Boleyn Traitor Quiz: 20 Questions & Answers

This quiz spans the entire arc of Philippa Gregory's Boleyn Traitor, following Lady Rochford from Anne Boleyn's court to Katherine Howard's downfall. Questions are drawn from all phases of Jane Boleyn's journey. A full answer key with brief explanations follows the questions.

Quiz Questions

1. (Plot – Multiple Choice)
After Anne Boleyn's miscarriage in summer 1534, what cover‑up does she and her mother Elizabeth engineer?

• a) They publicly blame a jealous maid.
• b) They pretend the pregnancy never happened and it was only a late course.
• c) They accuse Agnes Trent of witchcraft.
• d) They secretly bury the fetus and claim a stillbirth.

2. (Plot – Multiple Choice)
Why is Jane Rochford forced to leave court in autumn 1534?

• a) She refuses to serve Anne Boleyn any longer.
• b) The king discovers she has been spying for the Spanish.
• c) After she dismisses Agnes Trent at Anne's command, the king reverses the decision and blames Jane for the quarrel.
• d) She is caught reading forbidden Protestant books.

3. (Plot – Multiple Choice)
What incriminating paper does George Boleyn read aloud at his trial and then vehemently deny?

• a) A love letter from Anne to Mark Smeaton.
• b) A note alleging the king’s impotence.
• c) A forged confession by Henry Norris.
• d) A Papal dispensation for Anne's marriage.

4. (Plot – Multiple Choice)
What event during the May Day joust in 1536 abruptly ends the tournament and sets off the arrests of the Boleyns?

• a) The king’s horse throws him and he is badly injured.
• b) Henry Norris's horse refuses to charge, and the king leaves with Norris after receiving a message.
• c) Anne Boleyn openly insults the king from the stands.
• d) A sudden thunderstorm halts the proceedings.

5. (Plot – Multiple Choice)
After Jane Seymour's death, what does Henry VIII secretly do with Bisham Abbey?

• a) Raze it to the ground.
• b) Reopen it as a chantry for Jane Seymour, entrusting it to Lady Margaret Pole.
• c) Sell it to Thomas Cromwell for a nominal sum.
• d) Give it to Anne of Cleves as a wedding gift.

6. (Plot – Multiple Choice)
How does the king's feverish illness in February 1541 threaten the Howard faction?

• a) He orders the arrest of every Howard at court.
• b) He raves about past executions, longs for Katherine of Aragon and Cromwell, and calls the Howards traitors.
• c) He demands that Lady Mary be named regent.
• d) He publicly pardons all remaining Plantagenet prisoners.

7. (Plot – Short Answer)
In what way does Jane Boleyn attempt to evade interrogation after Katherine Howard's scandal breaks?

8. (Plot – Short Answer)
When Thomas Cromwell is arrested in June 1540, what does Jane do to save herself and the annulment scheme?

9. (Character Motivation – Short Answer)
Why does George Boleyn choose to read the note and deny the king’s impotence even though it condemns him to death?

10. (Character Motivation – Short Answer)
Why does Jane Boleyn agree to spy for Thomas Cromwell when he summons her back from exile?

11. (Character Motivation – Multiple Choice)
What compels Katherine Howard to accept Francis Dereham into her household at court?

• a) She still loves him and wants him near.
• b) He blackmails her with old letters and a possible precontract, threatening exposure.
• c) The king orders her to employ a more experienced household officer.
• d) The Duke of Norfolk arranges it to watch Dereham.

12. (Character Motivation – Multiple Choice)
Why does Jane Boleyn arrange and cover for the secret meetings between Katherine Howard and Thomas Culpeper?

• a) She wants to hurt the king for past slights.
• b) She believes Katherine might become pregnant and, as regent, secure Jane’s future power.
• c) She is secretly in love with Culpeper.
• d) She hopes the affair will be discovered so she can betray the queen.

13. (Character Motivation – Multiple Choice)
What lies behind Thomas Cromwell's gift of Blickling Hall to Jane?

• a) His genuine romantic attachment to her.
• b) A reward for years of spying and for her silence about past conspiracies.
• c) A loan disguised as a gift.
• d) Pressure from Jane's father, Lord Morley.

14. (Theme/Symbol – Short Answer)
What does the practice of “letterlocking” symbolize in the novel’s world of court intrigue?

