talbert334's Full Review: Julia Fox - Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Inf...
This is a great book that has a new theory on Jane Boleyn. Jane is usually portrayed as the jealous wife of George Boleyn. George was always indifferent to Jane and gave all of his attention to his lovely sister, Queen Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, resulting in Jane's enmity towards Anne and George. During Anne Boleyn's downfall, after several men had already been arrested for adultery with her, Jane testified against her husband and said that she had seen Anne and George's tongue in each other's mouths. Anne and George were both beheaded for treason, adultery, and incest.
Afterwards, young, foolish Catherine Howard became the aging Henry VIII's fifth wife. She cheated on Henry VIII with Thomas Culpepper. Jane was used as a go-between for Catherine's and Thomas's meetings helped then lead their 'wicked' lives. When Henry found out, Thomas, Catherine, and Jane were all beheaded. Before Jane died, she admitted that she lied about her late husband, George, and that he really wasn't guilty of treason, adultery, and incest.
However, this book gives a new theory that I had never heard before reading this book. Jane didn't testify against her her husband George. Julia Fox said that the myth that she led George to his death was created by John Foxe. Foxe was a fanatic Protestant who immortalized all Protestant martyrs in his book "Acts and Monuments," which is sometimes also called "Foxe's Book of Martyrs." "Acts and Monuments" was very popular for Protestants during the reign of Elizabeth I. Foxe wrote only good stuff about Protestants in it and wrote only bad stuff about Catholics. George and Anne Boleyn were Protestants. Jane was a Catholic. Since Foxe hated Catholics, he blamed Jane for George's execution. Jane is just history's scapegoat.
This book says that there's really no reliable, unbiased evidence that Jane testified against George. She might had been asked to, but even if she did, she didn't give any more information on him then anyone else who was asked to testify against him did. There's not even any evidence that there were any problems in George and Jane's marriage. Even if Jane didn't like George, she was much better off with him alive then dead. Her widow's dower was not very big.
There's also no evidence that that Jane and Anne disliked each other. At Anne's coronation, Jane was given a higher position then someone of her rank should have been, so she and Anne must have been friendly with each other.
This book also describes the already-known incident where Jane and Anne conspired to get rid of one Henry's mistresses which backfired and resulted in Jane's exile from court.
I also learned more about Catherine Howard and Jane's relationship in this book. When Catherine and Thomas Culpepper were being examined, they blamed Jane for their their relationship. They said that Jane had always made them meet each other.
I really liked this book, but their was only one little thing in it that I didn't really like. A lot of times it would talk more about other people during this time then Jane. It would justify it by saying Jane knew all about how... Then a fact would be mentioned that didn't pertain Jane's life. I understand though that is because there is not a whole lot of information on Jane and because other events should be explained for readers who don't know a lot about this time.However, this doesn't happen often, and doesn't affect my opinion very much on the story.
Overall, this book is great. It offers a new theory on 'the infamous Lady Rochford' which is that really wasn't that bad. It also reads like a novel and is hard to put down. It's definitely worth reading.
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