Status Updates From George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, ...

Jane Seymour's brothers came to an equally sticky end. Thomas Seymour was executed for treason on 20 March 1549 and Edward Seymour on 22 January 1552. A number of Jane's other supporters also suffered unpleasant deaths, including Nicholas Carew, who had coached Jane on how to capture the King's heart. He was beheaded for treason in 1539, just three years after the executions of Anne and George.

By involving George Boleyn in Anne's downfall, Cromwell had destroyed his principal noble supporter on the council. The irony is not lost on historian Rory McEntegart, who suggests that George was "the man best placed to offset the anti-Cromwellian feelings of conservative noblemen such as the Duke of Norfolk."2 In the long term, the deaths of Anne and George had considerably weakened Cromwell's position.

Henry's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, died on 23 July 1536, probably of consumption. He was just 17 years old. Of Henry's four children, not one of them had children of their own to carry on the Tudor dynasty.
So much brutality had been carried out, and so many innocent people had died, to ensure that the King had a legitimate son, and in the end it was all for nothing.

It is difficult for us today to understand why people who are so obviously innocent do not reaffirm their innocence on the scaffold. Sixteenth century values and conventions are poles apart from our own. George's speech reiterated what he had said at his trial:that the verdict proved he deserved death.

He explained that he died under the law,because it was the law that had condemned him. The law was the word of God,

George Boleyn had many faults, but treason had never been one of them, and Henry must have known that. None of the men's heads were put on display on spikes, as was usual with convicted traitors; this would surely have been the case if Henry seriously thought they were guilty, just as Thomas Culpeper's would be five years later.

George had gone from palace to prison to execution within 15 days, and it is a testament to his courage and strength of character that he was able to defend himself so well at his trial and give such an impassioned speech on the scaffold, when lesser men would still have been in shock.

It is easy to use Jane as a scapegoat, but just as the Boleyn siblings should be given the benefit of the doubt due to the lack of evidence for the charges against them, so the same courtesy should be extended to Jane.

The statement Jane gave to the court did not in itself condemn her husband, or the Queen. Both were already prejudged. There was never a chance that either would be spared, regardless of the evidence laid before the court - or more accurately, the lack of evidence. When George was initially arrested, it is probable that there was a vague intention of charging him as an accessory to his sister's misdemeanours

Following her husband's arrest, Jane may also have been in the position of either providing the Crown with a useful statement, or potentially facing charges herself as an accomplice, seeing as she too had discussed the King's problems. It may even be that she provided the statement regarding Henry's impotence without appreciating that it would be specifically used against her husband;

You don’t realize how messed up and outrageous thre trial for Anne, George, and the others were until read the full accounting of it...

:(

Upon Anne's removal from the court, her brother was brought to the bar. The brother and sister did not see one another, and were not allowed the consolation of a final farewell. Ironically, during life it was Anne who was the more tempestuous and reckless of the two siblings, yet she faced her accusers with the quiet and restrained dignity of a true queen.

(Cont in comments)

Anne Boleyn appears to have undergone some sort of mental breakdown following her arrest and imprisonment. She vacillated between hysterical laughter at the absurdity of the charges, and floods of tears. In her fear and distress she also babbled incessantly, trying to make some sense of what had happened to her.

George Boleyn was arrested on the afternoon of 2 May 1536 at Whitehall.3 This did not become common knowledge until the following day, which must mean it was orchestrated to be carried out as privately as possible. Upon hearing that he was in the Tower, not even Chapuys could come up with an explanation as to why he had been arrested.
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The evangelical Anne and George could not have been charged with a crime that would have caused them more anguish, shame and dishonour than incest. Not only did they lose their lives, their reputations were completely destroyed and their names blackened for centuries to come.

