Question from Elizabeth - Description of Jane Rochford (aka Jane Parker or Boleyn)
I have searched through many books, but have not been able to find a physical description of Lady Jane Rochford. Does anyone know what she looked like? Has anyone ran across any contemporary descriptions? Thank you!
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I just finished reading Julia Fox's new biography, JANE BOLEYN, and even she did not have a good physical description of her. There is one drawing that has been purported to be of Jane (it's pictured in Fox's book), but experts believe it is actually of Grace Newport Parker, Jane's brother's wife. Sadly, no other portrait has been found or identified as Jane Parker Boleyn.
No. I've read Julia Fox's biography of Jane, and the best she suggests is that as she was chosen to perform in masques, she was probably attractive. There is a portrait, which I think is labelled 'Mistress Parker' but this is almost certainly her sister-in-law Grace.
There is a very tentative theory that there may be a miniature of her still in existence. It's recently been put forward by an Oxford postgraduate and as such it isn't in Julia Fox's biography. The miniature by Lucas van Horenbout/Horenbolte which shows a woman in a black dress, golden gable hood and with a white falcon broach is often labelled as Anne Boleyn, but the broach is simply proof that it was someone in Anne's close family. The theory suggested was that it was either her sister Mary (whose first husband patronised the artist) or their sister-in-law, Jane Boleyn-Parker. So, MAYBE, the Horenbolte miniature is a possibile likeness of Lady Rochford.
3 comments:
I just finished reading Julia Fox's new biography, JANE BOLEYN, and even she did not have a good physical description of her. There is one drawing that has been purported to be of Jane (it's pictured in Fox's book), but experts believe it is actually of Grace Newport Parker, Jane's brother's wife. Sadly, no other portrait has been found or identified as Jane Parker Boleyn.
No. I've read Julia Fox's biography of Jane, and the best she suggests is that as she was chosen to perform in masques, she was probably attractive. There is a portrait, which I think is labelled 'Mistress Parker' but this is almost certainly her sister-in-law Grace.
There is a very tentative theory that there may be a miniature of her still in existence. It's recently been put forward by an Oxford postgraduate and as such it isn't in Julia Fox's biography. The miniature by Lucas van Horenbout/Horenbolte which shows a woman in a black dress, golden gable hood and with a white falcon broach is often labelled as Anne Boleyn, but the broach is simply proof that it was someone in Anne's close family. The theory suggested was that it was either her sister Mary (whose first husband patronised the artist) or their sister-in-law, Jane Boleyn-Parker. So, MAYBE, the Horenbolte miniature is a possibile likeness of Lady Rochford.
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