Courting Scandal: The Rise and Fall of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford

Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, was a lady-in-waiting at the court of Henry VIII. She has been described as a ‘wicked wife’, a ‘pathological meddler’ and an altogether ‘vicious’, ‘heartless’, and most ‘unnatural’ woman for the betrayal of her own husband, George Boleyn. Her intimate role in court intrigues sent not only her husband but two English queens, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, to the scaffold. For her involvement in the latter of these scandals Jane too lost her head.

On 13 February 1542, at about nine o’clock in the morning, Jane was executed at the Tower of London. In this book, James Taffe investigates how and why Jane ultimately met such a tragic end. He examines Jane’s career in the queen’s household, as a Maid-of-Honour, and later, a Lady of the Privy Chamber, which spanned two tumultuous decades and five of Henry VIII's six queens. To know and understand Jane, we must take her back to the household in which she served, and the court in which she lived. What emerges is not merely a story of service, but survival.