theterrorthatflapsatnight replied to your post “Listen there is nothing, that’s right nothing, in any primary or even...”
Never read up on her tbh but do we know where that legend comes from?
It seems that the beginning of her legend as a wicked and cruel woman-turning on her husband out of malice-comes from the writings of George Wyatt, the grandson of Thomas Wyatt, during the reign of Elizabeth. In his biography of Anne Boleyn (the first ever written) he accuses Jane of being a “wicked wife” who sought her husband’s blood.
He was the first man to state her involvement in the accusations of George and Anne as a fact instead simply as rumor. Foxe in his book did state (in it’s second publication) in a footnote about the executions of Katherine Howard and Jane Boleyn that it was the opinion of some that Jane had been a chief informant against Anne and George, and if such was the case, then it was a case of holy karma for her. Foxe never said that it was “well known” or used any sources other than “the opinion of some” to support this statement, nor did he think it important to lay the blame at Jane’s feet in his own telling of the events of 1536.
While George Wyatt claims that he got his stories about Anne from family stories, and that he even interviewed a woman who served Anne, it seems just as likely he was listening to rumors and hear say and reporting it as fact, his own version of events are often contradictory to each other-for example despite blaming Jane for George’s downfall he later states that George was only condemned on some statute or another and not on any real wrong doing. The truth of the matter is that George Wyatt was writing this book for Elizabeth, and he wasn’t about to lay the blame for her mother’s death at the feet of the man who killed her-Henry. Jane had died a traitor to the crown for her role in the Katherine Howard affair, her reputation already was tarnished. And her family-the Parkers-were in disgrace at the time George Wyatt was writing, so she was easy pickings.
Certainly people who knew Jane Boleyn never seemed to be of the opinion that she was malicious or cruel or against the Boleyns. She was a generous patroness according to one man, she was a favorite of Katherine of Aragon’s, Anne Boleyn trusted her and treated her with honor, she was a chief mourner at Jane Seymour’s funeral, could speak openly and plainly with Anne of Cleves and was adored by Katherine Howard. A chamberlain of Anne’s knew that Jane corresponded with her husband regularly when he was away, and it was she alone we know that attempted to comfort George when he was in the tower. Chapuys-in his dispatches- seems to think she was in league with Boleyns, not against them, going so far as to assist Anne in an attempt to rid the court of a woman who was sympathetic to Princess Mary’s cause. Another vehement rival of the Boleyns called her a “widow woebegone in black” in his poem and stated that she was once a good and noble wife. All the eye witness accounts of Jane’s execution are sympathetic, and some even impressed by her bravery and dignity.
But at some point between her death in 1542 and George Wyatt’s lifetime opinion on Jane Parker changed-and once history had the scapegoat it needed, it clung to her for 500 years with only a historian here and there calling bullshit.
