550. She then vanished from recorded history. We know that Mary's christening took place a few days after her birth and that the then Princess Mary (Tudor) was chosen as her godmother. Though stories circulated that Mary Seymour eventually married and set up a family of her own, most historians believe that she died in infancy.

There are several versions of what became of little Mary Seymour. One theory is that the Duchess of Suffolk escaped with baby Mary to France when the persecutions of the Protestants began under Bloody Mary. They returned to England in 1559 where Mary died from consumption two years later, aged thirteen.

I'd so love to believe that she survived into adulthood, had a family of her own and was happy. Victorian writer Agnes Strickland claims that she DID survive and married Sir Edward Bushel, a member of Queen Anne of Denmark's household. There's even a painting of her in adulthood. This version goes that Mary had a daughter who married a Sir Silas Johnson and inherited part of her mother's confiscated inheritance. There are even odd rumours that Mary survived into the next century.

Others say that Mary was "removed" from the Duchess's care to Wexford, Ireland, and raised by the Hart family. They were Protestants and had been very much involved in piracy along the Irish coast, sharing the profit of their booty in an arrangement with Thomas Seymour. A ring inscribed 'What I Have I Hold', an early gift to Thomas from his brother, was passed down through Mary's 'descendants', the Seymour-Harts, and remained in the family up to at least 1927.

What about the writer and historian, Alison Weir? What does she say? Well, she warns that any evidence that claims Mary survived should be treated with extreme caution . . . she says that a 'Queen's Child' wouldn't have just disappeared from history if she had survived. Hmm...and she's surely right. How come there is no official record of Mary's death, though? That, too, would have made 'headlines', right? The historian who found evidence for Mary's survival also explains that her low profile may have been deliberately and carefully stage-managed in order to protect her from the persecution of Protestant families by Mary Tudor, her godmother, whose reign followed.

Does anyone have any additional info. It's such an enigma and I'd love to know what became of her. It's all very curious...and I don't like unsolved mysteries!

Other sites concerning Mary Seymour include RootsWeb: GOONS-L Archives, Suite101.com and of course, Wikipedia.

The second theory was that she escaped with the Duchess of Suffolk to France when the persecution of Protestants began under Bloody Mary and returned to England in 1559. Mary is claimed to have died soon afterward of consumption, in 1561, aged thirteen.

Read more: http://historicalbiographies.suite101.com/article.cfm/mary_seymour_daughter_of_queen_catherine_parr#ixzz0SDKJCRSx

The second theory was that she escaped with the Duchess of Suffolk to France when the persecution of Protestants began under Bloody Mary and returned to England in 1559. Mary is claimed to have died soon afterward of consumption, in 1561, aged thirteen.

Read more: http://historicalbiographies.suite101.com/article.cfm/mary_seymour_daughter_of_queen_catherine_parr#ixzz0SDKJCRSx