Жорж Болейн, Рочфорд виконты: Англия ақсұлы және саяхатшысы

English nobleman, courtier and politician

George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford (c. 1504 – 17 May 1536) was an English courtier and nobleman who played a prominent role in the politics of the early 1530s as the brother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII. George was the maternal uncle of Queen Elizabeth I, although he died long before his niece ascended the throne. Following his father's promotion in the peerage in 1529 to Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, he adopted his father's junior title Viscount Rochford (created in 1525) as a courtesy title. He was accused of incest with his sister Anne during the period of her trial for high treason, as a result of which both were executed.

George was the son of Thomas Boleyn, later Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, and his wife, Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of Thomas Howard, then Earl of Surrey and future 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney, therefore George was a nephew of the future 3rd Duke of Norfolk and a first cousin of both the poet and soldier Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. George and his sisters were probably born in Norfolk at his family's home of Blickling Hall. However, they spent most of their childhood at another of the family's homes, Hever Castle in Kent, which became their chief residence in 1505 when Thomas inherited the property from his father, Sir William Boleyn. Thomas and Elizabeth had a number of children, including two sons named Thomas and Henry who failed to reach adulthood. Three children survived: Mary, Anne and George. There has been much debate over the centuries as to the age of the three Boleyn siblings, but there is general agreement that George was born c. 1504. This stems from a number of different sources. George Cavendish says in a poem that George was about 27 when he gained a place on the Privy Council in 1529. Cavendish gives this as a maximum age in order to make his tortuous verses more rhythmic (such as "thrice nine"). In addition to Cavendish's verses, foreign diplomats believed George was too young to be appointed as Ambassador to France in October 1529. Mary's date of birth is again generally accepted as being c. 1500 but there is some disagreement as to Anne's date of birth with arguments for 1501 and others for 1507. However, following the executions of Anne and George in 1536 their father wrote to Thomas Cromwell and in his letter he stated that upon his marriage his wife gave him a child every year. As Thomas and Elizabeth were married between 1498 and 1499, if Thomas is to be believed this indicates that all five Boleyn children, including the two who failed to reach adulthood, were born between 1500 and 1504, and if we accept as the evidence suggests that George was born in 1504 this is persuasive evidence for suggesting he was the youngest Boleyn child. This is the current thinking of the vast majority of modern historians with only one notable exception. Like his father, it was understood that George would have a career as a courtier, politician and diplomat. The monarchy was the font of all patronage and potential wealth and it was only through service to the Royal Family that a family could hope to achieve or protect their greatness and social position. With this in mind, George was introduced to Henry VIII's court at the age of ten, when he attended the Christmas festivities of 1514–15. He attended an indoor melee with his father and acted in a mummery with his father, and the much older Charles Brandon and Nicholas Carew. Thanks to his family's influence and the fact he obviously impressed Henry at an early age, he became one of the King's pageboys shortly afterwards. Since learning was highly praised at Court and essential for a career as a diplomat, George received an excellent education, speaking fluent French together with some Italian and Latin. His two sisters are known to have been educated abroad (Mary from 1514 to 1519, Anne from the spring of 1513 to late 1521). George is thought to have remained in England throughout his early years, although George's first biographer suggests George may have spent time in France as a child when his father was on embassy from January 1519, as an explanation for how George could speak such perfect French from a young age, and why Anne and George remained so close during their formative years. However, this is pure speculation. Whatever the case, there is a long standing tradition that George attended the University of Oxford when he was not in attendance at Court, although he does not appear in any of the University's records – a relatively frequent occurrence in the period before the English Civil War, when few of the aristocrats who attended either technically matriculated or graduated.

