Titles obtained
Boleyn was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1523.
Boleyn's claim to his other titles derived from his mother, Margaret Butler who was the younger daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. Thomas Butler, as an Irish peer, should only have sat in the Parliament of Ireland. However, as a personal friend of Henry VII he was summoned to the English parliament in November 1488 as "Thomas Ormond de Rochford, chevaler". At this time, he was already 8th Earl of Carrick and 7th Earl of Ormond.
In English law, matrilineal descent is not considered valid for earldoms, and in Brehon law, then largely still in use in Ireland, new leaders were chosen by election. These customs were, in Boleyn's case, outweighed by a more important consideration – he was the father of two daughters. Henry VIII had affairs first with Boleyn's elder daughter Mary, then with his younger daughter, Anne. Boleyn's ambition was so considerable that unsubstantiated rumours had it that he allowed his wife to have an affair with the king, but those rumours were intended to steer the king away from marrying Anne, and even suggested that she was his own daughter. When it was claimed that Henry had had an affair with both Anne's sister and mother, the king replied to the rumours, "Never with the mother."
In 1525, Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne and began pursuing her. Her father was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Rochford on 18 June 1525. The title referred to the "barony" of Rochford supposedly created in 1488 for his grandfather. The title had fallen into abeyance as Ormond had died without any male heir in 1515. Boleyn is often thought of as a power hungry, ambitious and scheming man who sacrificed his daughters for personal gain, but his biographer, Lauren Mackay, has argued that he enjoyed a highly successful career as an ambassador and courtier years before his daughters caught the King's eye. As Henry's passion for Anne intensified, so did her father's titles, though these rewards were not solely due to Anne but also Boleyn's own merit. Henry pressured the main claimant to the earldom of Ormond, Piers Butler, to renounce all his claims to the titles in 1529. Piers Butler was rewarded by being created Earl of Ossory five days later.
Boleyn's claims to the Earldom of Wiltshire also depended upon his Irish relatives. This time, he had to go back to his maternal great-grandfather, James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond, to establish a claim. While James Butler was indeed the 1st Earl of Wiltshire (of the third creation), on 1 May 1461 he lost his titles and his life when he was executed by the victorious Yorkists. The title was subsequently revived (in fourth and fifth creations) and bestowed on people unrelated to the Butlers of Ormond. This did not prevent the creation of the earldom for the 6th time. On 8 December 1529 Thomas Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, was created Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond.
Also on 8 December 1529, the Earl of Wiltshire's only surviving son, George, was granted the courtesy title of Viscount Rochford. His title of Viscount, although initially a courtesy title, ceased to be so sometime before 13 July 1530. On 17 May 1536, Lord Rochford was executed for treason, and all his titles were forfeited. His widow, Jane, Viscountess Rochford, however, continued to use the title after her husband's death. Lady Rochford was herself attainted for treason and beheaded at Tower Green (not Tower Hill) within the Tower of London on 13 February 1542 with Henry VIII's fifth wife, Queen Catherine Howard.
Boleyn was appointed Lord Privy Seal in 1530. In 1532, his daughter Anne was granted a peerage, being created Marquess of Pembroke in her own right, before marrying Henry the following year and becoming queen consort. During his daughter's tenure as Queen, Boleyn held immense power in the court, however Anne’s marriage to Henry would prove short lived. Following the birth of the princess Elizabeth in 1533, Anne suffered two miscarriages, and ultimately did not succeed in providing the King with a son. This, compounded by political tensions regarding Henry’s apparent disillusionment with certain aspects of the reformist movement, led to the withdrawal of the King’s favour. Her subsequent fall from grace and execution in May of 1536 saw Boleyn stripped of the influence he had enjoyed at court during the three years in which he was the Father-in-law of the King.
In 1534, Boleyn’s elder daughter, Mary, married a man by the name of William Stafford without having sought the permission of the King. She had been the wife of William Carey, and prior to her first marriage was reported to have been mistress to both the king of France, and Henry himself. Upon the discovery of the marriage, Mary was banished from court, primarily due to the fact that she was pregnant by this time, as well as her husband’s inferior birth. Stafford was eventually knighted in 1545 following military service in Scotland, however his wife had died in 1543. It is not thought that Mary ever returned to court after her marriage to Stafford.
Boleyn acquiesced in Anne's judicial execution and that of her brother Lord Rochford when Henry put her aside in favour of his third wife, Queen Jane Seymour. He served on the jury presiding over the determination of guilt for four of the men accused of having committed adultery with his daughter, but was ultimately spared having to pass judgment on his own children during their trials.
Following his children’s deaths, Thomas Boleyn lived out the rest of his life in disgrace. He was replaced as Lord Privy Seal by Thomas Cromwell. He suffered a final indignity when the claims of Piers Butler to the Earldom of Ormond were acknowledged, and he was again recognised as Earl of Ormond from 22 January 1538. As a consequence, there remained two earls of Ormond in the Kingdom until Boleyn’s death on 12 March 1539, less than a year after his wife Elizabeth Boleyn.
