Jane Parker arrived at the court of Henry VIII as a teenager to serve Katherine of Aragon. She married well, to George Boleyn, brother of Mary and Anne Boleyn who both caught the king's eye. While Mary became the king's mistress for a brief time before dropping off into relative obscurity, Anne held out for marriage and became one factor leading to the Reformation in England.Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, serves her new queen and sister-in-law until Anne fails to give the King a son, falls from favour and is accused of adultery with several men and of incest with her brother. Anne and George go to the block but, miraculously it might seem, Jane manages to evade serious punishment.
After a period of exile from court Jane returns to serve (briefly) Anne of Cleves and then Catherine Howard. You would think Jane would have learnt to be wary but no, she wholeheartedly connives with Queen Catherine to smuggle her lover(s) into the palaces. This time when the Queen's head rolls so does Janes.
Jane Boleyn has had a bad press; she has been portrayed as the woman whose testimony sent her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths through malice and jealousy. Julia Fox attempts to rehabiliate her name. Not much is documented about Jane Boleyn's life, especially the early years, so much of this book is speculative: "Jane must have . . . " and ends up being another Lives and Times of Henry VIII and his court type book. I'm not convinced the author achieves her aim, but this is an accessible book and I did enjoy it.
A good fiction book to read would be The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.
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