Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (''née'' Jane Parker; c. 1505 – 13 February 1542), was an English noblewoman. Her husband,
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford (c. 1504 – 17 May 1536) was an English courtier and nobleman who played a prominent role in the politics of the early 1530s. He was the brother of Anne Boleyn, from 1533 the second wife of King He ...
, was the brother of
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...
, the second wife of King
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
. Jane had been a member of the household of Henry's first wife,
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...
. It is possible that she played a role in the verdicts against, and subsequent executions of, her husband and Anne Boleyn. She was later a
lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...
to Henry's third and fourth wives, and then to his fifth wife,
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542), also spelled Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1542 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn (the s ...
, with whom she was executed.
Early life
Born Jane Parker, she was the daughter of
Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley
Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley (1476/1480/14813 December 1553/1556), (notes to Parliamentary records show this as 25 November 1556) was an English peer and translator, Lord of Morley, Hingham, Hockering, &c., in Norfolk. He was the son of Ali ...
, and Alice St. John, great-granddaughter of
Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso
Margaret Beauchamp (c. 1410 – before 3 June 1482) was the oldest daughter of Sir John Beauchamp, ''de jure'' 3rd Baron Beauchamp of Bletsoe, and his second wife, Edith Stourton. She was the maternal grandmother of Henry VII of England, He ...
. Through Margaret, Jane was a distant relative of
King Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...
— specifically his half-second-cousin- and this, in turn, made her a second cousin once removed cousin of all of the King's children, including her niece-by-marriage, Elizabeth I. She was born in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
around the year 1505; her family were wealthy, well-connected, politically active and respected members of the English upper class. Her father was an intellectual, with a great interest in culture and education. She was sent to Court in her early teens, certainly before her fifteenth birthday, where she joined the household of King Henry VIII's first wife,
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...
. She is recorded as having accompanied the royal party on the state visit to France in 1520, "
The Field of the Cloth of Gold
The Field of the Cloth of Gold (french: Camp du Drap d'Or, ) was a summit meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France from 7 to 24 June 1520. Held at Balinghem, between Ardres in France and Guînes in the English ...
".
Although it has long been supposed that nothing is recorded of Jane's appearance (and there is no surviving portrait that can be identified as her), her biographer
Julia Fox
Julia Fox (born February 2, 1990) is an Italian-American actress and model. As an actress, she is known for her debut performance in the 2019 film ''Uncut Gems'', for which she was nominated for the Breakthrough Actor Award at the 2019 Gotham ...
, in ''Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford'', suggests that there is a very remote chance that a Holbein painting represents a likeness of Jane (pp. 317–319). She was probably considered attractive in her day, given that she was chosen to appear as one of the lead actresses/dancers in the prestigious "''Château Vert''" masquerade at Court in 1522. The seven performers were selected from the ladies of court in large part for their attractiveness. Two of the other performers included Jane's future sisters-in-law,
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
and
Mary Boleyn.
Marriage
![Jane Boleyn Rochford signature](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Jane_Boleyn_Rochford_signature.jpeg)
In late 1524 or early 1525, she was married to
George Boleyn (later Viscount Rochford), brother of
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...
, who later became the second queen of Henry VIII. At this stage, however, Anne was not completely attached to the King, although she was already one of the leaders of fashionable society.
As a wedding present, King Henry gave Jane and George a mansion,
Grimston Manor
Grimston Manor was a manor house in Norfolk, England. In 1524, it was given to George Boleyn, the first sole grant King Henry VIII made to Boleyn. It is assumed that this was given as a gift on the wedding of George to Jane Parker. Henry VIII was ...
in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
. Since she gained the
courtesy title
A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but rather is used through custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title).
