Customer Reviews

Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

There isn't a lot known about Jane Boleyn and this book is purely speculative. I appreciate the author's attempt to shed light on the infamous Lady Rochford, but the book falls short. The author's most quoted source is the Spanish ambassador, Chapuys, who was certainly a biased individual. I found the descriptions of the marriage negotiations and Jane Boleyn's widowhood fascinating. I wish there had been more discussion about the marriage between George Boleyn and Jane. The author says very little about George. The author's premise is to provide a more balanced picture of Jane Boleyn, but even the author is forced to concede that Jane Boleyn gave evidence against Anne of Cleves when Henry wanted to end that marriage and helped Catherine Howard conduct and conceal an adulterous affair. This was after she survived the bloodbath when Henry VIII disposed of Anne Boleyn. Not only did Jane survive, but she retained royal favor, serving Henry's next three queens. These are facts that confirm rather than contradict the accepted version of Lady Rochford.

I appreciate the difficulty of writing about a subject about whom so little is known but the legend of a conniving, hateful wife. I can appreciate Jane Boleyn being swept along during the rise and fall of her sister-in-law. Jane Boleyn was savvy enough to overcome the difficulty in regaining her position after the executions. She was not foolish, as evidenced by her negotiations with Thomas Boleyn for her jointure. Why did she allow herself to be caught up in Catherine Howard's dangerous and foolish love affair? The author doesn't provide a satisfactory hypothesis. The book was an interesting read.

One of the more interesting women of the reign of King Henry VIII of England tends to be either vilified, or given not much more than a momentary glance. She has come down through history as a treacherous woman, providing the testimony that doomed two queens to execution for adultery, and even accusing her husband of commiting incest. To cloud the matter further, it seems that she was mad and unknowing when she laid her head on the headsman block.

Author Julia Fox peels back the legends and works at recreating the real Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, from the information that actually exists about her. And what the reader discovers is that Jane Parker, as she was born, was hardly the scheming creature that popular fiction and some histories have made her out to be. But neither was she a completely innocent pawn either, and Jane Parker turns out to just an average woman, who finds herself in the middle of various conspiracies where a wrong word could mean a person's death.

The daughter of a minor nobleman, Lord Morley, Jane Parker grows up expecting to marry and have a household of her own, with security and some means to ensure a safe future. It was the typical role expected of every English gentlewoman, and from all accounts, Jane was more than happy to work towards it. Her father, a noted diplomat and scholar, had already started discussions with the Boleyn family nearby, and Jane was married at a young age to her cousin, George Boleyn, already becoming a young courtier at King Henry's household. As his wife, Jane would find herself in a glittering world, full of fine jewels and clothing, wonderful entertainments that she would take part in, and even a spot in Queen Catherine of Aragon's household as one of her ladies. It was a heady prospect, and one that Jane delighted in.

Now Jane Boleyn, she would have seen the stellar ascent of the Boleyn family when the youngest sister Anne arrived at Henry's court. One sister, Mary, had already become one of Henry's mistresses, but had never held out for riches or titles, and when Henry tired of her, he married her off to a minor nobleman of the court, William Carey. Anne decided that was not going to happen to her, and no matter how determined the King was to have her in his bed, Anne held out, proudly stating that she was too good to be his mistress, and held out for the role of his wife and queen.

It was possible -- Henry's current wife, Catherine of Aragon, was six years older than he was, and had born a long, sad succession of dead babies, resulting in an only daughter, Mary. And Anne was much younger than Henry, vivacious, educated and merry -- a woman far more interesting than Catherine. For seven years, Henry wrangled with Catherine and her powerful relatives, and finally declared himself the head of the Church in England, and broke with Roman Catholicism, to marry Anne. For the Boleyns, it was the route to permanent fame, and Jane Boleyn soon found herself a titled lady, Viscountess Rochford, a home in a royal palace that had been turned over to George Rochford, and ever growing number of manors and glittering wealth.

