Anne, Margaret and Jane Seymour

Despite the fame their work brought them, and despite the importance of their parents in mid-Tudor England, relatively little is known of the lives of Anne, Margaret and Jane Seymour - daughters of Anne Stanhope and the Duke of Somerset. In 1550, aged roughly eighteen, sixteen and nine, these three noblewomen composed a Latin poem of 104 distichs on the death of Marguerite de Navarre, which they sent to their former tutor, Nicolas Denisot, now living in Paris. Entitled Annae, Margaritae, Janae, Sororum virginum heroidum anglarum, in mortem Divae Margaritae Valesiae, navarrorum Reginae, Hecatodistichon, it was the first formal and original verse encomium in Latin penned by a female author to be printed in England. The Hecatodistichon was published in Paris in 1550 by Denisot, as the cornerstone of a collective tumulus, or commemorative volume, dedicated to Marguerite. The French literati were swift to respond to the appearance of the volume. In 1551 Denisot republished the Seymour's poem in a completely new volume with a French title that emphasised the collective nature of the Tombeau volume. Both volumes are reproduced here from editions held at the British Library.