In some co ...
of Viscountess Rochford by marriage in 1529, she was usually known at Court (and by subsequent historians) as "Lady Rochford". As the Boleyn family's wealth and influence increased, the couple were given the
Palace of Beaulieu in Essex as their chief residence, which George and Jane decorated with a lavish chapel, a tennis court, a bathroom with hot-and-cold running water, imported carpets, mahogany furniture and their own large collection of silverware. Their marital bed was draped in
cloth of gold
Cloth of gold or gold cloth (Latin: ''Tela aurea'') is a fabric woven with a gold-wrapped or spun weft—referred to as "a spirally spun gold strip". In most cases, the core yarn is silk, wrapped (''filé'') with a band or strip of high conten ...
with a white satin canopy, linen quilts and a yellow counterpane. Beaulieu had initially belonged to the Boleyns as one of their country retreats before they sold it to the King, who spent over £17,000 lavishly refurbishing and expanding it. In the early 1530s, it became the main residence of his eldest daughter,
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
, but when she was disgraced and banished to
Hatfield House
Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Ceci ...
, George Boleyn was given the palace to live in, although the deeds were never formally signed over.
The marriage of Jane and George made her sister-in-law to the
Queen Consort as well as aunt to the
Princess Elizabeth, future Elizabeth I.
Traditionally, George and Jane's marriage has been portrayed as an unhappy one. One modern historian has suggested that George was homosexual. British historian
Alison Weir
Alison Weir ( Matthews; born 1951) is a British author and public historian. She primarily writes about the history of English royal women and families, in the form of biographies that explore their historical setting. She has also written nu ...
concludes that the marriage was unhappy, principally because of George, although she concludes that the exact nature of his sexuality is difficult to ascertain: "
talented young man ... he was very good-looking and very promiscuous. In fact, according to George Cavendish, he lived in 'bestial' fashion, forcing widows, deflowering virgins ...
ndit has been suggested he indulged in homosexual activity too, but there is no evidence for this, although he may well have committed buggery with female partners." Julia Fox, Jane's most recent biographer, disagrees with both arguments, concluding that the exact nature of the marriage is unclear but suggesting that it was by no means unhappy.
The exact nature of her relationship with her royal sister-in-law is not clear either, and there is no evidence as to what she thought of her other sister-in-law,
Mary Boleyn, who had been at court with Jane since they were both teenagers. It is generally assumed that Jane was not overly fond of Anne, allegedly because of Jane's jealousy of her. Regardless, Jane plotted with Anne to banish one of the King's young unnamed mistresses from court in 1534. When the King discovered her involvement, Lady Rochford was herself exiled for a few months.
Role in husband's execution
After 11 years of marriage, George Boleyn was arrested in May 1536 and imprisoned in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
, accused of having had sexual intercourse with his sister, the Queen.
Elizabeth Somerset, Countess of Worcester, is said by contemporaries to have provided the evidence against the Queen and her brother. There was no truth in these rumours, according to the vast majority of contemporary witnesses, but they provided the legal pretext that the Boleyns' enemies needed to bring about the execution of Lord Rochford. Jane was mentioned only once during the trials, when George Boleyn was asked if the Queen had relayed information about Henry's sexual troubles to her.
![Anne boleyn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Anne_boleyn.jpg)
The first mention of any tensions between Jane and her husband came long after their deaths, when
George Wyatt called her "wicked wife, accuser of her own husband, even to the seeking of his own blood," in his biography of Queen Anne, but this view would have been informed by the disastrous
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542), also spelled Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1542 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn (the s ...
episode, when both she and the queen were executed for treason, and Wyatt's own attempts to exonerate the late Queen. Subsequent generations of historians also believed that Jane's testimony against her husband and sister-in-law in 1536 was motivated by spite rather than any actual belief in their guilt, hence her generally unfavourable historical reputation. A century later, an historian asserted that Jane had testified against them because of her "inveterate hatred" of Queen Anne, which sprang from jealousy at Anne's superior social skills and George's preference for his sister's company to that of his wife. This assertion is not consistent with the records of the period; not only is there no mention of any serious rift between the couple (and the few mentions of their marriage imply at least a tolerable relationship), but by the death of
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was List of English consorts, Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their Wives of Henry VIII, marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen followi ...
