Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky.

Listener discretion advised.

This is Dana Schwartz.

I'm still on maternity leave, and so today we're going back to the archives, revisiting the series I did on Henry the Eighth's Six Wives.

This episode is about Jane Seymour, the wife who gave Henry the son he so desperately

wanted, and the wife he would ultimately choose to be buried with.

Hope you enjoy.

Henry the 8th died in 1547, obese and ulcered, one leg still rotting from a bad fall off a horse

decades earlier. After his corpse was embalmed and spiced, it lay in state in the presence chamber of Whitehall,

surrounded by burning taper candles. And then, two weeks later, the slow procession to his burial

site began. A carriage followed by hundreds of men on horseback.

The carriage itself was massive, elaborate and tall, pulled by eight horses, each ridden by a child.

On top of the hearse, in full view of the public that had come out onto the streets to say goodbye to their king, was an effigy,

made of wax and wood, meant to resemble the king in his more handsome days. The effigy were

satin and velvet and jewels, with rings dotting its gloved hands. It wore a crown.

But when King Henry's procession finally reached its destination,

St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle,

his tomb wasn't gilded or flanked by sculptures,

the type of pomp you would expect for the final resting place,

of a man who saw himself as a dynastic hero,

the champion of England, chosen by God to lead their church and their nation.

That was the tomb he had wanted for himself,

...