Chapter 36: Richmond Palace, Summer: 1540
Spoiler Notice
This page reveals key plot points from Chapter 36. If you haven’t read that far, proceed with caution.
Summary
At Richmond Palace, Jane Boleyn and the ladies-in-waiting maintain the king’s cover story—plague and summer heat—while engineering the end of Queen Anne’s marriage. Parliament swiftly passes a law that permits remarriage after an unconsummated union, removing any legal obstacle. Privy councillors arrive to demand Anne accept an annulment on the grounds of a precontract with the Duke of Lorraine. Jane, playing the “Kind Counsellor,” writes Anne’s compliant reply. Together with Katherine Edgcumbe and Eleanor Manners, Jane later invents an absurd English conversation to swear the marriage was never consummated. Their signed testimony joins a box of coordinated statements from Cromwell and other courtiers. The convocation unanimously annuls the marriage. Anne signs as the king’s sister, surrenders her household and jewels, and is left a private noblewoman at Richmond. Jane chooses to return to court. In the final scene, Anne gives Jane her wedding ring to be melted down, a quiet act of erasure.
Key Events
- The court is moved to Richmond under false pretenses of plague avoidance.
- Parliament enacts a law validating remarriage after an unconsummated marriage.
- A delegation of privy councillors pressures Anne to agree to an annulment based on a fabricated precontract.
- Jane scripts Anne’s submissive response.
- Jane, Katherine Edgcumbe, and Eleanor Manners compose a fictitious dialogue to prove non-consummation.
- The signed perjuries are deposited in a locked box alongside Cromwell’s statement and those of other courtiers.
- The convocation rules the marriage invalid; Anne signs as “the king’s sister.”
- Anne is stripped of her queenship, most of her household, and her jewels.
- Jane announces she will return to royal service rather than stay with the deposed queen.
- Anne hands over her wedding ring, instructing that it be melted down.
Character Development
Jane Boleyn
Jane operates as the chapter’s arch-manipulator. She acknowledges the lies with chilling detachment, comparing the process to a masque and herself to a mask laid aside. Her internal monologue reveals pride in orchestrating a bloodless uncoupling—something no previous advisor had achieved for Henry—yet she also experiences a flicker of fear when she suspects a double-cross. Her decision to abandon Anne for the promise of court influence cements her identity as a survivalist who justifies her betrayals as mercy.
Anne of Cleves
Initially silent and baffled, Anne gradually becomes a figure of dignified resignation. She asks Jane one searching question—“You know I had to do this?”—and receives hollow reassurance. Stripped of her title, she seeks companionship but is refused. Her final act, surrendering the wedding ring with the remark that it has “no other value, God knows,” turns the transaction into a poignant rejection of the whole charade.
The Other Ladies
Katherine Edgcumbe and Eleanor Manners are portrayed as career courtiers, laughing while inventing salacious details of the royal bedchamber. Their eagerness for a reward and their lack of fellow-feeling for the queen underscore the moral bankruptcy of the court’s inner circle. Catherine Brandon’s sulky compliance adds a note of reformist discontent, but she still obeys her husband.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
The Masque as Political Theater
The chapter frames the entire annulment as an elaborate court masque. Jane speaks of the king’s men “miming, gesturing with empty hands” and describes the box of statements as a great theatrical production. Courtiers are assigned roles—Hangmen, Kind Counsellor, Mischance—and the legal process becomes a scripted performance designed to lend legitimacy to the king’s whims.
The Weight of Survival
Jane celebrates the absence of an execution, positioning herself as a pragmatic savior. Yet her philosophy is deeply transactional: she trades Anne’s dignity and her own integrity for continued influence. The chapter asks whether surviving at any cost is truly a victory, especially when it requires constructing elaborate lies.
Fabrication and Female Agency
The women are not passive; they actively construct the evidence that undoes a queen. Jane, Katherine, and Eleanor wield their inside knowledge to craft a story, highlighting a dark form of female agency. Simultaneously, Anne exercises a final, subtle agency by handing over the ring and explicitly reducing it to its gold content, thereby unmasking the emptiness of the king’s munificence.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 36 marks a turning point in the novel’s political landscape. It demonstrates that a queen can be discarded without death, a disturbing new precedent that Jane views as her greatest triumph. The chapter lays bare the mechanics of a legal fiction powered by collective perjury, while simultaneously exposing the fragility of Jane’s position. Her triumph is shadowed by the knowledge that the same machinery of lies could easily turn against her, and the theatrical imagery recalls earlier downfalls—Anne Boleyn’s among them—hinting that the masque of power is never truly safe for its players.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does Jane Boleyn justify her role in fabricating evidence?
Answer: Jane believes she is protecting Anne of Cleves from a far worse fate. She frames the annulment as an escape, not a defeat, and takes pride in ending the marriage without a beheading—something Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell could not do. She sees herself as a pragmatic survivor who navigates a treacherous system by controlling which lies get told.
2. What is the significance of the box of statements and the repeated references to a masque?
Answer: The box symbolizes the coordinated fiction required to legalize the king’s desires. Each courtier contributes a scripted role, and the box becomes a literal container for state-sponsored lies. The masque metaphor reinforces the idea that power at court is a performance; everyone knows the truth, but survival depends on playing the assigned part convincingly.
3. In what ways does Anne of Cleves retain dignity despite her powerlessness?
Answer: Anne meets the privy councillors with silence and later signs the acceptance as commanded, but she does so without groveling. She asks Jane directly if all the lies are necessary, and when abandoned, she does not beg. Her final gesture—surrendering the wedding ring to be melted and declaring it “no other value”—is a quiet, devastating critique of the marriage’s hollowness, reclaiming a measure of moral clarity.