15. (Theme/Symbol – Short Answer)
How does the recurring motif of masques and disguises reflect the theme of political performance?

16. (Theme/Symbol – Short Answer)
What shift in Jane’s worldview does her reading of Machiavelli’s The Prince illuminate?

17. (Theme/Symbol – Short Answer)
What does the Tower of London represent for Jane throughout the story?

18. (Synthesis – Short Answer)
Compare Jane’s role in the downfall of Anne Boleyn with her role in Katherine Howard’s destruction. What key difference reveals her moral trajectory?

19. (Synthesis – Short Answer)
How does Henry VIII’s manipulation of law—writs of attainder, retroactive treason, abolishing the insanity defense—serve as the novel’s central expression of tyranny?

20. (Synthesis – Short Answer)
What does the phrase “They dropped me” (and Jane’s later dropping of Cromwell) reveal about the transactional nature of court relationships and her own complicity?

Answer Key

1. b – Anne and her mother Elizabeth decree that the pregnancy never existed, only a late course, to hide the loss and preserve the king’s hope for an heir.
2. c – Jane obeys Anne by dismissing the maid Agnes, but the king overrules her, blames Jane for causing discord, and sends her from court.
3. b – The note alleged the king was impotent. George reads it aloud and denies it to protect Princess Elizabeth’s legitimacy, sacrificing himself.
4. b – Norris’s horse refuses to charge; the king, already informed of allegations, abruptly leaves the tournament with Norris, triggering the arrests.
5. b – Henry secretly re‑establishes Bisham Abbey as a chantry for Queen Jane, placing it under the conservative Lady Margaret Pole, despite his public reformist stance.
6. b – The king’s fever brings delirious rants about past executions, remorse for Katherine and Cromwell, and denunciations of the Howards, terrifying Jane and the faction.
**7. Jane feigns madness—hallucinating visits from dead courtiers, rambling incoherently, and behaving so erratically that Dr. Butts and Wriothesley deem her unfit for interrogation; she is moved to Russell House.
**8. She reveals the precontract annulment plan to her uncle Norfolk, framing it as Cromwell’s scheme, and then agrees never to speak Cromwell’s name again, letting her spymaster fall while she survives.
**9. George sacrifices himself to defend Elizabeth’s legitimacy. By denying the impotence charge publicly, he removes any question over her paternity, even though it ensures his conviction.
**10. She sees an escape from the powerless exile at her father’s manor and a chance to reclaim her position at court. Ambition and the desire for renewed influence override any loyalty to Anne.
11. b – Dereham threatens to expose former intimacies and a claimed betrothal; Katherine gives him a post to buy his silence.
12. b – Jane calculates that if the king dies and Katherine is pregnant, the young queen could become regent, and Jane as her confidante would hold real power.
13. b – The house is payment for her silence and past service—essentially a reward for spying on the Boleyns and later cooperation, with Cromwell noting it is “for nothing” as a wry nod to the unspoken cost.
**14. Letterlocking symbolizes the hidden, coded nature of court information. Messages are folded and sealed so that tampering is obvious, mirroring the layers of secrecy, surveillance, and trust that define Jane’s world.
**15. Masques and disguises externalize the constant political performance at court. Everyone wears a mask—literal or figurative—concealing ambition, fear, and betrayal behind a show of loyalty.
**16. Her study of The Prince solidifies a cynical, pragmatic outlook where morality is irrelevant. Power is gained and preserved through calculated deception, and loyalty is merely a tool for survival.
**17. The Tower is a repository of trauma: it is where her husband and her queens died, and eventually her own prison. It represents the inescapable consequences of court life and the memory of complicity.
**18. With Anne, Jane spied on pregnancies and reported to Norfolk, but remained more passive. With Katherine, she actively enabled the secret meetings and coached the queen in deception. Her later role is more deliberate and self-serving, showing she has fully internalized the machinery of intrigue.
**19. Henry repeatedly rewrites the law to eliminate perceived enemies—using attainder to execute without trial, coining treason from private words, and specifically abolishing the insanity defense so that Jane, mad or not, can be beheaded. This weaponization of law portrays tyranny not as chaotic rage but as a systematic corruption of justice.
**20. The phrase captures the disposable nature of court alliances: Jane is cast aside when she stops being useful. She later “drops” Cromwell in exactly the same way, proving she has adopted the same cold calculus she once resented. It highlights her complicity in the very system she critiques.

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