Name: George Boleyn
Title/s: 2nd Viscount Rochford
Birth: c.1503
Death: 17 May 1536 on Tower Hill, London, England
Burial: Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, England
Spouse: Jane Parker, Viscountess Rochford c.1505-1542
Children: None
Parents: Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire c.1477-1539 & Elizabeth Howard c.1480-1538
Siblings: Mary Stafford c.1499-1543 / Thomas Boleyn c.1500 / Anne Boleyn c.1501-1536 / Henry Boleyn c.1502
Noble Connections: As the brother of Anne Boleyn, George was brother-in-law to Henry VIII and uncle to Elizabeth I. His father-in-law was Lord Morley, and his sister, Mary, was also a mistress to Henry VIII. His uncle on his mother’s side was Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.
Controversy: There has been plenty of controversy raised over George Boleyn, but the most controversial is the idea that he had sex with his sister, Anne, and committed incest. Anne and George were both convicted of incest and were executed as a result. There have also been rumours, fuelled largely by TV show ‘The Tudors’, that George was in fact homosexual, but there is no evidence.
Works of Fiction:
- Laura Andersen, The Boleyn King (2013)
- Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)
- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009)
- Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies (2012)
Portrayals on Screen:
- Padraic Delaney, The Tudors, 2007-2008, 16 episodes
- Michael Johnson, Anne of the Thousand Days, 1969, directed by Charles Jarrott
- Steven Mackintosh, The Other Boleyn Girl, 2003, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe
- Jonathan Newth, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, 1970, 1 episode
- Jim Sturgess, The Other Boleyn Girl, 2008, directed by Justin Chadwick
Further Reading:
- David Loades, The Boleyns: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family (2011)
- Lauren Mackay, Among the Wolves of Court: The Untold Story of Thomas and George Boleyn (2018)
- Claire Ridgeway, George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier and Diplomat (2014)
- Claire Ridgeway & Edmond Bapst, Two Gentleman Poets at the Court of Henry VIII: George Boleyn and Henry Howard (2013)
Tudor Blogger 
Hi, I was wondering why you put up a portrait of an Unidentified Man as George Boleyn. Who started that rumor?
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It’s often described as an Unknown Man formerly known as George Boleyn, hence I labelled it as a possible sketch. As we don’t have a confirmed portrait or image of George Boleyn it’s the closest I could get for this post. It’s unknown where the identification came from, but it is possibly a 16th century identification by John Cheke who identified a lot of the Holbein sketches but we know he mixed up a lot of the More family. Portrait identifications change, such as the sketch once identified as Thomas Boleyn that is now thought to be James Butler.
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