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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 942.052092
EAN num: 9780345485410
ISBN number: 0345485416
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: December 26, 2007
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: December 26, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 169790
Studio: Ballantine Books
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In a life of extraordinary drama, Jane Boleyn was catapulted from relative obscurity to the inner circle of King Henry VIII. As powerful men and women around her became victims of Henry’s ruthless and absolute power, including her own husband and sister-in-law, Queen Anne Boleyn, Jane’s allegiance to the volatile monarchy was sustained and rewarded. But the price for her loyalty would eventually be her undoing and the ruination of her name. For centuries, little beyond rumour and scandal has been associated with “the infamous Lady Rochford.” But now historian Julia Fox sets the record straight and restores dignity to this much-maligned figure whose life and reputation were taken from her.
Born to aristocratic parents in the English countryside, young Jane Parker found a suitable match in George Boleyn, brother to Anne, the woman who would eventually be the touchstone of England’s greatest political and religious crisis. Once settled in the bustling, spectacular court of Henry VIII as the wife of a nobleman, Jane was privy to the regal festivities of masques and jousts, royal births and funerals, and she played an intimate part in the drama and gossip that swirled around the king’s court.
But it was Anne Boleyn’s descent from palace to prison that very first thrust Jane into the spotlight. Impatient with Anne’s inability to produce a male heir, King Henry accused the queen of treason and adultery with a multitude of men, including her own brother, George. Jane was among those interrogated in the scandal, and following two swift strokes from the executioner’s blade, she lost her husband and her sister-in-law, her inheritance and her place in court society.
Now the thirty-year-old widow of a traitor, Jane had to ensure her survival and protect her own interests by securing land and income. With sheer determination, she navigated her way back into royal favor by becoming lady-in-waiting to Henry’s three subsequent brides, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. At last Jane’s future seemed secure–until an unwitting misstep involving the sexual intrigues of young Queen Catherine destroyed the life and reputation Jane worked so hard to rebuild.
Drawing upon her own deep knowledge and years of original research, Julia Fox brings us into the inner sanctum of court life, laced with intrigue and encumbered by disgrace. Through the eyes and ears of Jane Boleyn, we witness the myriad players of the stormy Tudor period. Jane emerges as a courageous spirit, a modern woman forced by circumstances to fend for herself in a privileged but vicious world.
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Rated by buyers 
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Not only is this book poorly researched as history, but the sentences within it are poorly contructed too; some are so laughably bad as to merit entry in the Bullwer-Lytton competition. I agree with those other reviewers who tired of reading about where Jane might have been and what she could have known. What a lot of hooey!
Rated by buyers 
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I definately enjoyed this book. I read various reviews before checking it out of the library and I do see what some people said about it not being about Jane very much. There is a lot of information about Anne and George Boleyn and Katherine Howard. While I already knew the info. about Anne and George, I didn't know much about Katherine Howard which I found interesting. THe book reads like a novel which helped me get into the time period and stay focued. It's a great book about the Tudor monarchy and court from Anne's to Katherine Howard's reigns with Henry VIII. I think the title is misleading though since it's not exclusively about Jane and at times, her name is not mentioned for a while. But all in all an informative and good book
Rated by buyers -
I was very skeptical about a book on a minor figure who has been largely a footnote in all the books on the Tudors that I have. I have many. I found this an engaging read. The author has woven a very lively picture of Tudor life for a highborn woman. Like Anne Boleyn and her brother and sister, no true portrait exists. Like Pharoah Akenaten, the subsequent reign tried to obliterate the previous one and everything with it. Almost every portrait in the book of the courtier contemporaries of Henry VIII met their end at the hands of the King. Catherine Parr, Anne of Cleves being the exception. Truly thunder did roll round the throne.
Rated by buyers -
There are countless historical personages about whom very little documentary evidence remains extant, and Jane Parker Boleyn is one of them. Julia Fox has attempted to piece together a biography of this woman, lady in waiting to 4 of Henry VIII's ill fated queens. As wife and widow to Anne Boleyn's brother, George, Lord Rochford, Jane was a firsthand witness to the madness that swirled around the court of England's most monomaniacal monarch. Fox portrays her not as the infamous, self-serving turncoat, but as a woman buffeted by the demands and restrictions placed upon Tudor women of her social class. Whenever I read about the women in Henry's court, I marvel that they could have been so blind to the likelihood, almost the certainty, that they would come to the same tragic end as their immediate predecessors. But it's impossible to place oneself in the shoes of another, especially after more than 400 years, and that's part of what makes Tudor history so fascinating. Was Jane a social climber? Undoubtedly. Julia Fox has done a service in depicting this ancillary courtier in the context of her available options, as far as they can be known.
Rated by buyers 
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Before I read this book, I'd heard it was more about Anne Boleyn than Jane Boleyn. After reading it, however, I don't think this is the case. Fox set out with a near impossible task...writing about a woman who lived in obscurity in an age where women, even noblewomen, were rarely considered worthy of paperwork. The sheer amount of research that went into discovering Jane's real story is astounding.
Granted, a lot of the book is based on speculation, or perhaps educated guesses would be a better phrase. Since so little is known of Jane Parker's young life, though, Fox's extensive knowledge of what life was like for the average daughter of Tudor nobility gives a real insight into the way her ideals and character would have developed and, in turn, her life played out.
I began this book with the faint hope that within its pages Lady Rochford's character would be redeemed. For so long she has been villified in both historical texts and fiction. I'm a big fan of both Tudor history and fiction, and I've always had a hard time believing anyone could be both as scheming and twisted as Jane was portrayed in the Anne Boleyn scandal, while also being as stupid and careless as she seemed in the Catherine Howard affair. Thanks to Fox's book, I feel the mystery of this ambiguity is clearly explained.
I could break down Foxes theories on Lady Rochford's behavior, but instead I'll point out a few of the important points. First, there is her actual involvement, or lack therof, in the trial of the Boleyns accoring to records. Then there is an inspection of what Lady Rochford could expect to gain, or lose, from "betraying" her husband. Most touching, however, Fox examines a text translated by Jane Rochford's father and presented as a gift to King Henry after her execution...a text which alters from the original in a way that seems to subtly comment on his daughter's innocence.
Perhaps this book isn't as precise as many one would expect from history but, all things considered, it does and excellent job of what it set out to do...vindicate Jane Rochford. Any true lover of Tudor history would be doing themself a great disservice by overlooking it.
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