In 1536, Anne Boleyn miscarried a son. This loss of the much desired son and male heir coincided with Henry's infatuation with Jane Seymour, one of his wife's maids of honour. To rid himself of his wife, Henry and his chief advisor, Thomas Cromwell, devised a plot whereby Anne was accused of adultery with five men, one of whom was her brother, George. George was charged with incest with the Queen and plotting with Anne to kill the King. During a conversation with Chapuys following the Boleyns' deaths, Cromwell boasted that he had gone to a great deal of trouble arranging the plot, suggesting he did so in order to assist an alliance with Spain. Yet despite his boasts, during the same conversation he greatly praised both Anne and her brother for their "sense, wit, and courage". On 23 April 1536 George was expected to be chosen to receive the Order of the Garter, but the honour went to a known opponent of the Boleyns instead, Sir Nicholas Carew. The following day, Henry gave instructions to Cromwell to set up a special commission looking into various treasons. Anne and George were arrested on 2 May 1536, the day after the May Day joust at which George was one of the principal jousters. The four others implicated in the plot, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton were tried on Friday 12 May. Only Smeaton confessed, probably after torture, but certainly emotional pressure. Despite lack of evidence all four men were found guilty. Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk sat on the jury and effectively condemned his own niece by finding the men guilty. Anne was pre judged for the earlier convictions of the men found guilty of adultery with her; therefore she stood trial before her brother. George stood trial a few hours after Anne on Monday 15 May. As Anne had been found guilty before George had stood trial, he too was pre judged because he could hardly be acquitted when his sister had already been found guilty of incest. The order of the trials had been arranged to ensure the difficult case against George could not realistically fail. Everyone who witnessed George's trial, including the Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys, considered that he put up a magnificent defence and many thought that he would be acquitted. Chapuys reported that those watching were betting 10 to 1 that he would be acquitted, and the court chronicler Charles Wriothesley said that his evidence was a marvel to hear. There was no evidence of incest save that on one occasion he had spent a long time alone with Anne. Chapuys says he was convicted merely on a presumption. George's wife has throughout history been accused of providing evidence to support the incest charge, but this is unlikely to be correct. None of the evidence relating to the trials makes any mention of George's wife as providing evidence save for the fact that she told in a letter that Anne had told her Henry was "not able to satisfy a woman and he had neither capacity nor virility". This in itself was damning because it provided a potential motive for Anne's behaviour. Yet whatever Jane Rochford may or may not have said, it seems that the majority of the courtiers believed in his innocence, as can be seen from the wagers they were making in favour of acquittal. Irrespective of what those at court thought, he was unanimously found guilty and the sentence of the court was that he be hanged, drawn, and quartered (the sentence was later commuted to beheading). He asked for his debts be paid out of his confiscated assets so that no one would suffer from his death, and he continued to be distressed about his debts while awaiting death. In fact his distress was so acute that the Constable of the Tower, Sir William Kingston wrote to Cromwell twice begging him to help ease George's conscience. George Boleyn and the other four men were beheaded on Tower Hill on the morning of 17 May 1536. George's scaffold speech was extremely long and exemplified the orator's linguistic skills. For it to have been recorded in as much detail as it was, the vast crowd who witnessed the executions must have been virtually silent, and there could have been little booing or jeering as with normal state executions. His scaffold speech was primarily concerned with defending his religious beliefs and his passion for reform. It was not the honourable thing to deny guilt once a guilty verdict had been given in a court of law, and therefore he followed the conventions of the day by admitting he was a sinner deserving of death. He begged forgiveness of anyone he may have offended and begged for God's forgiveness. He came close to denying his guilt by declaring, "beware, trust not in the vanity of the world or the flatteries of the court, or the favour and treacheries of fortune". He said he would be alive if he had not done so. By blaming fortune for his fall he came as close as he dared to denying his guilt (i. e., he was dying because luck had been against him, not because he was guilty). He then went on to speak of his religious convictions before calmly submitting his neck to the axe. Anne was beheaded two days later.

In the 1830 tragic opera Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti, the character of Lord Rochfort is based on George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford. George Boleyn was portrayed by Michael Johnson in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days and by Jonathan Newth in the 1970 television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Following his prominence within The Other Boleyn Girl, the 2001 novel by Philippa Gregory, he was portrayed in the 2003 television film The Other Boleyn Girl by Steven Mackintosh and by Jim Sturgess in the 2008 cinema film The Other Boleyn Girl. Gregory portrayed George Boleyn as at least gay and possibly bisexual. However, the film adaptations of the book do not portray George as bisexual. Boleyn was portrayed by Pádraic Delaney in the 2007 television series The Tudors. The writers of The Tudors not only portrayed George as bisexual, but also portrayed his relationship with his wife as abusive. George Boleyn is one of two protagonists (along with sister Anne) in a play by British writer Joanna Carrick, Fallen in Love. It was originally produced in 2011 in the grounds of Gippeswyk Hall in Ipswich in Suffolk, and subsequently reprised for performances at the Tower of London and Gippeswyk Hall in May 2013, directed by Carrick as artistic director of Red Rose Chain theatre company. In the 2013 production, George was portrayed by Scott Ellis and Anne by Emma Connell. In the 2015 BBC Two adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, George Boleyn is portrayed by Edward Holcroft. In the 2021 Channel 5 series Anne Boleyn, he was played by Paapa Essiedu. In the 2022 BBC Two three part series The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family, George is portrayed by Sam Retford.