George and Anne were known to be close, and George would have moved heaven and earth to try to save her. He seems to have been arrested doing just that - attempting to see the King at Whitehall. George was far too dangerous to be allowed his liberty. Although there was realistically nothing he could have done to save Anne, he had the verbal acumen to have protested her innocence persuasively

The incest charge brought against George Boleyn is one of the most cynical and spiteful attacks on an individual in English history. He was accused for a number of reasons. Firstly, the charge was brought in order to bring further shame and dishonour to Anne's name.
Thirdly, there is every possibility that, in a similar way to Wolsey's abuse of the reform of the Privy Council in 1526,

On 24 April, the King approved the setting up of two commissions of oyer and terminer to investigate crimes committed in the counties of Middlesex and Kent.17 These were set up by Cromwell and Thomas Audley, the Lord Chancellor. Just eight days later, Anne and George Boleyn were arrested for crimes committed in those two counties.

A note in the margin of this letter says "Millor de Rochesfort et millord de Guillaume", which has been used to back up the idea that George's wife was one of the ringleaders who was sent to the Tower. Jane's alleged banishment from court had taken place the previous autumn, and the demonstration took place during the royal summer progress at which George was present, so her participation

Again, as with George's mission of the previous summer, detailed written instructions were unnecessary. The King had enough faith in his abilities to dispense with the requirement. The intractability of the two sides meant that the meeting in Calais broke down abruptly on 17 June following lengthy and increasingly heated debate, and George and his team departed for England on 24 June. It

In 1532, Thomas More had resigned his post of Chancellor. His Catholic faith meant he felt unable to embrace the belief that the Pope was only the Bishop of Rome, and that he had no authority over the Christian church as a whole. Likewise, the English Catholic Bishop John Fisher was unable to recognise Henry as head of the Church of England.

It is ominous that a month after the French debacle, during December 1534 an incident occurred that provided the first indication that George Boleyn might be out of favour with Henry VIII.

There is no way of really knowing what Mary's relationship with George was like, but bearing in mind his ability to cut her off following her banishment, they were probably not close. Likewise, she made no known attempt to contact him following his arrest. Mary's character and personality was very different to her brother's, and George seems to have been able, whether unconsciously or by design,

It was also in the autumn of 1534 that George's eldest sister, the widowed Mary Boleyn, became pregnant and secretly married William Stafford, a man of inferior rank and status. From the Boleyns' point of view, Mary, being the Queen's sister, had betrayed and embarrassed them by her shameful behaviour, and by not seeking her family's permission to marry.

In July 1534, George Boleyn was riding high. He was promoted to positions of trust and importance far beyond his years - he was still only around 29 to 30 years of age. The King does not appear to have had anything but confidence in his young brother-in-law; at no time was his competence challenged, save by Boleyn enemies abroad.

I probably wouldn't have survived Henry VIII's court, eep. :(

This actually had a side effect that was not anticipated by Henry, and possibly not Cromwell either: when Henry succeeded in achieving the statutory authority of Parliament over the church, he also acknowledged Parliament's authority over the Crown.

Henry would no doubt be furious to learn that today's constitutional monarchy, in which the Crown has no real statutory power, was unwittingly initiated by him.

In the aftermath of Cardinal Wolsey's fall, Henry VIII sought to assume direct control of the government, aided by a combination of advisers, including the Boleyns. With so many different voices advising him, Henry became indecisive, which resulted in a stalemate. Into this confusion stepped Thomas Cromwell.

In October 1529, George was knighted. The exact date is unknown, but in September of that year he was still being referred to as George Boleyn, while by the end of October official papers were referring to him as "Sir". On 8 December, he took his father's title of Viscount Rochford upon his father being made Earl of Wiltshire. This was initially a courtesy title,

The circumstances surrounding the sweating sickness of 1528 exemplify the difficulty we have in establishing a picture of George's marriage. We know about Anne, George and their father, but the documentation we have is completely silent with regards to Jane Boleyn. Was she with George and the royal party at Waltham, serving the Queen, or was she elsewhere? There is no way of knowing her movements.