Boleyn Traitor

Set in the court of King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1542, the novel is narrated by Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, a lady-in-waiting who serves several queens, chiefly Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Katheryn Howard. Jane, married to George Boleyn and sister-in-law to Queen Anne, is a professional courtier recruited as a child spy by Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, the powerful head of her husband's family.

The story opens at Greenwich Palace in the summer of 1534, with Anne five months pregnant and anxious about her hold on the king. A maid-of-honour named Agnes Trent has been placed in the queen's rooms by the Spanish party, a network of Catholic loyalists supporting the exiled Queen Katherine of Aragon. Anne orders Jane to dismiss Agnes, but the scheme backfires: the king blames Jane and banishes her from court. Anne also secretly miscarries, and the Boleyns cover it up while scapegoating Jane. The Duke of Norfolk refuses to protect her, dismissing her as useless, and Jane is sent to her father's manor at Morley Hallingbury in Norfolk.

During nearly a year of exile, Jane reckons with the truth that the Boleyns and Howards valued her only when she was useful. A letterlocked note, a folded and sealed letter designed to reveal tampering, arrives from Thomas Cromwell, the king's chief secretary. Cromwell offers to bring Jane back to court to fill the vacancy left after Mary Boleyn was cast off by the family for a secret marriage. Jane accepts, understanding that Cromwell wants a spy in the queen's rooms.

Jane returns in autumn 1535 to find Anne heavily pregnant but struggling. The king has changed dramatically: his head is shaved, he has grown a beard, his body has swollen, and his leg is stiffened by an old jousting wound. Cromwell questions Jane about Anne's situation, the king's impotence, and Jane Seymour, a quiet new presence whose conspicuous modesty attracts the king's attention. In January 1536, Katherine of Aragon dies. While sorting through Katherine's possessions, Anne feels a sudden pain and miscarries back at Greenwich. The king delivers a crushing verdict: "I see clearly that God does not wish to give me male children" (106). He stalks out, surrounded by the Spanish party.

Days later, the king's horse falls on him at a joust, and he lies motionless for an hour. The Duke of Norfolk rushes to Anne, urging her to seize power as queen regent should the king die. The king recovers but is profoundly changed, newly aware of his mortality. Anne mounts a desperate campaign of flirtation to win him back. During courtly banter, she makes a reckless remark to Henry Norris, a courtier close to the king, suggesting that if anything happened to the king, Norris might "have" her. Jane reports the slip to Cromwell.

On May Day 1536, the king abruptly leaves the joust. George and Norris are taken to the Tower. Anne is escorted away by the privy council, the king's governing body. Mark Smeaton, the court lute player, and several other courtiers are also arrested. The Duke of Norfolk tells Jane the charges have escalated beyond adultery to include incest between Anne and George, treason, and witchcraft. At George's trial, he is handed a sealed note alleging the king is impotent and warned not to read it aloud. George reads it defiantly, denying the allegation to protect his niece Elizabeth's legitimacy as the king's daughter, knowing his defiance will condemn him. Jane is devastated: George chose to die for Anne's daughter rather than save himself.

George, Anne, and the other accused are executed. Jane, penniless and disgraced, hides in the empty Boleyn rooms at Greenwich until Cromwell appoints her chief lady-in-waiting to the new Queen Jane Seymour. Jane Seymour gives birth to Prince Edward at Hampton Court and dies of fever about 10 days later. Meanwhile, the Pilgrimage of Grace, a massive popular uprising defending monasteries and traditional faith, erupts across the north. The Duke of Norfolk promises the rebels everything they demand, then arrests and executes their leaders once they disband. Cromwell destroys the Spanish party through arrests and executions and secures Jane's financial future with a life tenancy at Blickling Hall, the Boleyn family home.

Cromwell negotiates the king's marriage to Anne of Cleves, a Lutheran princess chosen for a Protestant alliance. At their first meeting, the king bursts in on Anne in disguise; she pushes him away and spits out his kiss. Katheryn Howard, a young Howard maid-of-honour, steps forward to smooth over the disaster with flattery. When the king refuses to consummate the marriage, Cromwell and Jane plan an annulment: Anne will claim ignorance about a childhood betrothal and say the marriage was unconsummated, receiving Richmond Palace and a pension. Jane whispers the terms to Anne in the chapel in German, warning that the alternative is witchcraft charges. Before the plan is complete, the Howards move against Cromwell. He is arrested and taken to the Tower. Jane reveals the annulment plan to Norfolk, who adopts it. Anne of Cleves signs the papers. Cromwell is executed on the day of the king's wedding to Katheryn Howard. Jane mourns him as the only true friend she ever had.

Jane becomes chief lady-in-waiting to the 16-year-old queen, teaching Katheryn court protocol and managing her household. The Howard family forces Katheryn to employ Francis Dereham, a former household steward who courted Katheryn in girlhood, to keep him quiet about their past. The king's health deteriorates sharply; during a tertian fever, a recurring fever that returns every other day, he retreats to his rooms for weeks. Jane uses the crisis to negotiate a future Seymour-Howard regency.

Katheryn falls in love with Thomas Culpeper, one of the king's favorite companions. Jane arranges secret meetings during the royal progress, the king's traveling court journey through the north of England, chaperoning the lovers in back staircases and locked bedrooms. At Chenies Manor, they consummate the relationship; Jane turns her chair away but remains in the room. She calculates that if Katheryn conceives by Culpeper, the king must also visit Katheryn's bed often enough for any child to be claimed as royal. At York, preparations for King James of Scotland's visit collapse when James refuses to come, and the hoped-for coronation is cancelled.

Back at Hampton Court, Dereham is arrested. The king leaves without telling Katheryn, who runs screaming through the gallery trying to reach him. Archbishop Cranmer interrogates Katheryn, who collapses in tears; a confession is produced in the archbishop's handwriting. Thomas Wriothesley, an official sent by the council, then questions Katheryn about Culpeper. Jane stays in the room, and both women deny everything, but the Duke of Norfolk informs Jane that Katheryn and Culpeper have already confessed and blamed her for arranging their meetings. Jane gives a full account.

Katheryn is taken to Syon Abbey. Jane is arrested for treason and sent to the Tower, placed in the same rooms where George was imprisoned. She cultivates the appearance of madness, knowing that under existing law a person deemed mentally unfit cannot be interrogated or executed. She converses with ghosts, recites Latin, and tells her keepers she is "silence." Dr. Butts, the king's physician, certifies her unfit to testify. Jane is transferred to Russell House in London, but Dr. Butts soon returns with an urgent warning: the king has ordered a new law eliminating this protection, written specifically to enable her execution. Jane asks: "Will no one say 'no' to him?" (472).

Culpeper and Dereham are executed. Jane is returned to the Tower. On the morning of Katheryn's execution, Jane watches from her window as the young queen walks to the scaffold, maintaining the practiced queenly walk Jane taught her. Jane hears the thud of the axe. Sir John Gage, the constable of the Tower, comes to her door and asks if she is ready. Jane replies that she is. Her final thought is: "But I should have said 'no'" (475).