George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford - Appointments and Career

Appointments and Career

George is first mentioned as an adult in 1522 when he and his father received a joint grant of various manor houses in Kent. The grant was made in April, suggesting that George was born in April 1504 and that this grant was an 18th birthday gift. He received the first grant in his sole name in 1524, when at the age of 20 he received from the King a country mansion, Grimston Manor. It is supposed that this was an early wedding present made to a young man who was rapidly coming into favour. He was a firm favourite of the King and is regularly mentioned in the Privy Purse expenses as playing the King at bowls, tennis, card games and archery. He also hunted with the King and bet large sums of money with him. He won huge sums off the King but probably lost just as much, if not more. Gambling was one of the European aristocracy's favourite pastimes in the period.

In 1525, George was appointed gentleman of the Privy Chamber, functioning as the male equivalent to the King of what a lady-in-waiting was to the Queen. As part of a reorganisation of the Court structure, known as the Eltham Ordinance, Cardinal Wolsey, an opponent of the Boleyns, ensured that George lost this position six months later when he halved the number of gentlemen in the Privy Chamber. Wolsey used the reorganisation to get rid of those whom he perceived as a threat, which was something of a backhanded compliment to the 21-year old Boleyn boy whose court prominence was already being acknowledged. As compensation, George was appointed Royal Cupbearer in January 1526 in addition to his award of an additional £20 a year for him and his wife to live on.

Following her return to England in 1519, Mary Boleyn became Henry VIII's mistress. It is not known when that relationship started or when it ended or indeed for how long it lasted. It was certainly over by 1526 when the King's eyes turned to another Boleyn sibling, Anne, and by 1527 he was seeking to marry her. Much of George Boleyn's career was in furtherance to the King's desire for a divorce from his first wife to enable him to have Anne.

In June 1528, George contracted the disease known as sweating sickness whilst with the King and Catherine of Aragon at Waltham Abbey. In a letter to Anne, who also contracted the disease while at Hever Castle, Henry told her of her brother's illness and recovery.

Later that year, George was appointed Esquire to the Body and Master of the King's Buckhounds in 1528. Throughout the late 1520s grants continued to be bestowed upon him. On 15 November 1528 he became keeper of the Palace of Beaulieu and on 1 February 1529 was appointed chief steward of Beaulieu (later in October 1533 he would be granted a life interest in the Palace). On 29 July 1529 he was appointed Governor of Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam), which was a profitable sinecure.

George's diplomatic career took off in late 1529 when he was knighted and regained his former position as a member of the Privy chamber. It was also in December 1529 that he was ennobled as George, Viscount Rochford, and undertook his first assignment as a diplomat to France as Ambassador. Because of his youth, (he was only 25), it is believed that Anne's influence secured him this post, although there is no evidence that he lacked the ability to undertake the role. The French ambassador, Jean du Bellay, commented that George was considerably younger than many of the other foreign diplomats and that the appointment of a boy barely out of his teens would cause amusement. But he also goes on to say that George should be shown more honour than was ordinarily necessary, and that his reception would be well weighted.

Irrespective of his age, George quickly established a good relationship with the King of France and did well in his first embassy. George attended a total of six foreign embassies to France. The first was between late October 1529 and late February 1530. George attended with John Stokesley, the Dean of the Chapel Royal. Their mission was to encourage the universities of France to support Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. The universities' response was initially negative, but George encouraged King Francis to write a strong letter in favour of the divorce, which was later used to reverse the universities' decision.

The second was in March 1533 when he informed the King of France of his sister's marriage to the King of England. George was also instructed to encourage Francis into giving Henry more support, and following a lengthy debate George succeeded in obtaining a letter from Francis asking the Pope to concede to Henry's wishes. Not everyone was happy with George's success. The Bishop of Rome, who had found George's youth so amusing, described him as "the most unreasonable young man who ever crossed the sea". Yet despite the criticism Du Bellay grudgingly gave praise for the respect George Boleyn inspired at the meeting and the strength with which he argued the case.

