This threnody is said to have been current throughout Scotland. There is another, not in the popular style, in the Crowne Garland of Golden Roses, 1612, Percy Society, vol. vi, p. 29: The Wofull Death of Queene Jane, wife to King Henry the Eight, and how King Edward was cut out of his mother's belly. This is reprinted in Old Ballads, 1723, II, 115, and Evans's Collection, 1777, 1784, II, 54, and is among Pepys's Penny Merriments, vol. iii. 'A ballett called The Lady Jane' and another piece entitled The Lamentation of Quene Jane were licensed in 1560; Stationers' Registers, Arber, I, 151 f.
Jane Seymour gave birth to Prince Edward October 12, 1537, and by a natural process, but, in consequence of imprudent management, died twelve days after. There was a belief that severe surgery had been required, under which the queen sank. The editor of Old Ballads, II, 116 f, cites Sir John Hayward as saying: "All reports do constantly run that he [Prince Edward] was not by natural passage delivered into the world, but that his mother's belly was opened for his birth, and that she died of the incision the fourth day following." And Du Chesne: "Quand ce vint au terme de 1'accouchement, elle eut tant de tourment et de peine qu'il lui fallut fendre le costé, par lequel on tira son fruit, le douzième jour d'Octobre. Elle mourut douze jours après." But Echard again: "Contrary to the opinion of many writers," the queen "died twelve days after the birth of this prince, having been well delivered, and without any incision, as others have maliciously reported."
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