, Jane had already rebuilt her reputation at court and been one of the Queen's chief mourners (she would go to serve two more of Henry's queens). Georgian and Victorian histories pointed to Jane's execution in 1542 to suggest that moral justice had triumphed because "the infamous Lady Rochford ... justly deserved her fate for the concern which she had in bringing Anne Boleyn, as well as her own husband, to the block". This view of Jane as accuser, despite lacking historicity, gained traction after her death, and was popularized by subsequent historians.
This negative view of Jane was rejected nearly 500 years later by her biographer,
Julia Fox
Julia Fox (born February 2, 1990) is an Italian-American actress and model. As an actress, she is known for her debut performance in the 2019 film ''Uncut Gems'', for which she was nominated for the Breakthrough Actor Award at the 2019 Gotham ...
, who believes that Jane actually enjoyed a warm and supportive relationship with Queen Anne and that terror of the palace coup against the Boleyns in 1536 provoked Jane's testimony, which in any case was twisted by the family's enemies. In her 2007 book, Fox writes:
Widowhood
George Boleyn was beheaded on
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher grou ...
on 17 May 1536 before a large crowd. His final speech was chiefly concerned with promoting his new-found
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
faith. Four other men, one of them a commoner, were executed alongside him, also accused of having been Anne's lovers. Only the commoner,
Mark Smeaton
Mark Smeaton ( – 17 May 1536) was a musician at the court of Henry VIII of England, in the household of Queen Anne Boleyn. Smeaton, together with the Queen's brother George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, Henry Norris, Francis Weston and Wil ...
, a musician, had confessed, and it was reported that he had been savagely tortured into doing so. (Members of the aristocracy and gentry could not legally be tortured.) Anne was executed two days later, beheaded by a French swordsman, within the walls of the Tower of London. Anne's poise and courage at the scaffold were much commented upon, and public opinion in the weeks and months after often "made of Anne a persecuted heroine, bright with promise and goodness as a young woman, beautiful and elegant." It is not known whether Jane witnessed the execution of either her husband or her sister-in-law, but the posthumous sympathy Anne aroused in many meant that many of those linked to her fall were cast in the roles of villains. According to Julia Fox, this mindset explains how Jane's actions were construed as being those of a cruel and jealous intriguer.
The immediate aftermath of the fall of the Boleyns was hard for her, both socially and financially. The lands which the Boleyns had built up during Anne Boleyn's reign and over the previous four generations, including the titles
Earl of Wiltshire
The title Earl of Wiltshire is one of the oldest in the Peerage of England, going back to the 12th century. It is currently held by the Marquess of Winchester, and is used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of the marquess.
The earldom was f ...
and
Earl of Ormond, were to pass through the male line only, and thus were lost to the family with George's death. Jane continued to use the
courtesy
Courtesy (from the word ''courteis'', from the 12th century) is gentle politeness and courtly manners. In the Middle Ages in Europe, the behaviour expected of the nobility was compiled in courtesy books.
History
The apex of European courtly c ...
title of Viscountess Rochford but without a son she could not benefit from what remained of the Boleyn family fortune. (Modern rumours that
George Boleyn, Dean of Lichfield, a colourful character, was the child of Jane and George are now thought to be false.)
Later political intrigues
After her husband's execution, Lady Rochford was absent from court for several months. She spent this time securing her financial position by negotiations with her father-in-law,
Sir Thomas Boleyn
Thomas Bolina, Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount Rochford KG KB (c. 1477 – 12 March 1539), of Hever Castle in Kent, was an English diplomat and politician who was the father of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry ...
, but mainly with
Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charge ...
, the king's chief minister. The Boleyns eventually allocated her the sizable annual pension of £100, precisely what they had given their eldest daughter
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
, when she had been widowed eight years earlier. It was much less than her previous income as sister-in-law to the queen-consort, but it was enough to keep her as a noblewoman, which was essential for her return to Court, something Jane worked doggedly for in 1536 and 1537. It is unknown when she returned to court, but she was a lady-in-waiting to Queen
Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was List of English consorts, Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their Wives of Henry VIII, marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen followi ...
