Speculation: Why did Henry marry Jane Seymour?

Eleven days after the execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII wed Jane Seymour, the lady-in-waiting who had been his mistress for some four months. He had fought for seven years to marry Anne Boleyn, and had to wait just some weeks whilst her trials were underway, a bit more than a week after her execution, to marry Jane. What did he see in Jane? Was there a reason why he wed her so immediately?

Eustace Chapuys observed that Jane was of "middling stature" as well as "pale" and of little beauty. Anne Boleyn had never exactly been called beautiful, but was known for her allure; Jane was a conservative woman who banned the seductive French fashions from the court which Anne had encouraged. She could read and write very little; her primary talents were needlework and house management, she was quiet and of little spirit. Why did Henry fall in love with Plain Jane, the sort of girl who was a dime a dozen at his court?

She and Anne were different like night and day -- literally. She was fair-haired and gentle, Anne was dark, wild and at times, reckless. Henry had tired from the roughness, quarrels, storms that came along with being with Anne; Jane comforted him, she was gentle, nurturing, she was docile, obedient, quiet, warm. Jane was what he believed he needed, her own motto was "Bound to obey and serve."

Jane might have been chaste, virtuous, conservative -- but one must remember that she was also complacent and obedient. Could it be that Henry VIII wed Jane so immediately because she was pregnant? He had been fairly patient with Catherine, and Anne, who I believe was 28 at the time (c. 1507, read this) could eventually bear him more sons; but he was desperate for his son, and as he had at the discovery of Anne's pregnancy in 1532/3, Henry would do whatever it took to free himself of his wife and get his heir. Of course, Jane Seymour being pregnant is really just a theory. Henry might have simply impulsively decided that he had finished with Anne; he might have been plotting to rid of her since her January miscarriage. Who knows?