Read Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford for Free Online

Henry’s palaces or stopped to chat and laugh, seemed permanent fixtures. Some, like Sir Thomas Boleyn or the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, were members of Henry’s council. Though they had estates to run, their state responsibilities necessitated frequent attendance on the king. Others, like Jane’s own father, Lord Morley, were less regular visitors. But since all depended on the king for their position, no one was invincible. Proof of just how vulnerable even the most mighty really were was brought home forcefully in 1521.
    In that year, Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, undoubtedly eminent, if unpopular, a man rich enough to pay twenty pence for a haircut, more than five times the daily wage of most of the king’s servants, was executed for treason. No longer quite the open and approachable monarch of the early days, Henry had suddenly become so wary about the duke, and about other members of his court, that he had written a private letter to Wolsey in his own hand. He had ordered the cardinal “to make good watch on the duke of Suffolk, on the duke of Buckingham, on my lord of Northumberland, on my lord of Derby, on my lord of Wiltshire and on others which you think suspect.” The result had been Buckingham’s arrest. Henry’s mysterious undated letter leaves no clue about why the duke had aroused his distrust. Perhaps it was a seemingly throw-away remark of Wolsey’s. Perhaps it was just simply that the king’s worry about the lack of a male heir was beginning to niggle, for as a descendant of Edward III, Buckingham’s impeccable pedigree was conceivably dangerous. A proud and arrogant man, not only did the duke never forget his royal blood, he allowed no one else to forget it either. After listening recklessly to a prophecy that he would reign when Henry died, he went one stage further by allegedly vowing to kill the king should he ever be arrested. Evidence to that effect was given against him by, among others, Charles Knyvett, recently dismissed from the duke’s service. Whether the witnesses spoke the truth or were driven by a desire for revenge or concern for their own skins, what they alleged was dynamite. Buckingham was doomed. Everyone knew that it was treason merely to speculate on the king’s death, let alone do anything to hasten it. Nevertheless, the trial was sensational. And the condemnation of such a formidable member of the old nobility was bound to send shivers down many a spine. Jane might well have heard a firsthand account of the proceedings since her father was there as a member of the panel of peers who tried the case. It would not be Morley’s only brush with treason trials.
    Despite Buckingham’s death, life at court, with its sparkling conversation, its amusements, its flirtations, continued much as before. However, the international scene was gradually changing from the heady days of the Field of Cloth of Gold. That meeting had been between Henry and Francis only. The emperor Charles V, Katherine’s nephew, had not been present. But although out of sight at the Field of Cloth of Gold, he was never out of mind. Physically, he was no match for either Henry or Francis. Nor, by any obsequious stretch of the imagination, could he be called handsome, especially since he possessed the protruding jaw so characteristic of the Habsburgs. Yet he was, on paper, the most powerful man in Europe, controlling Spain, Burgundy, and the Netherlands; parts of Italy; the Holy Roman Empire; and much of the recently discovered New World—which promised riches beyond dreams. Any ruler or minister who ignored him did so at their peril. Henry was no exception. Luckily, England’s relationship with him was good. Indeed, Henry had discussions with the emperor both before and after his talks with Francis, delighting Katherine, who relished the rare opportunity to make personal contact with her sister’s busy son.
    Unfortunately, the peace, which Wolsey had labored so hard to broker, was precarious. It