, so she probably returned within a year of her husband's death. (Jane Seymour died soon after childbirth, within eighteen months of becoming Henry's wife.) As a viscountess, she was allowed to bring a number of her own servants with her, lodge in the palace, and be addressed as "Lady Rochford". Fine meals were provided for her every day from the budget of the queen's household.
Following Jane Seymour's death, the King subsequently married
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves (german: Anna von Kleve; 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. Not much is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of ...
, a German princess recommended by Cromwell. However, Henry soon wanted to be rid of Anne, and sought an annulment. In July 1540, Lady Rochford testified that the Queen had confided in her that the marriage had never been consummated. This allowed the king to annul the marriage and marry his teenaged mistress,
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542), also spelled Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1542 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn (the s ...
.
Lady Rochford kept her post as lady-in-waiting to the new Queen Catherine. Queen Catherine's past indiscretions were uncovered in the autumn, and her private life was investigated.
The Queen was first detained in her apartments and then placed under house arrest at
Syon Abbey
Syon Abbey , also called simply Syon, was a dual monastery of men and women of the Bridgettines, Bridgettine Order, although it only ever had abbesses during its existence. It was founded in 1415 and stood, until its demolition in the 16th cen ...
, a disused convent. Her confidantes and favourites were questioned and their rooms searched. Lady Rochford was herself detained for questioning, implicated in arranging meetings between the Queen and Thomas Culpeper.
Downfall and execution
During her imprisonment in the Tower, Lady Rochford was interrogated for many months but was not tortured. However, she seems to have suffered a full nervous breakdown and by the beginning of 1542 was pronounced insane. Her "fits of frenzy" meant that legally she could not stand trial for her role in facilitating the queen's adultery, but since he was determined to have her punished, the King implemented a law which allowed the execution of the insane for high treason. Jane was thus condemned to death by an
Act of Attainder
A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
, and the execution date was set for 13 February 1542, the same day as Catherine Howard.
The Queen died first, apparently in a weak physical state, although she was not hysterical. Jane was then escorted from her lodgings to the scaffold where she spoke before kneeling on the just-used scaffold. Despite her nervous collapse over the previous five months, she was calm and dignified and both women won mild posthumous approval for their behaviour. One eyewitness, a merchant named Ottwell Johnson, wrote that their 'souls
ust UST or Ust may refer to:
Organizations
* UST (company), American digital technology company
* Equatorial Guinea Workers' Union
* Union of Trade Unions of Chad (Union des Syndicats du Tchad)
* United States Television Manufacturing Corp.
* UST Gr ...
be with God, for they made the most godly and Christian end.' The French ambassador Marillac merely stated that Jane gave a 'long discourse'; Johnson says that she apologised for her 'many sins', but neither man's account supports the later legend that she spoke at length about her late husband or sister-in-law. According to Alison Weir, Catherine Howard was not much more than 20 at the time of her death and Boleyn was about 36.
She was beheaded with a single blow of the axe and was buried in the Tower of London alongside Catherine Howard, close to the bodies of
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...
and
George Boleyn
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford (c. 1504 – 17 May 1536) was an English courtier and nobleman who played a prominent role in the politics of the early 1530s. He was the brother of Anne Boleyn, from 1533 the second wife of King He ...
.
In fiction and media
Lady Rochford has appeared in numerous novels, especially those on Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. As noted earlier, ''Vengeance Is Mine'' by Brandy Purdy is written from Lady Rochford's viewpoint. She also features in
Robin Maxwell's ''The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn'',
Suzannah Dunn's ''The Queen of Subtleties'' and briefly in
Margaret George
Margaret George (born 1943) is an American historical novelist specializing in epic fictional biographies. She is known for her meticulous research and the large scale of her books. She is the author of the bestselling novels ''The Autobiogra ...
