I fail to see where he was a protector.  He miserably failed at 'protecting' his children, and rode their coattails towards title and money.  I believe him and his brother conspired constantly to insert themselves and Thomas Boleyn's children into Henry's court for the only purposes of personal gain.  He seems to me to be a miserable failure as a father, he acted more like a pimp.  He had no compunction about damning his own children when the tide turned against them, to save his own neck.  Perhaps he was a brilliant diplomat, but as a father and the supposed head of his own household he was less than noble.

http://www.luminarium.org/ency…..boleyn.htm

He did not want to see Anne married to Henry. Once, when Anne was pregnant with Elizabeth, she said one of her ironical remarks to her father, saying she was in a better condition he had wished!

Hmmm. Very tricky indeed. I can image he would have loved his children very much but I don't think he was an absolute angel. I believe he wanted Anne to succeed in life, just like any other parent. He did send her to grow up in the French court afterall (I'm fairly sure, gah correct me if I'm wrong!) so I guess it's more to do with how he embraced the luck of having a daughter that was eyed by the king of England. I suppose, being in the position he was, he was under a lot of pressure to keep her in the limelight after she married Henry.

It's difficult to judge without reports of his personality, the way he held himself. We know that Anne was smart and full of wit because of the many descriptions of her. I wonder if there are any at all of her father?

The thing I wonder about is, he had a thriving career in Henry's court before his daughters were Henry's \”toys\”. 

It seems like he was doing fine in his own right. So when Henry's eye turned to Mary, how could Thomas say NO? (without ruining his career & aspirations?) Don't get me wrong I do NOT condone this behavior in any shape, way or form. All I am saying is, what would have happend if he told Henry to look elsewhere? Would he have lost his position, been banished from court or worse?) Even if he was dead against it, he may have felt powerless to stop it. Then when Henry turned his attentions to Anne, he had been reaping the rewards for so long (& may have felt that no harm had truly come to Mary) that  he made peace with it in a sense. 

In the end it wasn't like he sold HIS soul to the devil but rather his children's.

XO-Gina

Is there any recorded evidence of Thomas Boleyn's reactions to the fall of the Boleyn faction at court? One thing that perplexes me, is that Thomas Boleyn was a semi-frequent dinner guest of Thomas Cromwell up until his death. Maybe he was looking for a way back in to the King's good graces?

Lady said:

He did not want to see Anne married to Henry. Once, when Anne was pregnant with Elizabeth, she said one of her ironical remarks to her father, saying she was in a better condition he had wished!

Claire said:

That's an interesting remark, very telling, where did you find that, Lady?

OK, this was driving me nuts, because that comment really sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen it. And… found it! It's in Antonia Fraser's The Wives of Henry VIII, and allegedly happened during preparations for Anne's coronation.

\”A scurrilous story, related by the egregious Chapuys… had the two Boleyns, father and daughter quarrelling over the Queen's dress. …Anne was supposed to have added a panel of cloth to her dress to accomodate her growing figure (maternity clothes as such did not exist). When her father remarked that she should take away the cloth and thank God for the state in which she found herself, Anne, with her usual spirit, retorted that she was in a better plight than he would have wished her to be.\”

The sources she cites for this are:

Henry Ellis, Original Letters illustrative of English History, 1st series, II, P.39

Edward Hall, Henry VIII, introduction by Charles Whibley, 2 Vols, 1904

CSP (Calendar of State Papers), Spanish, IV, pt. 2, p. 699

It does seem strange but if Boleyn wanted to get back into Henry's good books (and as a courtier his whole livlelihood would totally depend on the whims of the king) then he would've had to suck up to Cromwell despite what he'd done to his family.  Any grief Boleyn felt for his children would have to be buried very deep indeed.  Boleyn still had family and others who depended on him for their own maintenance (wife, daughter, mother etc) so maybe he just did what he had to so he could do right by them. 

Over the years a lot of courtiers were in the exact same position so its hardly surprising Cromwell was pretty much universally disliked.  There must've been a lot of secret rejoicing when it was his turn to pay a visit to the executioner!

Thomas Boleyn sat in judgment of the 4 men accused along with his daughter and son of abominable crimes and he found them guilty as charged.  He was probably on the jury who sat against George and Anne.  I really don't need to hear anything else.  This is certainly not the act of a loving Father.

Boleyn died 3years after his son and daughter were murdered.  Even after that terrible event, he still ate supper with the man who had gathered all of that ugly evidence against his children?  His wife died 2 years after Anne was killed.  He did lose property and titles but he remained at court and he served on the King's council.  Mary was living with her husband Will Stafford. He never once tried to help her. The only person Thomas was taking care of was himself. 

Not the kind of Father any child would wish for.

Those remarks were made in 2010. I have changed my mind after reading more about Thomas. He was on the jury that convicted the four men, but he was excused from the juries that convicted his daughter and son. Thomas and Norfolk were not thrilled about Anne becoming Henry’s queen. Not at all. Norfolk told Chapuys this.

I don’t believe he threw his daughters at Henry. Thomas was a well-established diplomat for years before Anne was ever at court. He did want the best for his children. He sent Anne to Margaret of Austria to be educated. George traveled with him on diplomatic missions to France. Mary and Anne served Mary Tudor in France when she was married to King Louis.

Of course, he wanted them to marry well. There is no proof that I could find where Thomas insisted that Anne or Mary should be the king’s mistresses.
Nobody could have foreseen Henry wanting to divorce Katherine and marry a woman who was not of royal blood. Not at this time anyway.

I don’t think he did anything different than any other courtier. Yes, he was ambitious and he wanted the best for his children. As to his actions after his children’s executions, I think Thomas was at loose ends and didn’t know what else to do. He went back to the only life he had ever known, that of being a courtier. We don’t know how his wife reacted. Broken would be my guess. She did not return to court and she died two years after her children were killed.

I still don’t know how he could have sat at dinner with Cromwell or even have looked Henry in the face after the executions, but he did. He was at Edward’s baptism and he fought for Henry in the north during the pilgrimage of Grace. He did what he felt he had to do. I accept that. I no longer think he was a horrible husband and father. He was at the center of a firestorm and he was trying to survive it.