One of the saddest and most tragic executions of the Tudor Period saw Catherine Howard,
the young fifth wife of Henry VIII make her way to the scaffold on Tower Green. She was
executed by an axeman and was accused of adultery and treason, cheating on the notorious Tudor
King with one of his closest friends and another man. However in the whole Catherine Howard
scandal, there was a woman who helped the young Queen get what she wanted from Thomas
Culpepper, and she helped the young Queen to meet with him in secret. Jane Boleyn’s
motives as to helping the King are not known, and in history she’s been accused of even
being behind the execution of her husband George. But what is the story of her downfall?
Join us today as we look at the brutal execution of Jane Boleyn, and remember to support our
channel please make sure to subscribe.
Jane Parker was a distant relative of Henry VIII, and was his half second cousin. She
was born in Norfolk and she was sent to the royal court when she was a teenager. She joined
the household of Catherine of Aragon, the Kings first wife, and with this she accompanied
the royal party on a state visit to France in 1520 which was known as ‘The Field of
the Cloth of Gold,’ this huge pageant where the Kings of England and France got together
for a large meeting. She was considered an attractive young girl, and was a lead actress
and dancer in a production at court, and she was comparable at the time to Anne and Mary
Boleyn. However she became a Boleyn, as she married George Boleyn in 1525, who later became
the Viscount Rochford, and he was the brother of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second Queen.
As a wedding present, the King gave the couple a mansion and in Grimston Manor George and
Jane lived. She became known as Viscountess Rochford or Lady Rochford at court, and as
the Boleyn’s rose to prominence during the marriage of Henry and Anne, George and Jane
were given large amounts of land and wealthy. They were given the Palace of Beaulieu in
Essex, and it was incredibly well decorated with the luxuries that Tudor England could
afford. The couple spent a fortune on the decorations, and it’s believed that George
and Jane’s marriage may have been unhappy at times. George was a player at court and
was considered a very good looking promiscuous courtier who would sleep around. This may
have offended Jane massively, and made her incredibly jealous. It’s believed that Jane
was not a fan of Anne Boleyn, and she did not like her sister in law.
However after 11 years of marriage, Goerge Boleyn was arrested and implicated in Cromwell’s
plot to bring about the downfall of Anne Boleyn. George was imprisoned at the Tower of London
and was accused of sleeping with his own sister The Queen. There was no truth in these accusations
and rumours, however it caused the execution of George Boleyn, and History has sometimes
linked Jane Boleyn to her husbands downfall, and some have referred to her as a ‘wicked
wife, accuser of her own husband,’ and someone who sought his blood. It’s believed that
because of her hatred of Anne Boleyn, Jane may have spoken out against her in an attempt
touring her down, but also she may have brought her husband down at the same time. Both of
them were executed and George was beheaded on Tower Hill along with 4 other men accused
of sleeping with Anne Boleyn.
It was said that, ‘For when Cromwell sent for Jane, he already had much of what he needed,
not only to bring down Anne and her circle, but to make possible the King's marriage to Jane
Seymour ... Faced with such relentless, incessant questions, which she had no choice but to
answer, Jane would have searched her memory for every tiny incident that occurred to her ...
Jane had not been quick to tell tales, but she had buckled under the pressure of relentless
questioning ... And it was her weakness under interrogation that gave her future detractors—happy
to find a scapegoat to exonerate the King from the heinous charge of callously killing
his innocent wife—the ammunition to maintain that it was her evidence that had fooled Henry
and destroyed Anne and George.’ It is not known whether Jane witnessed the execution
of her husband, but following the fall of her Boleyn’s she suffered greatly socially
and financially.
The lands which the Boleyn’s had during her reign were turned over to the Crown and
were lost, and despite continuing to use the title Lady Rochford, Jane could not benefit
from the Boleyn fortune and because of this she was plunged into financial ruin. She was
away from the royal court for a number of months after the execution of her husband
and she tried to get her financial assets in order. She returned as a lady in waiting
to Jane Seymour, and she did have a number of servants inside her lodgings at the royal
palace. She managed to eat well but after Jane Seymour’s death, Lady Rochford was
involved in the negotiations to dissolve Henry VIII’s fourth marriage to Anne of Cleves.
Anne of Cleves had allegedly confided in Jane that the marriage between her and Henry VIII
had never been consummated, and this allowed the King to then marry his teenage mistress
Catherine Howard, his fifth wife.
However during Catherine Howard’s time as Queen, Lady Rochford was a lady in waiting.
But her marriage to the King went downhill as her past relations came to light, and it
was claimed that she was having an affair behind the King’s back with Thomas Culpepper,
the King’s close friend. But Lady Rochford helped Catherine Howard to have a relationship
with Culpepper, and she arranged for the pair to meet to have relations but also she would
stand outside the room to ensure the pair were not discussed. A number of other ladies
to the Queen were in on it, however Jane Boleyn was later implicated in the whole Catheirne
Howard scandal. She was imprisoned inside the Tower of London, and was interrogated
and questioned about the Queen’s misdemamours, but a number of other ladies in waiting turned
against her and she was fully accused of helping the Queen cheat on the King. Whilst in the
Tower she had a full breakdown and was declared insane, and the King Henry VIII actually changed
the laws in England to ensure that the insane could be killed for treason and executed.
Jane was condemned to die by an Act of Attainder, and her execution was set for the 13th February
1542 to die shortly after the Queen Catherine Howard was to be executed.
The Queen was taken out to Tower Green from their place of imprisonment in the Tower.
Queen Catherine was to be executed first and she was executed by axe in one swift blow.
Jane was taken from her cell and were led towards the scaffold. Despite being a woman
who was said to have been insane, she knelt on the scaffold with relative calm in the
blood of her former mistress, the Queen. When she got to the scaffold, it was said that
Jane made a long speech in which she apologised for her many sins, and she spoke about her
husband and Anne Boleyn. Jane went to her death with dignity, and she then was executed
by the axe in one swift swing. The executioner who took her head was considered skilled as
he managed to do it cleanly. She was around 36 when she died, and was then taken inside
the Tower of London’s chapel, with her body packed inside an oak chest before she was
buried inside the Chapel of st Peter ad Vincula.
Jane Boleyn is portrayed in History as being a vindictive wife who scorned her husband
for his behaviour and her comments led to his execution. But this has been debunked
and despite not being in a happy marriage, it’s unlikely that she spoke out about George
allegedly sleeping with his sister Anne Boleyn. Inside the Tower of London she was executed
for helping Catherine Howard commit adultery and treason behind Henry VIII’s back, and
she is one of very few who was allowed to be executed in private inside the walls of
the Tower of London.
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