's ''The Autobiography of Henry VIII''. Jane's character is also mentioned in
Wendy J. Dunn's ''Dear Heart, How Like You This?'' which is based on the life of the poet
Thomas Wyatt. Rochford is a minor character in ''
Sovereign
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.
The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...
'', the third instalment of
C. J. Sansom's Shardlake series of murder mystery novels, set in 16th century England. A larger role is given to Lady Rochford in
Jean Plaidy
Eleanor Alice Hibbert (née Burford; 1 September 1906 – 18 January 1993) was an English writer of historical romances. She was a prolific writer who published several books a year in different literary genres, each genre under a different pen ...
's novel ''The Rose Without a Thorn.'' Jane Rochford also appears in the
Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charge ...
trilogy by
Hilary Mantel
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...
.
Jane appears in the historical novel ''
The Other Boleyn Girl
''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2001) is a historical novel written by British author Philippa Gregory, loosely based on the life of 16th-century aristocrat Mary Boleyn (the sister of Anne Boleyn) of whom little is known. Inspired by Mary's life s ...
'' by
Philippa Gregory
Philippa Gregory (born 9 January 1954) is an English historical novelist who has been publishing since 1987. The best known of her works is ''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2001), which in 2002 won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Roman ...
, which tells the story of her other sister-in-law,
Mary Boleyn. One of its sequels is ''
The Boleyn Inheritance
''The Boleyn Inheritance'' is a novel by British author Philippa Gregory which was first published in 2006. It is a direct sequel to her previous novel '' The Other Boleyn Girl,'' and one of the additions to her six-part series on the Tudor ro ...
'', which casts Lady Rochford as one of its lead characters and its central villain. It details the final three years of her life and her involvement with
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves (german: Anna von Kleve; 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. Not much is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of ...
and
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542), also spelled Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1542 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn (the s ...
. ''The Raven's Widow'' by Adrienne Dillard, takes a much different tack than previous portrayals. Lady Rochford is liberated from the entrenched version of villainess and shown as a beloved wife and close friend to the Boleyns. Her later role in the relationship between Catherine Howard and Thomas Culpeper coming about because of the trauma of her husband's death and the knowledge that disobedience comes at a price.
In some modern novels, Jane's vicious resentment of Anne leads to her psychological disintegration - she is portrayed as being mentally deranged and obsessively jealous in ''Vengeance is Mine'' and almost sociopathically amoral in ''The Boleyn Inheritance''.
In both, she is also presented as sexually voyeuristic and given to petty spying.
In the 1970 BBC series ''
The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' starring
Keith Michell
Keith Joseph Michell (1 December 1926 – 20 November 2015) was an Australian actor who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, and was best known for his television and film portrayals of King Henry VIII. He appeared extensively in Shakespeare ...
as Henry,
Sheila Burrell
Sheila Mary Burrell (9 May 1922 – 19 July 2011) was a British actress. A cousin of Laurence Olivier, she was born in Blackheath, London, the daughter of a salesman. She attended St John's, Bexhill-on-Sea and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dram ...
portrayed Lady Rochford in several segments throughout the programme, primarily in the segments concerning Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. In the 2003 British 2-part television drama ''Henry VIII'', Lady Rochford was played by
Kelly Hunter
Kelly Hunter (born 21 July 1963) is a British film, television, radio, stage and musical actress, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. She is a Laurence Olivier Award nominee and Radio Academy Award and TMA A ...
. She appeared opposite
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter (born 26 May 1966) is an English actress. Known for her roles in blockbusters and independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received various awards and nominations, including a British Academy Film Award a ...
as Anne Boleyn,
Ray Winstone
Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perha ...
as Henry VIII and
Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt (born 23 February 1983) is a British actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awards. ...
as Catherine Howard. In the film adaptation of
Philippa Gregory
Philippa Gregory (born 9 January 1954) is an English historical novelist who has been publishing since 1987. The best known of her works is ''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2001), which in 2002 won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Roman ...