But Anne would give only a daughter, Elizabeth, and miscarriages to Henry, along with tantrums and shouting -- never something that a man wishes to linger in. And his attention had already turned to another young woman -- Jane Seymour. Jane was quiet, nearly plain, demure, and submissive to Henry's desires.

Unluckily for Jane Boleyn, it would be some of her words that would doom her husband and sister-in-law to the headsman. When Henry's lawyer, Thomas Cromwell, tell to disclose what she knew, she mentioned that the two siblings would be alone in Anne's bedchamber, their heads close, whispering. And what would doom George, was Jane's murmurring to him that the King's virility was a bit lacking in Anne's bed -- a secret that would doom nearly all of them.

Jane managed to hang onto some of her wealth, but nearly all of the lands and revenues and wealth vanished. The only person she could turn to was Cromwell, the man who had arranged for her husband's death...

Reading through this biography, I found myself very surprised by many of the twists and turns. There were quite a few surprises here -- I had no idea that Jane served as a lady-in-waiting to the first five of Henry VIII's wives. Eventually, it would be the last of them, Catherine Howard, that would provide her downfall, and the loss of everything, especially her reputation.

It's an interesting account of survival and betrayals. Most biographies set in the Tudor period focus on Henry and his many queens, and the lesser known people around them get not much more than a footnote. Here some of the grandness of Tudor life is given, especially in some of the court spectacles and ceremonies such as coronations, christening of royal infants, and even funerals.

Fox's writing is more of a fictional style, trying to build a bridge between her subject and her readers, and trying to reveal some of the psychology behind Jane's actions. Most of the time it works, and it gives a good look at the how the court must have appeared to someone who was not born into this grand life. While it is clear that the author has a great deal of sympathy for her character, she also doesn't try to whitewash it either.

Along with the narrative, there are two inserts of various art work from the period, showing the main players in this drama. Genealogical tables show the ties between the Parkers and the Boleyns. The footnotes are extensive, and the sources used excellent, with Fox going back to many of the originals to untangle the truth from the fiction. Two appendices discuss a possible portrait of Jane Rochford, and how her name became so blackened by later writers and to the modern day.

I had not really expected much when I had read this biography, but as I continued, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the story. It's far from being sensationalistic, and it tries to present the story as close to the probable truth as possible. I will continue to look forward to more from this author in the future.

Four stars, overall. Recommended.

There are countless historical personages about whom very little documentary evidence remains extant, and Jane Parker Boleyn is one of them. Julia Fox has attempted to piece together a biography of this woman, lady in waiting to 4 of Henry VIII's ill fated queens. As wife and widow to Anne Boleyn's brother, George, Lord Rochford, Jane was a firsthand witness to the madness that swirled around the court of England's most monomaniacal monarch. Fox portrays her not as the infamous, self-serving turncoat, but as a woman buffeted by the demands and restrictions placed upon Tudor women of her social class. Whenever I read about the women in Henry's court, I marvel that they could have been so blind to the likelihood, almost the certainty, that they would come to the same tragic end as their immediate predecessors. But it's impossible to place oneself in the shoes of another, especially after more than 400 years, and that's part of what makes Tudor history so fascinating. Was Jane a social climber? Undoubtedly. Julia Fox has done a service in depicting this ancillary courtier in the context of her available options, as far as they can be known.

Telling the story of any woman that lived more than 500 years ago is a challenge. Unless the woman in question was highborn, there is unlikely to be much secondary information about her and unless she wrote letters and the receivers saved them, there's no insight into the woman herself. This is the challenge Julia Fox faces in writing about Jane Parker Boleyn.

The Infamous Lady Rochford was on scene for the beheading of two of Henry VIII's wives. The first, Anne Boleyn, was a natural. Jane was not only Anne's sister-in-law, she was a lady in waiting to Queen Katherine. The second always strike me as simply odd. Who keeps their dead/annulled wife's sister-in-law around to take care of your new wife? Especially when you had her husband executed for sleeping with his sister/your wife? Surely good help wasn't that hard to find in Tudor England.

