Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford

Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII, was playing Beauty.

And Jane Parker, who is their

future

sister-in-law, Juno Temple, was playing Constancy.

Marjorie, too, had been sent on mysterious secret errands to Lady Rockford, which she could not understand, and, with others of the maids, had considered herself slighted by the Queen's preference for Catherine Tilney, and for those who owed their position to Lady Rockford, which lady, she said, she considered the principal cause of the Queen's folly.

thus far there was nothing beyond the suspicions of jealous women but lady rockford was frightened into telling a much more damning story though she tried to make her own share in it as light as possible the queen she confessed had had many interviews in her rooms with culpepper at greenwich lincoln pontefract york and elsewhere for many months past but as culpepper stood at the farther end of the room with his foot upon the top of the back stairs so as to be ready to slip down in case of alarm and the queen talked to him at the door lady rockford professed to be ignorant of what passed between them one night she recalled the queen and herself were standing at the back door at eleven at night when a watchman came with a lantern and locked the door shortly afterwards however culpepper entered the room saying that he and his servant had picked the lock since the first suspicion had been cast upon the queen by laskells catherine according to lady rockford had continually asked for culpepper if that matter came not out she feared nothing and finally lady rockford although professing to have been asleep during some of culpepper's compromising visits declared her belief that criminal relations had existed between him and the queen culpepper according to the depositions made quite a clean breast of it though what means were adopted for making him so frank is not clear probably torture or the threat of it was resorted to since hertford reich and audley had much to do with the examinations whilst even the duke of norfolk and wriothlessly not to appear backward in the king's service were as anxious as their rivals to make the case complete culpepper was a gentleman of great estate in kent and elsewhere holding many houses and offices a gentleman of the chamber clerk of the armory steward and keeper of several royal manners and he had received many favors from the king with whom he ordinarily slept he deposed too and described many stolen interviews with catherine all apparently after the previous passion week fifteen forty one when the queen he said had sent for him and given him a velvet cap lady rochford according to his statement was the go-between and arranged all the assignations in her apartments whilst the queen whenever she reached a house during the progress would make herself acquainted with the back doors and back stairs in order to facilitate the meetings at pontefract she thought the back door was being watched by the king's orders and lady rockford caused her servant to keep a counter watch On one occasion, he said, the Queen had hinted that she could favour him, as a certain lady of the court had favoured Lord Parr.

And when Culpepper said he did not think that the Queen was such a lady as the one mentioned, she had replied, Well, if I had tarried still in the maiden's chamber, I would have tried you.

and on another occasion she had warned him that if he confessed even when he was shriven what had passed between them the king would be sure to know as he was the head of the church Culpepper's animus against Lady Rockford is evident.

There's William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, in the late 15th century.

Jane Boleyn, another of the great Tudors.

Robert, Earl of Essex.

And then in the 18th century, you get three members of the Black Watch, a military regiment who are actually executed by firing squad just over there in front of the chapel.

But every day I'm still learning and I hope I always will be.

When I first started researching Anne Boleyn, for example, I had some very definite opinions in those early hours of research about certain people in her life, particularly her father, Thomas Boleyn, and her sister-in-law, Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford.

I thought Thomas Boleyn was a dreadful father, an ambitious and calculating man who was quite happy to use his daughters to advance his own career at court.

I had this image of him practically pushing Mary and Anne into Henry VIII's path, if not his bed, because he wanted power and influence.

And I really didn't like him at first.

And Jane Boleyn? Well, I thought she was dreadful too.

I believed that she'd betrayed her husband, George Boleyn, and her sister-in-law, Queen Anne, and that she'd played a part in sending them to their deaths.

And I certainly wasn't alone in thinking those things because these portrayals have appeared in historical works, novels, films, and television dramas, and even in a fair few recent history books.

There's some evidence to suggest that, though the strength of that evidence is unclear.

And the evidence against George Boleyn is interesting because people often accuse George's wife, Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford.

There's actually no contemporary evidence to suggest that she's the witness whatsoever.

She's often maligned in fiction, which seems entirely unfair.

figures in history yes to say it uh we had fun recording that episode for sure if you saw on social media I really I posted the section where we talked about um what was it most likely to be banned from social media yeah and Amy's response of Sir Francis Bryan and how much we both enjoyed that answer so other than that what are people talking about from that episode

So, Therese said, secret group chat, Jane Boleyn, possibly with Cromwell.

Was a secret informant.

So, yeah.

He told some good jokes while on the stand.

We'll talk about him and his wife, Jane, in a later episode that we're doing about George and Jane Boleyn, 'cause those are some interesting people.

Anyway, he was found guilty as well.

But still, it's like she was found guilty.

Yeah.

The other one could be Jane Boleyn.

Oh.

Yeah.

Um, so, uh, so I supp- I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I forgot my point on, on Lady Rochford.

Um, up until 1536, she thinks she's going to be the next Countess of Ormond, and she's gonna live at Kilkenny Castle or Beaulieu, or she is going to have an income of 3,000 pounds a year.

And then she is a widow with 100 pounds a year, and no guarantee.

Mm

... uh, to dying.

I think her, Lady Rochford, Thomas Culpeper, all of them think this is sooner rather than later.

I don't think they think he's gonna live another six years.

They had main character energy.

And so during the time that Anne was trapped at home under house arrest, uh, her brother George got married to a woman called Jane Parker.

And actually, the episode of, coming out later is gonna be about George and Jane and their relationship and what they got up to.

So Anne Boleyn is stuck at home.

And she escalated things.

So, like, she had ladies waiting on her before, but now she's, like, the queen, so she has, like, a queen's household.

So by now, the ladies in waiting around her included her sister-in-law, Jane Parker, and other Boleyn cousins, like a person called Jane Seymour, who we'll hear more about later, and all other Boleyns.

Like, the whole Boleyn family dynasty just, like, got various positions around court.