's novel ''
The Other Boleyn Girl
''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2001) is a historical novel written by British author Philippa Gregory, loosely based on the life of 16th-century aristocrat Mary Boleyn (the sister of Anne Boleyn) of whom little is known. Inspired by Mary's life s ...
'', Jane Boleyn (played by
Juno Temple
Juno Temple (born 21 July 1989) is a British actress. She has appeared in the films ''Notes on a Scandal'' (2006), ''Atonement'' (2007), ''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2008), ''The Three Musketeers'' (2011), ''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012), '' Mag ...
) was a minor character. In both these representations, Jane was shown as being a political tool in the hands of her husband's uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, although the presentation of her in ''
The Other Boleyn Girl
''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2001) is a historical novel written by British author Philippa Gregory, loosely based on the life of 16th-century aristocrat Mary Boleyn (the sister of Anne Boleyn) of whom little is known. Inspired by Mary's life s ...
'' was more sympathetic.
Jane is also represented on seasons two to four of the
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
series ''
The Tudors
''The Tudors'' is a historical fiction television series set primarily in 16th-century England, created and written by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime. The series was a collaboration among ...
,'' by
Joanne King opposite
Padraic Delaney as her husband George. In this version, their marriage is miserable, with both pressured into it by their parents and Jane finding it increasingly humiliating to put up with her husband's love affair with
Mark Smeaton
Mark Smeaton ( – 17 May 1536) was a musician at the court of Henry VIII of England, in the household of Queen Anne Boleyn. Smeaton, together with the Queen's brother George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, Henry Norris, Francis Weston and Wil ...
. They are shown frequently arguing and there is one incident of marital rape, which has no factual basis. However, Jane is not shown as hating Anne and so her betrayal of the Boleyns is motivated by her hatred of George. She befriends Jane Seymour when she is queen and is made her lady-in-waiting and remains a close friend until Queen Jane's death. She remains chief lady-in-waiting to
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves (german: Anna von Kleve; 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. Not much is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of ...
and
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard ( – 13 February 1542), also spelled Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1542 as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn (the s ...
. She eventually enters into a sexual relationship with
Thomas Culpeper
Thomas Culpeper ( – 10 December 1541) was an English courtier and close friend of Henry VIII, and related to two of his queens, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. He is known to have had many private meetings with Catherine after her mar ...
(a detail invented for the series). She is responsible for instigating the affair between Culpeper and Catherine, motivated both by a desire to keep Culpeper (who has a pathological obsession with the young queen) and out of a hatred for Catherine, whom she sees as grossly inferior to Jane Seymour and even Anne of Cleves.
In ''
Wolf Hall
''Wolf Hall'' is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, ''Wolf Hall'' is a symp ...
'', a TV mini-series adaptation of
the historical novel by
Hilary Mantel
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...
, she was played by
Jessica Raine
Jessica Raine (born Jessica Helen Lloyd; 20 May 1982) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Jenny Lee in the television series ''Call the Midwife'' (2012–2014) and Verity Lambert in the television film '' An Adventure in ...
.
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boleyn, Jane
Rochford
Rochford is a town in Essex, England, north of Southend-on-Sea, from London and from Chelmsford, the county town. At the 2011 census, the Civil parishes in England, civil parish, which includes the town and London Southend Airport, had a popu ...
Executed people from Norfolk
Executions at the Tower of London
Prisoners in the Tower of London
1500s births
1542 deaths
Executed English women
Ladies of the Privy Chamber
16th-century English women
16th-century English nobility
People executed under the Tudors for treason against England
Jane
Jane may refer to:
* Jane (given name), a feminine given name
* Jane (surname), related to the given name
Film and television
* ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd
* ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...
Jane
Jane may refer to:
* Jane (given name), a feminine given name
* Jane (surname), related to the given name
Film and television
* ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd
* ''Jane'' (2016 film), a South Korean drama fil ...
People executed by Tudor England by decapitation
People executed under Henry VIII
Daughters of barons
Burials at the Church of St Peter ad Vincula
Household of Jane Seymour
Household of Anne of Cleves
Household of Catherine Howard