Fox starts out tentatively, telling Jane's story with liberal use of the words "maybe", "probably", "perhaps," and "we can't be certain." Another writer might have boldly made suppositions and presented them as likely facts. I can't fault Fox for being so scrupulous but it did make those first chapters a tiring read for me. Once Fox has access to primary sources, she's more at ease and Jane's story picks up.

Jane Boleyn remains unknowable through no fault of Fox's. There are few surviving letters from her and her testimony at Catherine Howard's was obviously constrained. Fox makes a convincing case that Jane was simply seduced by the abundant luxury of living close to and being in favor with the King. If he liked you, the perks flowed and you were sleeping in a custom carved bed and drinking from gem-encrusted gold cups. You were also living at the most exciting place in England. The temptation was too much for Jane. Even after seeing the consequences suffered by Anne and George Boleyn. She also convinced me that Jane probably (there's that word again!) did not conspire against or even testify against Anne and George.

Fox is less successful at explaining why Jane helped Catherine commit adultery. That is a hard one to explain even from the lips of the woman herself. And Fox does occasionally try to wring too much from her scant primary sources like when she tries to make a direct connection between the likely charitable endeavors of Jane and Anne and the charitable bequests in the will of Anne's grandfather.

This is an interesting attempt to reclaim a notorious figure from the unsubstantiated stories told against her for centuries. I'm not sure who is the best audience for this book, though. If you're a Tudorphile, like me, you'll find yourself covering a lot of ground you've been over before many times but you will get a fresh perspective on Jane Boleyn. If you're new to the Tudors, will you even care about Jane Boleyn? I'm not sure. If you are interested in the lives in non-royal women in Tudor England, you could do much worse than to read this book.

Going along with what others have said here, there is not much material about Jane herself in this book, most likely because not much is available. Ms. Fox writes well for the most part. Some sections are in need of some editing, but some passages are quite absorbing and fascinating. The author would do well to pick as her next subject someone about whom much more is known. This is a pretty interesting book, however, if you want to read about Henry VIII and his first five wives.

A good historian researches all the information available on a subject and then sets out to put the best of that information into a format that is well written and exciting. Ms Fox has done just that. She not only read all of the most popular material about Jane Parker Boleyn, but she also went to original sources instead of taking someone else's word for what was in those sources. Then she proceeded to write a book so compelling that it reads like a great work of fiction one can hardly stand to put down.

The story of Lady Rochford, like so many historical figures, is shrouded in mystery and clouded by the writings of those who had reasons to obscure the true facts long after the person had died. Going back to the earliest information about Jane Boleyn still extant, Ms Fox has pieced together the story of a very different person than history has allowed to come down to us. She has taken all the various viewpoints about her subject and combed through them to find which one(s) made the most sense and had the most concrete information available to back it up.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I will be reading anything else of hers I can find.

Jane Boleyn:
The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford
by Julia Fox

Published by Ballantine Books

A Review


There may come a time - not in my life certainly, when those clever people at Microsoft or Google, will build a time machine. Then, with a few deft keystrokes, anyone with sufficient funds to stump up the registration, will be able to travel back in time and confirm or otherwise the popular conceptions of history.
Until then, we must rely on Julia Fox and her ilk to wade through the sources and present us with their opinion of what happened where and when. She does so with admirable perspicacity

Julia Fox has been very courageous in choosing a subject that has been written to death (3 million internet hits), in both fact and fiction. However, as everyone has access to the same primary sources, it is not everyone that can tease out the plausibility from the preconceived notions as well as Ms Fox does.

This is Fox's first book and it is beautifully written. From the first chapter it is apparent that she is an experienced researcher and teacher. She also has an eye for beauty. Her descriptions of the Tudor ladies wardrobes, betray an author with an eye for style.

This is the story of the trials and tribulations and ultimate undoing of Jane Boleyn (née Parker), Lady Rochford, wife of George Boleyn who was Anne Boleyn's brother. Fox attempts to buck the trend and redeem the oft disparaged viscountess. She elevates her from the `Great Whore' and `Wicked Wife' of other publications, to innocent victim in her own.

