Claire | August 21, 2021
George Boleyn is my second favourite historical character and is just as fascinating as his more famous sister, Anne Boleyn, so I’m really pleased that his life and career are being given the attention they deserve in BBC Two’s The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family. If you want to know more about George Boleyn then you […]
Claire | August 18, 2021
Episode 1 of BBC Two’s new three-part series on the Boleyn family – The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family – aired on Friday 13th August, and episodes 2 and 3 have already been released on BBC iPlayer. It is a wonderful series and well worth watching because it introduces a very different Boleyn family. Gone are […]
Claire | May 17, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 17th May 1536, courtiers George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton were beheaded on Tower Hill for high treason. All five had been found guilty of treason, for their alleged affairs with Queen Anne Boleyn, and for plotting with her to kill her husband, […]
Claire | May 15, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 15th May 1536, Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother, the courtier, poet and diplomat, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, were tried in the King’s Hall at the Tower of London. They were tried separately by a jury of their peers presided over by their uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of […]
Claire | April 23, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 23rd April, less than a month before he was executed, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, a man who had been in high favour and was a friend of his brother-in-law the king, lost to courtier Nicholas Carew in the Order of the Garter elections. Why would the queen’s brother lose […]
Claire | April 2, 2021
Thank you so much to Omar from Leeds for the excellent questions regarding Showtime’s The Tudors series for my Fan Q&A series on YouTube. Omar wanted to know if William Compton and Thomas Tallis, and George Boleyn and Mark Smeaton really had sexual relationships. I consider whether these storylines were just fictional devices and look […]
Claire | January 30, 2021
I fell under George Boleyn’s ‘spell’ when I started working with Clare Cherry on our book, George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier and Diplomat. Clare had told me that George was just as fascinating as his sister, Anne Boleyn, and she was right! His life may have been cut short, but he packed lots into it, […]
Claire | November 11, 2020
On this day in Tudor history, 11th November 1534, Philippe de Chabot, Seigneur De Brion and Admiral of France, landed on English soil. The purpose of the diplomatic mission he was leading was to renew Anglo-French relations. George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, brother of Queen Anne Boleyn, had been put in charge of meeting the admiral […]
