Jane Boleyn
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15
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Average rating4
In a life of extraordinary drama, Jane Boleyn was catapulted from relative obscurity to the inner circle of King Henry VIII. As powerful men and women around her became victims of Henry's ruthless and absolute power, including her own husband and sister-in-law, Queen Anne Boleyn, Jane's allegiance to the volatile monarchy was sustained and rewarded. But the price for her loyalty would eventually be her undoing and the ruination of her name. For centuries, little beyond rumor and scandal has been associated with "the infamous Lady Rochford." But now historian Julia Fox sets the record straight and restores dignity to this much-maligned figure whose life and reputation were taken from her.Born to aristocratic parents in the English countryside, young Jane Parker found a suitable match in George Boleyn, brother to Anne, the woman who would eventually be the touchstone of England's greatest political and religious crisis. Once settled in the bustling, spectacular court of Henry VIII as the wife of a nobleman, Jane was privy to the regal festivities of masques and jousts, royal births and funerals, and she played an intimate part in the drama and gossip that swirled around the king's court. But it was Anne Boleyn's descent from palace to prison that first thrust Jane into the spotlight. Impatient with Anne's inability to produce a male heir, King Henry accused the queen of treason and adultery with a multitude of men, including her own brother, George. Jane was among those interrogated in the scandal, and following two swift strokes from the executioner's blade, she lost her husband and her sister-in-law, her inheritance and her place in court society.Now the thirty-year-old widow of a traitor, Jane had to ensure her survival and protect her own interests by securing land and income. With sheer determination, she navigated her way back into royal favor by becoming lady-in-waiting to Henry's three subsequent brides, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. At last Jane's future seemed secure--until an unwitting misstep involving the sexual intrigues of young Queen Catherine destroyed the life and reputation Jane worked so hard to rebuild.Drawing upon her own deep knowledge and years of original research, Julia Fox brings us into the inner sanctum of court life, laced with intrigue and encumbered by disgrace. Through the eyes and ears of Jane Boleyn, we witness the myriad players of the stormy Tudor period. Jane emerges as a courageous spirit, a modern woman forced by circumstances to fend for herself in a privileged but vicious world.From the Hardcover edition.
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When one hears Jane Boleyn, they think of the wife that sold out her husband and sister in law to the traitors deaths that they might or might not have deserved, and another queen who she helped to deceive her husband. Instead, in Fox's book, we find a woman who was bound by family honor, a woman who was tied to her husbands family no matter good or bad, and who while serving another queen had to decide between obeying her queen or refusing to acquiesce and lose her position at court.
Jane's entire world was the court, and after the downfall of the Boleyn family, her fortunes seemed about at the end of ruin, she could barely survive, and would not be able to maintain the fabulous lifestyle that she had enjoyed while her husband was alive and before he was charged with treason and adultery. Instead of fading into the background, and hoping for a second marriage which would give her some relative comfort and quiet somewhere in the country, Jane clawed her way back into royal favor and regained her position in the new queens quarters. After the new queen Jane Seymour dies after childbirth, Jane was fortunate to serve the next queen, and after her subsequent divorce from the King, she served the final queen she would work for and who would eventually be her own downfall. Queen Catherine Howard was a foolish queen who fell in love with one of the members of the court. Instead of remaining loyal to her husband, Catherine found ways to be alone with her lover, who was eventually found out and after severe questioning was forced to admit the scandal, and both Jane and the queen were among the few who lost their heads over the affair.
Julia Fox brings out a different side of Jane. While we do not know much of what Jane Boleyn thought about life as a Boleyn bride, there are enough pieces of evidence left behind to view what kind of life she would have had. By learning about her father and the standards that he set for himself, it is not far fetched to think that Jane would have been raised with many of the same ideals, and those helped her keep her head as long as she did. Reading through this biography of her life was quite different from much of what I had ever heard of her. She was always portrayed as one who was evil through and through and who tempted those around her into doing things that they normally would not have done. Instead we find a woman, who is trying to maintain her way at court after her husband was convicted as a traitor, and who had learned the hard way that to stay at court meant pleasing those that one served, no matter what they asked. This was a great biography of her and had many new theories that before we not fully thought out or researched.