Opinions vary whether the lady brought wretchedness upon herself through treachery, or was just a victim of circumstance. Fox suggests the latter, and I am persuaded.

In the life and death lottery that was King Henry VIII's court, you win some and you lose some. Losing was rather final as in Jane's, her husband and sister-in-law's case, not to mention a few hundred more, but Fox punctuates these personal dilemmas with beautifully drawn descriptions of the pomp and ceremony that occupied the space between the misery.

It would be easy to conclude that when questioned about her Queen's and husband's alleged offenses, she betrayed them. That would have been dumb; then and now. And Lady Rochford was anything but dumb. She was a lady-in-waiting to five of Henry's wives before she lost her head. That would have required some nifty footwork.

There can be little doubt that she was implicated in the machinations of Catherin Howard, but is anyone seriously suggesting that she should have popped along to Henry, and whispered in his ear (perhaps shouting would have been more effective), that his Queen was dallying with half his court?

It must be said however that a majority of the evidence for or against comes from loquacious foreign diplomats. They may or may not have been sympathetic to the English court, and perhaps sprayed their odium where it was most likely to stick.

Julia Fox's book is a riveting read. Her points are well made and convincing. Her tone is `matter-of-fact `and never drifts from know intelligence.

I strongly recommend this book for a first and second reading, and wait with enthusiasm for her next work.

There may be a magic bullet which lets a writer bring an almost unknown historical figure back to life. Unfortunately, Julia Fox doesn't have it.

What do we actually know about Jane Boleyn, the "infamous Lady Rochford"? We know she came from the wealthy, distinguished and well-connected Parker family; that she had a childless marriage to George Boleyn, the brother of Anne, Henry VIII's second wife; we know that her testimony against both her husband and his sister, falsely accusing them of an incestuous relationship, sent both George and Anne Boleyn to the executioner's block, and her connivance in the adultery of Catherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife, helped to send both Catherine to the same bloody end. Heads were rolling liberally in Henry's time and ultimately, one of them was Jane's own.

Apart from that, we know almost nothing about Jane Parker Boleyn except what history has passed on to us through people who probably despised her and wanted to blacken her reputation as much as possible. We don't even know what she looked like; the one charcoal portrait in the book that portends to be her was, as Fox admits, most likely a sketch of someone else in the Parker family. (Even the cover picture, which doesn't show her head, is actually a portrait of another Jane, Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife.) We certainly don't know what actually motivated her to bear false witness against her husband and her sister-in-law, or what in the world she was thinking of when she encouraged the adulterous relationship of Catherine Howard, knowing full well what would happen if the king ever got wind of it.

Jane's reputation may have acquired successive layers of malice as it has been passed down to us through the centuries, and certainly Philippa Gregory in her excellent historical novels The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance has painted her as a vicious harpy motivated by pure jealousy and spite. Julia Fox has written a revisionist biography of Jane Boleyn as more sinned against than sinning, the victim of forces beyond her control, and although her sympathy for Jane is evident, her portrayal of Jane doesn't add up. This was no naive young lady fresh out of the countryside; Jane was used to the court and its ways; she knew the character of Henry VIII, and she must have known what her testimony against George and Anne Boleyn would do to both of them, and how Henry would react when he realized Catherine Howard was cheating on him. This reader had the feeling that in writing this book, Fox was trying to have it both ways -- yes, Jane did some dumb things, but after all, she didn't really mean any harm. Ultimately, Fox's portrayal of Jane seems to prove her detractors' point, rather than Fox's.

Fox writes well and her narrative carries the reader effortlessly along from one page to the next. She's provided footnotes and an index of her resource material. Some reviewers have complained about all of the "maybes" in the book -- maybe Jane was present, maybe she did this, maybe she felt that. It didn't bother this reviewer so much because Fox acknowledges that so little is known about Jane Boleyn that she had to fill in a great many blank spaces when she wrote this book, and where she isn't sure of her facts she's honest enough to present them as speculation.

