The truth about the “most hated woman” in Tudor England

Jane Boleyn, a 16th-century aristocrat, faced explosive accusations: she was blamed for her husband’s horrific infidelity, as were two of Henry VIII’s wives, her sisters-in-law Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Was she a “sex-obsessed” spy, guilty as charged, or a convenient scapegoat for the tyrant’s brutality? A new historical film by Philippa Gregory, Pauline is a Traitor, explores her story.

In the court of the mercurial King Henry VIII, no one was safe, and those close to the queens and courtiers could quickly switch sides. Lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn, who served five queens – including her sister-in-law Anne Boleyn and Anne’s cousin Katherine Howard, both of whom were executed by King Henry VIII – has long been portrayed as one of these renegades, surviving under suspicious circumstances when everyone around her was sent to the building. She was blamed for betraying them, and arguably became, as author Tracey Borman, chief historian at Historic Royal Palaces, says, “the most hated woman in Tudor England.”

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The notorious character, who held the title of Viscountess Rochford in 1529, is the subject of a new book called Boleyn Traitor, a historical thriller written by Philippa Gregory CBE, whose hit novel The Other Boleyn Girl inspired the 2008 film of the same name starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. “Jane was on [my] “I’ve thought ever since I wrote The Other Boleyn Girl, and since then, there have been some wonderful new biographies of her,” Gregory tells the BBC. “For any fan of Tudor history, she is that mystery, in the middle of the story, who against all odds survived the downfall of the Boleyns.”

Jane Boleyn, born Jane Parker in about 1505, was the daughter of a baron who had served as a gentleman’s servant to Henry VIII and translated Italian Renaissance texts for the court. She arrived at court at the age of only eleven, and was appointed maid of honor to Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon. There she met Pauline’s family. When she was twenty, she had a profitable marriage to George Boleyn, whose sister Anne – in an unexpected twist – would become queen within a decade.