Book Review: Jane Boleyn

Elizabeth Cazden- Providence Journal

Feb 20, 2008

JANE BOLEYN: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford, by Julia Fox.

Ballantine. 379 pages. $26.95.

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This biography adds a new take on the family of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, and especially on the centuries-old question of whether Anne's brother George was guilty of incest with her, the crime for which he was executed in 1536 reportedly on evidence from his wife, Jane.

First-time author Julia Fox has set out to redeem Jane Boleyn from the long-standing accusation that her lies caused the unjust deaths of her husband and sister-in-law. For Fox, the key to Jane's innocence is her marriage settlement, which Fox reconstructed. She concludes that Jane was worse off with her husband dead, so she had no motive to help prosecute him.

A good biography shows the interplay between a particular era and a particular personality. Unfortunately, here Jane Boleyn's personality is barely visible. The first 198 pages, through the critical 1536 trial, contain lavish accounts of well-chronicled public events and generic private ones in which, as Fox notes, Jane was "a bit player, hidden in the chorus." Straddling history and fiction, Fox has added private details, perceptions and feelings.

Up to 1536, Jane appears as a passive observer. Her parents sent her to live at the court, and arranged her marriage to George Boleyn. Jane watched as the Boleyn family, seeking financial favors, schemed to have Anne replace the reigning queen, Katherine of Aragon.

Suddenly, according to Fox, upon George and Anne's deaths, Jane, age 31, swung into action. She extracted a better marriage settlement from the Boleyn family. Bored by her Norfolk estate, and craving luxury and proximity to power, she set out to renew her "career" at the palace. That required appealing to Thomas Cromwell, the prosecutor who had orchestrated the campaign against Anne and George.

Five years later, as lady in waiting, Jane helped Henry's fifth queen, Catherine Howard, carry on an affair. In the ensuing trial, Jane gambled that telling the truth would save her skin. Instead, she was beheaded with Catherine in 1542.

In her epilogue, Fox disputes the accusations (by partisans of Anne's daughter Elizabeth I) that Jane lied in the 1536 investigation. I found her argument less than convincing. It seems equally likely that a Jane Boleyn who thereafter cared only for luxury and power might well have lied to please prosecutor Cromwell, hoping to salvage her life and her palace career.

Readers fascinated by royal pageantry and Henry VIII's complicated domestic life will likely enjoy this book. Historians of Tudor England can add Julia Fox's unusual interpretation to their debates about Anne Boleyn.

Elizabeth Cazden, a historian, biographer, and former lawyer, lives in Providence.

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