So who was Jane Boleyn? She probably was somewhere in between the unfortunate victim of circumstance that Fox gives us, and the horror show that Philippa Gregory write about. When all is said and done, "the infamous Lady Rochford" comes across as a self-centered narcissist, looking out for good old number one and caring little about anyone else as long as her place at court was preserved. She wanted to be where the action was because she thought she deserved to be there, and she got considerably more than she bargained for. It will be interesting to see if another biography of Jane is written that is more balanced than this one.

Judy Lind

How could Julia Fox be given a book contract for "Jane Boleyn The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford"? Did an editor even read the claptrap the writer presents as "history"? Ms. Fox is probably the only student of Tudoriana to see Jane Boleyn as a "courageous spirit" and a "much-maligned figure whose life and reputation were taken from her".

In a cowardly effort to save her own skin, Jane Boleyn gave Henry VIII the lies he needed to divest himself of wife number 2, Anne Boleyn. It meant death for her husband, George Boleyn, and sister-in-law, the Queen , but it didn't seem to bother Jane much. Blood relatives, like the Duke of Norfolk, the Boleyn sibling's uncle, also betrayed Anne and George, as did Anne's first love, Henry Percy. Betrayal was apparently the only way you could survive the snake pit that was Henry's court.

I had expected an interesting juxtaposition between the saintly Thomas Moore, a man of principle, and his direct opposite, Jane Boleyn. The grooming of a traitor - now that would have been an interesting subject!

But when I finished Julia Fox's book I knew as little about Jane Boleyn as I did when I started reading it. Ms. Fox doesn't know a whole heck of a lot more about her subject either - her book is filled with suppositions like "Jane was almost certainly an honored guest", " a few moments' reflection would have revealed to Jane", "Jane may even have helped Anne fasten (glittering stones) around her neck", "Perhaps Jane had witnessed", "Almost certainly, Jane was at her sister-in-law's side", "Jane was probably lodged", "It is most likely that Jane", "Perhaps Jane was wearing her favorite stocking", "That Jane was (a witness to Henry and Anne's wedding) is remotely possible but speculative", "for Jane, it was a chance to see", "it is unlikely that Jane actually saw", "Jane would have been gawped at too", "Anne, perhaps with Jane at her side", "Jane may well have", "We cannot be certain that Jane was with her sister-in-law, but it is likely that she was there", "this was likely to have been", "Jane probably did not travel", "We cannot be sure that Jane was present", "She may have remained", "She may have had a chance to have a word with"... and so on, and so on, ad nauseam.

Julia Fox tells us four sure things about Jane Parker Boleyn: the woman was born, she married George Boleyn, served as lady-in-waiting to five of Henry's queens, and then she was beheaded.

"Immaculate detective work"? I think not.

The mystery and intrigue that surrounds Henry VIII and his court has been the subject of much research and has spawned countless historical fiction novels. One of the major players of this time, Jane Boleyn, has been a focus of much of this research, and the story behind her has been the subject of much speculation, rumor, and innuendo. With detailed research and immaculate organization, Julia Fox puts together the fact behind all the fiction to give us the true story of one of histories most influential players.

This is a non-fiction book that reads like a novel. It is filled to the brim with historical details that are put together to form a breathtaking story. Touching on the start of Jane Boleyn's life, the main focus of the book is Jane's life during her service to four of Henry VIII's queens. From serving as a lady in waiting to the doomed Anne Boleyn, to the death of her husband, to her final downfall that was intertwined with the fall of Catherine Howard, Jane's life is fully explored and the rumors dispelled.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the book is the explanation of where the information was coming from. Detailing the documents that were used, including who wrote them, what the circumstances surrounding the documents were, and where they are currently located added a layer of authenticity and detail to the book. Any missing information was also descried. There was no "guessing" in this book. The author stated plainly when a piece was missing from the historical record. This further lends authenticity and realism to the author's work.

Julia Fox's research into the role that Jane Boleyn played during a volatile and historically important time brings the people and places into vivid and detailed reality that any lover of history will relish.

Armchair Interviews says: If you love history, this is for you.