Early Life and First Marriage
Born in London in about 1445, Jane Shore was the daughter of a prosperous merchant named John Lambert and his wife Amy, who was the daughter of a well-off grocer named Robert Marshall. She was originally christened "Elizabeth" but took up the name "Jane" later on for unknown reasons.
Spending time in her father’s shop at a young age brought her into contact with ladies of high rank. From these customers Jane was able to observe their behaviour and gain an understanding of the manners of those higher ranking than herself. She was thought to have been highly intelligent, and as a result received an education that was not usually associated with a person of her class.
Jane’s beauty was well-known throughout London, earning her the title of “The Rose of London”. She attracted many suitors, among them William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, friend and confidant of Edward IV. It is likely Hastings fell in love with Jane before her marriage. His affection for Jane is apparent later in life by his continual protection of her. Jane’s beauty was not the only characteristic that made her appealing for men. She was also admired for her pleasant, warm-hearted personality and her wit.
Such extreme attention made finding his daughter a suitable husband desirous for John Lambert. Such an opportunity presented itself with William Shore (d. 1494), a mercer and common visitor to the Lambert home. He was approximately 14 or 15 years older than Jane. Though handsome and well-to-do, he never really won her affections. Their marriage was annulled in March 1476 after Jane petitioned the annulment of her marriage on the grounds that William was impotent, which prevented her from fulfilling her desire to have children. Pope Sixtus IV commissioned three bishops to decide the case, who granted the annulment.
Read more about this topic: Jane Shore
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or marriage:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“Television ... helps blur the distinction between framed and unframed reality. Whereas going to the movies necessarily entails leaving one’s ordinary surroundings, soap operas are in fact spatially inseparable from the rest of one’s life. In homes where television is on most of the time, they are also temporally integrated into one’s “real” life and, unlike the experience of going out in the evening to see a show, may not even interrupt its regular flow.”
—Eviatar Zerubavel, U.S. sociologist, educator. The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life, ch. 5, University of Chicago Press (1991)
“In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don’t know, but they do.”
—Patricia Neal (b. 1926)