Jane and the fall of the Boleyn family, May 1536

On the 4th May 1536, Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford sent a message to her husband, George, who was now in the Tower of London. He had been taken to the Tower on the 2nd May, on the same day as his sister, Anne Boleyn. Jane was not allowed to send to him a personal letter, or even visit him, so instead had to send a message for Sir William Kingston, the constable of the Tower, to give to George. We know what her message was because Kingston reported this in a letter to Cromwell. The letter was found in a collection of damaged documents that had been thankfully saved from a fire at Ashburnham House, Westminster in 1731.

In the letter, it says that Kingston reported to Cromwell that Jane asked how George was and promised that she would “humbly (make) suit onto the King’s highness” for him. George was very grateful for the message and his response was he wanted to “give her thanks”. The possibility of Jane petitioning the King and the Council, would have brought George some comfort. With his trial looming, which eventually took place on the 15th May, George asked Kingston when he would see the Council. He then broke down and then said “for I think I (may not) come forth till I come to my judgement”. This has been interpreted as meaning that if it wasn’t for Jane’s help, he knew that no one would listen to his side of the story before his trial; not even George’s own uncle, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and own father-in-law, Henry Parker, Lord Morley, who were both amongst the Judges at George’s trial. Also, in reality, Jane, no matter how much she would have wanted, would have not been able to have petitioned on George’s behalf to the King at this stage.

The information in this letter is quite extraordinary. We are often given a very negative image of Jane and George’s marriage - that she was the jealous wife that wanted him dead and that he ill-treated her. However, the information in this letter gives a different image of their relationship. Unlike, George’s parents, Jane did not abandon him when he was in the Tower. Likewise, in response to her message, he acknowledged it – he did not ignore it, or insult her in response, he was grateful and thanked her for it. I think this alone speaks volumes about their relationship and that it suggests we may need to rethink how we view it now.

George was accused of incest with Anne. The accusation has often been attributed to Jane herself. However, like the negative view of their marriage, this is another slight misconception as the accusation originated from Elizabeth Browne, Lady Worcester, who has been dubbed “the first accuser of the Queen”. Jane, however, was still interrogated as was everyone that was close to the Queen and the Boleyn family. The main reason for interrogating Jane was due to a delicate conversation that she had had with Anne over the King’s impotence. This shows that Jane and Anne were actually very close, close enough for Anne to confide in her about the King. This in itself dispels another popular myth about Jane – that she hated and was envious of Anne. Anne had told her “le Roy n’estoit habile en cas de soy copuler avec femme et qu’il n’avoit ne vertu ne puissance”. Jane then went onto to repeat this conversation with George. Withholding this information would have been treasonous for Jane, so when she was interrogated, unless she wanted to join Anne and George in the Tower, she had absolutely no choice, but to give this information to Cromwell.

Therefore, one thing that does seem certain is that the information Jane gave towards the trials in May 1536 has been skewed, leading to the popular belief that she accused them of incest. It is possible that Lady Rochford and Lady Worcester may have simply been mixed-up. As a result, Jane has become a kind of scapegoat in history for the fall of the Boleyn family.

Sources – “Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford” by Julia Fox and “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn” by Eric Ives.

Image - Jane Boleyn and Anne Boleyn from "The Tudors", played by Joanne King and Natalie Dormer.