48 THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL BUCKHOUNDS. 



that he would soon be arraigned, and his life left to the 

 mercy of a similar tribunal. But, as he soon discovered, trial 

 by jury in those days was a judicial farce. Meanwhile we 

 find him during the autumn of this year conducting with 

 great ability and tact many intricate affairs relating to the 

 Cinque Ports, and he appears to have resided chiefly at 

 Dover Castle, where he was well plied with suitors soliciting 

 his patronage in the dispensation of the many posts which he 

 controlled, through his close relationship with the king. But, 

 unfortunately for Lord Rochester and his sister, the king now 

 became enamoured of Lady Jane Seymour, and in order to 

 wed her. Queen Anne and all her family were fated to perish. 

 The breach between Henry and Anne is a matter of history 

 to which we need not now allude. With the rise of Anne 

 her brother George rose ; with her fall he likewise fell. On 

 May 1, 1536, he was one of the challengers in that tourna- 

 ment at Greenwich from which the king abruptly departed ; 

 the next day he rode up from Greenwich to his London house 

 without the least suspicion of his danger until he was informed 

 of his sister's commitment to the Tower. Three or four hours 

 after her arrest he also was immured in the same fortress. 

 The two were arraigned together on May 15 for acts of 

 incest and high treason; the jury found them guilty, and 

 judgment of death was pronounced upon each. Lord Rochester 

 defended himself, and so ably, that the betting in court was 

 ten to one that he would be acquitted. Nevertheless, he was 

 found guilty, sentenced to be drawn to Tyburn, hung by the 

 neck, cut down alive, ripped open, quartered, and beheaded. 

 The king so far commuted the sentence by ordering that his 

 ex-Master of the Buckhounds should be done to death by the 

 axe of the headsman only. Thus died George Boleyne, Viscount 

 Rochester, on Tower Hill, May 17, 1536. He married Jane, 

 daughter of Sir Henry Parker (eldest son and heir of Henry, 

 Lord Morley), a bad woman, who continued Lady of the Bed- 

 chamber to the three succeeding queens, but eventually shared 

 the fate of Katherine Howard. Lord Rochester had no issue. 

 He was attainted soon after his execution, when, of course, all 