George's third embassy was between May and August 1533 when he travelled to France with his Uncle the Duke of Norfolk to be present at a proposed meeting between the King of France and the Pope. It was during this mission that news reached them that the Pope had excommunicated Henry. It was George who returned to England to inform Henry of the Pope's actions.

On 10 September 1533, George carried the canopy over his royal niece the Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth 1) at her christening, along with his uncles Lord Thomas Howard and William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham as well as John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford.

His fourth embassy was in April 1534 when George was again appointed to encourage the French King to give more support to Henry's cause, to pass similar legislation against the Pope as had been passed in England, and to arrange a meeting between the two Kings and Anne.

In July 1534, George once again attended the French court, this time to rearrange the meeting that had been arranged between the kings as a result of Anne's pregnancy (she later miscarried). In George's instructions is a passage stating he is one who the King "specially loveth and trustith".

George's final embassy was in May 1535 when he and his uncle were appointed by the King to negotiate a marriage contract between the King of France's third son and the baby Princess Elizabeth, George's niece.

When George was not abroad, he often escorted foreign diplomats and ambassadors into the King's presence. Chapuys in particular regularly refers in his dispatches to meeting "the ladies brother". In October 1529, immediately prior to George's first embassy abroad, he was instructed to escort Chapuys on his first audience with the King. Chapuys refers to meeting "a civil gentleman named Bollen". Ironically, Chapuys had liked George, before he became aware who he was.

In addition to his diplomatic career, George was an acknowledged court poet of considerable merit, and was also much admired as a talented linguist and translator. He was passionate about religious reform and translated from French into English two magnificent religious texts as presents for his sister Anne, which he dedicates "To the right honourable lady, the Lady Marchiness of Pembroke, her most loving and friendly brother sendeth greetings." The translations codify the Lutheran doctrine which both Anne and George were so immersed in, and emphasise the joint commitment of both siblings to reform of the Church. When Anne was sent a religious pamphlet by Simon Fish, "A Supplication for the Beggars", it was George, according to Fish's wife, who encouraged Anne to show it to the King. In matters of religion Anne and George Boleyn were very much a team. Though Anne had far greater influence owing to the King's infatuation with her, her brother clearly identified both of them with the new religious ideas.

George's own religious views resulted in him having an influential role in the Reformation Parliament between its conception in late 1529 and his death in 1536. Both siblings were gifted debaters on the issues of religious philosophy and it was George whom Henry chose in 1531 to argue the case for royal supremacy over the Church, before the Church's advisory body, Convocation.

On 5 February 1533, George was formally called to Parliament and his attendance rate was higher than any other Lord despite his other onerous duties, clearly indicating his commitment. He obviously voted in favour of the statutes which brought to an end the Pope's powers in England, and his commitment to religious reform earned him many enemies who held true to the Catholic faith. Various peers who were opposed to the legislation were excused attendance provided they appoint a proxy. George twice held the proxy vote of Lord LaWarr, an adherent to the old religion. Unfortunately for George, LaWarr later sat on the jury which tried him.

George also used his fine talent, intellect and religious fervour for a less savory purpose. In 1535 he was one of the special commissioners at the trial of Sir Thomas More and at the trial of three Carthusian Monks, all of whom, because of their religious convictions, had been unable to swear allegiance to the Acts of Succession and Supremacy which had been passed the previous year. George, his father, the King's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy and all other courtiers of rank were present at the monks' brutal executions which took place on 4 May 1535. In his scaffold speech at his own execution George said, "Truly and diligently did I read the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but I turned not to profit that which I did read; the which had I done, of a surety I would not have fallen into such great errors". His religious dogmatism had led him into errors rather than saved him from them. That may or may not be true, but from the contents of his scaffold speech, it was certainly something George believed.

In June 1534, George was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle. These were the highest appointments in the realm and, as usual, he committed to them with zeal. He is regularly referred to in the State Papers in his position as Warden sitting at the Warden's court at Dover. From Thomas Cromwell's point of view, George's influence as Lord Warden was a thorn in his side. On 26 November 1534, George wrote to Cromwell expressing fury that Cromwell had undermined one of his orders made as Lord Warden.