Jane Boleyn

Jane Boleyn
Viscountess Rochford
Jane Boleyn's signature
Born	c. 1505 Norfolk, England
Died	13 February 1542 (aged 36–37) Tower of London
Buried	Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London 51°30′31″N 0°04′37″W / 51.508611°N 0.076944°W / 51.508611; -0.076944
Noble family	Boleyn
Spouse(s)	George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford
Father	Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley
Mother	Alice St John

Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (c. 1505 – 13 February 1542) was a sister-in-law of King Henry VIII of England. She was the wife of George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, brother of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Jane was a member of the household of Henry's first wife, had a role in the judgements and subsequent executions of her husband and his sister, was lady-in-waiting to Henry's third and fourth wives, and also served as lady-in-waiting to her cousin-in-law, Henry's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, with whom she was executed.

Born Jane Parker, she was the daughter of Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley, and Alice St John, the eldest daughter of Sir John St John (1450–1525) and wife Sybil Verch Morgan, granddaughter of Sir John St John and wife Alice Bradshaigh, and great-granddaughter of Sir Oliver St John and wife Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso. Through the Beaufort family, Jane was a distant cousin of King Henry VIII. She was born in Norfolk around the year 1505, and her family were wealthy, well-connected, politically active and respected members of the English upper classes. Her father was an intellectual, with a great interest in culture and education. She was sent to Court in her early teens, certainly before her fifteenth birthday, where she joined the household of King Henry VIII's wife, Catherine of Aragon. She is recorded as having accompanied the royal party on the famous state visit to France in 1520, "The Field of the Cloth of Gold".

Although it has long been supposed that nothing is recorded of Jane's appearance (and there is no surviving portrait that can be identified as her), her biographer Julia Fox, in Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford, suggests that there is a very remote chance that a Holbein painting represents a likeness of Jane (pp. 317–319). She was probably considered attractive in her day, given that she was chosen to appear as one of the lead actresses/dancers in the prestigious "Château Vert" masquerade at Court in 1522. The seven performers were selected from the ladies of court in large part for their attractiveness. Two of the other performers included Jane's future sisters-in-law, Anne and Mary Boleyn.